From Bihar Museum's biennale to 'Lokame Tharavadu' at Kochi, how Indian art world navigated first half of 2021

It’s a deceptively straightforward artwork. Acknowledging the fact that the artwork reflected the collective outrage of Indians amid widespread criticism of the government’s response to the pandemic’s second wave, Shailesh wrote on his Instagram: “I was trying to reflect the political conundrum we are entangled in, and many could connect with the image.” As the artwork captured the imagination of an infuriated public on social media — which turned out to be an effective platform where families and friends could seek urgent help for those infected with COVID-19 — its representativeness will likely be perceived as a defining feature of viewing art in India in a pandemic year. Shailesh’s work was not seen at a major art fair, biennale or an art exhibition, or at the more fashionable Zoom webinars, Instagram lives, online viewing rooms, etc. Some of the recent noteworthy exhibitions at the museum that come to my mind were: ‘The Body in Indian Art’, ‘Nauras: The Many Arts of the Deccan’, ‘The Everlasting Flame: Zoroastrianism in History and Imagination’, ‘India and the World: A History in Nine Stories’, among others. Elsewhere in the Indian art world in the first six months of 2021, the year has been about sustaining physical programming and executing new online initiatives, such as the Bihar Museum Biennale.