Art world steps in to help in Covid relief through online auctions

New Delhi, May 30 (PTI):
As India battles the second Covid wave and millions pitch in to help, the art world too has stepped in through online auctions and other fundraisers for varied causes and different groups of people.
From celeb artist Subodh Gupta and biggie auction house Saffronart to smaller initiatives like online marketplace Chitrakar and the Vadehra art gallery, the community has joined hands to aid artists in need, including traditional craftspersons, and help fund Covid relief efforts across the country.
So, notwithstanding the toll the pandemic has taken on their businesses, artists, galleries and auction houses have risen to the occasion in these extraordinary times to hold fundraising auctions and exhibitions, the complete proceeds from which are donated. One such sale on June 1 will have on offer nine signature works by artist couple Bharti Kher and Subodh Gupta.
Watching the past few weeks unfold in India has been traumatic for every family. Almost all of us have been touched in one way or another by the unprecedented scale of the second Covid wave in India, Kher said in a statement. Through the online sale on www.pledgebybhartiandsubodh.com, the artists hope to raise Rs 1 crore which will go towards supporting the ongoing relief efforts by two non-profit organisations Hemkunt Foundation and Goonj. We decided to help in the way that we could as artists to make work whilst in lockdown and sell with 100 per cent proceeds going directly to both NGOs. We hope that we can raise Rs 1 crore towards sustainable long term aid, Kher said. Among the works on offer will be her A Small World Together’ series.
Extending her long standing artistic exploration of found objects and rituals within the everyday, the series superimposes bindis of different colours, shapes, and sizes onto existing world maps.
With the detailed maps as a base and the bindis suggesting certain patterns of movement, her works speak to the “intrinsic global connectivity of the ongoing crisis and of broader humanity”, she said.
Gupt
a’s works, done in his quintessential style, use everyday kitchen utensils to create a dialogue between the humble elements in domestic lives that have taken on an even greater importance through lockdowns.
His A Bouquet of Flowers’, for instance, reinterprets the ordinarily short lifespan of flowers in stainless steel.
Art can’t change the world on its own but it can make it a kinder and more human place to live in. Our works are both witness to and a celebration of the value of the ordinary and everyday markers of human habit and daily ritual.