Students to participate in art exhibition at Red Fort

The Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities (JSLH) at O P Jindal Global University has announced its participation in the upcoming Arts Exhibition at the Red Fort organised by the Indira Gandhi National Centre for the Arts. The Upcoming BFA exhibition at the Red Fort scheduled to open at the end of March 2022 involves the BFA students of JSLH. The show is part of a larger art exhibit highlighting Indian handicrafts, indigenous produces and cultures. The students' show centres around the historical, cultural, social and everyday usages of Turmeric and Chili, where they are researching the trade routes, the associated religious practices, the nostalgia around the products being used in household recipes passed through generations and various other contexts related to the spices.

The School has also launched India's first interdisciplinary Bachelor of Fine Arts (Hons.) programme with the opening of new art studios to facilitate techniques and approaches akin to contemporary art practices. The four-year programme in the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities enables students to study visual arts along with a broad range of liberal arts courses thriving on the multidisciplinary approach of the school.

Prof Kathleen Modrowski, Dean of the Jindal School of Liberal Arts and Humanities, spoke of the importance of art and visual language in daily life. "Our world is full of images. We think and respond to visual communication - whether it is colour, light, composition of space, etc. - in everything we do. Although we are constantly acting within the realm of these elements, we are rarely aware of the importance of visual communication in the way we construct our reality.

I believe that we are all "artists" and that students trained in the skills of making art have the potential of enriching all our lives. At JSLH, we intend to develop a symbiotic relationship between the visual arts and the liberal arts and humanities. As a result, students will develop a vastly expanded understanding of the world, an understanding that corresponds our increasingly complex societies."

The BFA studios have been setup to facilitate traditional as well as contemporary art practices. The studios will include designated spaces for painting, sculpture, pottery, printmaking, installation art, and an art gallery with up-to-date equipment. The current studios are installed with reclining drawing and painting tables, printing press machines for woodcut, linocut, etching and lithography techniques, aqua tint booth and more. Having initiated the BFA programme this academic year, the art space has been expanded into two large halls and outdoor work spaces.

This was a crucial step in allowing the students to work with natural lighting, a prerequisite for any art making process. The new space has a section for painting, portrait drawings and a section has been set up for printmaking. The aim is to make the studios lively, well equipped and self-sufficient so that the students can carry out every part of art making from welding, pottery, firing and glazing ceramics to molding and casting, fabrication, carpentry and large scale installations as well as make video art, photography, digital immersive spaces and sound installations.

Prof Achia Anzi, Associate Professor and the Director of the BFA programme noted: "We are very excited to see the visual and conceptual output of our first year BFA students. Their artworks address personal, social and cultural issues that are associated with the spices turmeric and red pepper. This exhibition is one of many to come and it enables the students to put into practice whatever they studied, so far."