Laila Sharmeen is a storyteller who happens to be an artist. She  believes in changes. She is a visionary whose ideas of change  involve both the past and future, while remaining firmly rooted to  the present. Laila Sharmeen is delightful, evocative and  lyrical. She has the simplicity of a child  and the intensity of a…

John Hood’s recent book claims to  give a comprehensive and impartial  analysis of Satyajit Ray’s oeuvre. Shamsad Mortuza’s book review  questions the ethos of judging films  while sitting on the cultural fence,  and challenges the notion of  neutrality. Apart from stating the obvious, the title  of John W. Hood’s recent book Beyond  the World of…

This essay is a critical commentary on British artist Brian Catling’s celebrated work The Stumbling Block A ghost is being built from the more solid things.-Brian Catling (Vorticegarden) The Stumbling Block is a written sculpture. The Stumbling Block is sculptured writing. Put simply, it is a book that stood on a pedestal to pose as…

There is a disco like atmosphere at Hayward Gallery in London, where Dan Flavin’s: A Retrospective is being housed. With a retro-sight and techno-sound, the exhibition certainly has the hint of a disco. But as you trail through the lower and upper tiers of the gallery, you will find a ‘light’ entertainment of photic dance.…

As a member of the avant-garde Fluxus movement, Joseph Beuys was interested in  the way meaning is produced in society. Central to Fluxus is the idea that art is a part of nature and should therefore be founded on the universal processes of flux and change. In the process, the public ‘concerts’ of the Fluxus…