[category]
[title]
In an exhibit for kids in an urban city, you expect to be barraged by colour. But no neons or shiny plastic assault me as I walk into LOAM’s Holiday Homework. What does catch on is a sense of play, of easy joy felt in a length of time usually only accorded to kids on long summer vacation evenings at a grandparent’s house (if you’re asking pop culture, at least). This captures you in much more of a gentle beckoning than a screamy advertisement that’s meant to distract young 'uns while the adults get to business.
You’re still surrounded, of course. Toys meant to be pulled and hugged and made fun of, a massive wall and upper floor of paintings, clothes the hues of which rather remind me of The Magic School Bus, mini ecosystems, rugs, kaleidoscopes that are almost missable if you’re rushing around, books to push through on beanbags. Mugs and kites and board games. Soft music that might be jazz but also might be pop.
There is a slant angled double-mirror-sided pipe that requires one kid on each end for it for the magic – or a physics lesson – to make sense. There are objects that I can’t exactly define, too, like a dollhouse made out of a vaguer version of building blocks. Harman Taneja’s got childhood objects stuck in popsicle-like blocks, described as frozen memories.
This show is entirely meant to transfix the senses – and that’s the business here. In an experimental, contemporary gallery like Method, it’s very fitting, even if you won’t find the usual caustic bite to their exhibitions here.
That’s not to say anyone was made to hold back. A pet peeve I’ve always had is the assumption that young people don’t understand ‘mature’ or ‘smart’ themes. So it’s good to see artwork that isn’t, plain and simple, boring. ‘Childish’? Sure. That doesn’t mean demolish all wit. One example is Vinayak Sarwankar’s Future Friend Circle, where you see a robot, a wizard, a teddy bear, together in what almost looks like an interpretation of society.
The bite that’s special to Method, in fact, especially comes through from the concept behind Holiday Homework. ‘Eighty percent of kids’ toys end up in landfills,’ curator Anica Mann rattles off the top of her head when I’ve asked her about the exhibition. ‘You know what doesn’t end up there? Artists.’ She points to a gigantic green structure that hangs above the bean bags, and explains that it was made entirely of plastic by women artisans from Madurai. ‘It was made for the India Art Fair, 2024. Then it was brought to the Museum of Solutions. Now, it’s here.’
Almost as if on cue, Rhea Bhattacharya, founder of Drawn, the clothes brand around for the opening, walks by. It turns out their clothes are too made in direct collaboration with artisans. Absolutely nothing in Method’s space, until August 23 at least, is mass- or factory-produced. Just as you enter (or exit), you’ll see the artists credited at the outset.
Supported by the Ardee Foundation, LOAM’s put together something I wouldn’t mind being called childish for staying around in, to say the least.
When: On until August 23. Tues-Sun, 12pm-7pm.
Where: Method, Delhi D Block, Basement, D-59, Defence Colony, New Delhi, Delhi 110024