Page 11 - prologue 2018 booklet
P. 11

having read major works from this canon.
                                                   Their lives are not ending. And the exciting
                                                   dimension of knowledge is that we can
                                                   learn a work without formally studying it.
                                                   If a student graduates without reading
                                                   Shakespeare and then reads or studies
                                                   this work later, it does not delegitimize
                                                   whatever formal course of study that was
                                                   completed.”
              Dr. Kavitha Balakrishnan
                                                   Institutional training in modern art is such
              Hr.Gr.Lecturer in Art History
                                                   that these are simply original but shared
                                                   diagrams. Canons are always dealt with
              Beyond the degree span               various emotions. They are challenged,
                                                   studied, ignored or left behind. It is this
                                                   process that locates each student-life.
              Four years of studying Art in a graduate
                                                   Teaching here is nothing but fellow-
              level, actually seems to end up so fast!
                                                   travelling and helping to develop and
              First year of our programme is an
                                                   articulate each one of these student’s inner
              integrated course. It introduces a lot of
                                                   journey. I wish all these students express
              stuff,  like  the  fundamental  principles  of
                                                   themselves well in this journey!
              art, design elements like calligraphy and
              lettering, metal craft, print-making and an
              exposure to the wide range of art history.
              Then they choose to one area of painting,
              sculpture or applied arts. Canons of art
              force them to follow certain styles or break
              certain rules and do one’s own stuff. In
              order  to  exercise  such  creative  freedom,
              one undergoes so much of un-learning
              process. Many a times this confuses these
              students. Some people get into a labyrinth
              of values that contradicts with the common
              sense of the general public. Some people
              pick up good threads and focus on
              them. Some connect a few different inter-
              disciplinary threads and they come out
              more experimental.
              As Bell Hooks wrote once, “contrary to
              what some folks would have us believe,
              it is not tragic, even if undesirable, for a
              person to leave a liberal arts education not
                                                                                      11
   6   7   8   9   10   11   12   13   14   15   16