Dean Baldwin: The Calyx-Krater Chamber

April 26 - June 15, 2013

Dean Baldwin, a British-Canadian artist known for his flair for hospitality and humorous social situations, is creating a new installation for the Mumbai Art Room. Recruiting the purveyors of assorted local street industries, Baldwin enlisted their myriad everyday services to fabricate iconic objects recalling Greco-Roman antiquity. He adopts the pragmatic aesthetics of Bombay’s contemporary street kiosks, but tangles them with classical archetypes of western history, providing viewers with an unusual exhibition encounter.

The Calyx-Krater Chamber will be both a functioning food stall and an immersive museological display. It is an ensemble of unique sculptural components produced in collaboration with individual sign painters, Dharavi potters, copper tambats, marble workers and metalsmiths of Bombay.  At the centre of the installation, as in an ancient Greek symposium, stands a recreated calyx-krater (krater from the Greek verb κεράννυμι, keránnymi— to mix), a large terracotta vessel of the type depicted above. Invented in the first century B.C.E, the calyx-krater held a wine concoction and served as a gathering place, an immovable hub of conviviality. Additional features of the installation include gastronomic offerings, wall painting, and other hybridized evocations of Baldwin’s symposium aesthetic.

For the special opening celebration* on the evening of April 25th (7:00-9:00 pm), visitors will activate The Calyx-Krater Chamber.

This exhibition was initiated by and produced in collaboration with Eve Lemesle, What About Art?

*Attendees of the opening are encouraged to wear pyjamas.

Please note: An artist’s talk with Dean Baldwin and Samir Parker, moderated by Eve Lemesle, will take place immediately prior to the opening, from 5:30-6:30  pm, at Indigo Restaurant, 4 Mandlik Road, Colaba. Discussion will focus on the catalyzing effects of new work environments, and the artists’ participation in the India-Quebec Cross-Residency Program.

About Dean Baldwin and the India-Quebec Cross-Residency Program

Dean Baldwin has been exhibiting internationally for over ten years. His work involves social practice, a form of artmaking recently described as “blurring lines among object making, performance, political activism, community organizing, environmentalism and investigative journalism, creating a deeply participatory art” (Randy Kennedy, The New York Times, March 24, 2013, p. AR1).  Baldwin has had exhibitions at MASS MoCA (2012), North Adams, Massachusetts; Musée d’art contemporain de Montreal (2011); the Art Gallery of Ontario, Toronto (2010); and produced a work for the opening of the Canada Pavilion, 53rd Venice Biennale (2009); among his many projects. For more information, please visit his website: www.deanbaldwin.ca

The Calyx-Krater Chamber is the culmination of Baldwin’s participation in the India-Quebec Cross-Residency Program between The Darling Foundry in Montreal and What About Art? in Mumbai. The Darling Foundry, an alternative visual arts complex in Old Montreal (Quebec, Canada), and What About Art?, a recently-formed organization offering opportunities for young and international artists in Mumbai, directed by Eve Lemesle, have launched this residency exchange program between Mumbai and Montreal, Quebec. Artists involved in this program benefit from a studio, professional support, and an exhibition. Residencies have been hosted at the Darling Foundry, Montreal, and Last Ship, Mumbai.

A public charitable trust, the Mumbai Art Room exhibits contemporary art, design, and visual culture from India and foreign countries. This organization provides a non-commercial platform for artistic and curatorial practice, one that is experimental, educational, and as accessible as possible to all audiences. It is registered officially at the Contemporary Arts Trust with the Charity Commissioner’s Office of the State of Maharashtra.

Support

Mumbai Art Room enjoys generous support from Perkins Eastman Architects, Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, and Pico. Kala Ghoda Café, Outset India, Nandam Realtors, and AZB & Partners are also contributors of funds and in-kind services to Mumbai Art Room.

The India-Quebec Cross-Residency Program benefits from the generous support of the Ministry of International Relations of Quebec, the Bureau du Quebec in Mumbai, the Creative India Foundation, and the Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation.

For Additional Information
Please contact Susan Hapgood, Director, Mumbai Art Room, at hapgood.susan@gmail.com 

Mumbai Art Room
Fourth Pasta Lane
Colaba 400 005
Mumbai

Hours: Tuesday—Saturday, 11—7 pm
www.mumbaiartroom.org

Directions: Mumbai Art Room is approximately one kilometer south of Regal Cinema in Colaba—a five-minute drive, or a fifteen-minute walk. From Regal Cinema, head south on Colaba Causeway, passing Cusrow Baug (large yellow Parsi housing colony) on your right, then the petrol station on your right, continuing past 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Pasta Lanes (all unmarked) on your right. When you see Camy Wafers store on the left, you are nearby. Make a right on Fourth Pasta Lane (see street sign), continue past Joseph Store, Volare bar/restaurant, Colaba Bazaar Post Office, past sidewalk tailor, make another right in the black wrought iron gates to the drive behind the building, known as the Pipewala Building. Mumbai Art Room is the first storefront on the right.
Landmarks: Regal Cinema, Cusrow Baug Parsi housing colony, Camy Wafers Store, Colaba Bazaar Post Office, Pipewala Building