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[[image]] Homai Vyarawalla: Mrs. Indira Ghandi on vigil near the body of her father (Pandit Nehru), who died on 27th May, 1964, lying in state at the Prime Minister's residence at Teen Murti Marg, New Dehli, black-and-white photograph, 17 by 22 inches. [[image]] Dayanita Singh: Dolly Jabbar in Her Colonial Calcutta Home, 1997, black-and-white photograph, 16 by 20 inches. [[image]] Satish Sharma: One of 10 black-and-white photographs from the series "Deconstructing the Politician," 1990-96, 16 by 20 inches each. [[image]] Pablo Bartholomew: South Asian Muslims Pray during Id at Corona Park, Flushing Meadows, Queens, New York, 1988, color photograph, 16 by 20 inches. actual objects from the everyday level of his or her cultural heritage, so the work remains rooted in the actual life-world of the community it came from, even while it may be addressing a wider audience. Midcentury abstract painting was based on an idea of internationalism that obliterated the details of the artist's personal background. This was a part of the point of its claim to universality: a viewer was not supposed to be able to determine, merely by looking at the art work, the nationality, race or gender of the artist. This concept of universality involved the assumption that all humans are really the same underneath superficial local differences. Postmodern globalism is based on a recognition of differences rather than on an assumption of sameness. The artist today is supposed to honestly acknowledge his or her heritage and background by incorporating them into the work; at the same time the work, while rooted in its local differences, is supposed to direct itself toward the world at large.4 The process is a reversal of colonial souvenirism: instead of members of one culture taking things from another without comprehension of their meaning, members of each culture send things to others as explications of their meanings. These observations are visually embodied in the "Out of India" installation House (1996)by Vivan Sundaram of New Delhi. This artist, who lives with the special karma of being a nephew of the famous artist and cultural icon of modern India, Amrita Sher-Gil (1913-1941), began as a painter. In canvases such as Thinking about Themselves (1981), The Sher-Gil Family (1983-84) and Easel Painting (1989-90), Sundaram reflects on the mysteries of his own heritage through domestic scenes to which touches of magical realism lend an aura of haunting strangeness. His work of this genre (which was not represented in "Out of India") reached a plateau of maturity combining a broad pictorial feeling with a deep sense of content; the paintings draw one into a magical space whose hidden depths paradoxically, seem to open out in all directions. Then came the dawn of the era of multicultural installation, which seems to have been a liberating advent for Sundaram as for many artists worldwide. House is actually half of an installation called House/Boat: Sculptures in Paper, Steel, Glass and Video, in which one element, the "house," expresses the sedentary aspect of life and the other, the "boat," expresses a nomadic imperative that threatens it. Simply put, House represents one's home or one's heritage, Boat, which was not included in the show, represents the forces that will draw one away from home and heritage into a broader world. House is an approximately 6-foot cubical structure which one can lean into and inspect but not wholly enter. Built of a rusty metal frame, handmade, embossed paper walls and a glass ceiling, the hutlike piece contains various objects including a video monitor displaying flames seemingly heating a real bowl of water placed above it. In Sundaram's inspired use materials, an extreme delicacy cohabits with a structural awkwardness to suggest the assembled fabric of India, a composite nation which still wonders if it will continue to hold together. Rina Banerjee, who was born in Calcutta and lives now in Brooklyn, showed Home within a Harem (1997), a room installation related in theme to Sundaram's but presented from a woman's point of view. Situated around a bed which was suspended off the floor were a number of Sculptural assemblages representing female presences. The installation combined silk sari cloths and powdered pigments, such as are used both for ritual and cosmetic purposes, with domestic detritus that 76 October 1998
