Understanding visuality: contestations as representation

Abstract

Modernity in Indian art is largely associated with formalism as has been practiced in the actual art practices and their concerns never challenged the social and normative of cultural practices of sacred and divine. It’s a claim the artists have been making and at the same time, the educated and caste-Hindus have been adhering to such claims. Therefore, modernity in India is the Brahmanic, which never challenged ‘caste’, ‘gender’, and ‘patriarchy’. The chapter attempts to analyse the politics of representation as part of contestations in the sphere of gallery art practices through the critical framework of protected ignorance as well as Ambedkar’s formulation of ‘Rules and Principles’ to unfold traits of modernity as well as ways of perception of personas that have been created over a period of time including normatives that are being practiced over a period of time by unfolding the very logic of politicality of consciousness of visual perception to address the issues of visual representations. Consciousness is a key to understand imaginations as well as formulations and choices that have been employed in the art practices. The analysis has few examples of art works chosen from the contemporary art practices.