Science, Art, Litt, Science based Art & Science Communication

The science art of invisible works!

The new genre of blank canvases has Hollywood actor James Franco and half the world agog. Will you go to an exhibition devoid of visible content?

It actually looks like the gallery just got robbed, but don't get taken in by that. Empty sculpture stands and canvases are the main attractions of a new genre of art that's there by not being there - and it's called invisible art! And it's shaking up the culture world for sure.
Come June, stark white canvases and more will be displayed at the Hayward Gallery in London in a first-of-its-kind show that explores invisibility and emptiness. And it's not cheap either, as invisible art is said to fetch upto US$10,000.
Much ado about 'nothing'

Can nothingness excite? It seems so. The premise is that art is about firing the imagination rather than simply viewing objects. So you have artworks that include a movie shot with no film, invisible ink drawings, a piece of paper that an artist stared at for 1,000 hours over a period of five years, and a plinth once stood on by Andy Warhol, supposed to be viewed in the presence of the artist's 'celebrity aura'!
A website quoted gallery director Ralph Rugoff, as saying, "It leaves so much to your imagination. It's sort of like the power of radio compared to television - in great radio drama you're inventing characters in your head. There is a lot of invisible art out there, there is a lot of art you're never going to see." Interestingly, the viewer plays an interactive role in it too!
While the world is sitting up and taking note of 'blank art', Hollywood actor James Franco was so excited by the idea that he teamed up with invisible artists Brainard and Delia Carey to launch the Museum of Non-Visible Art (MONA), composed entirely of ideas, and described as "an extravaganza of imagination".
Indian art fraternity reacts
So does this mark the end of visible art? "Not at all," says artist Prakash Bal Joshi. "This art runs on parallel lines and it's different. We see artists crossing boundaries, which is what's happening here. They work with various materials, technology, multimedia and it's about getting viewers to participate in artistic expression."
Art curator Bose Krishnamachari has experienced such conceptual work and calls it an amalgamation of science and the imagination. "It's really about how an idea becomes an art work," he says. "There was an artist in India who did a project called Experiencing Weather. He made a ramp and as you walked on it you experienced different weather with each step you climbed." He also says it's high time India had a space to show invisible art. "We definitely need galleries and museums of the future, after all we have so many brilliant artists."
Can invisibility cost?
"Yes, imagination comes at a price," states Bose. "It's really about paying for the respect." But will Indian contemporary art collectors here buy this? "Look, taste cannot be taught, also we need more awareness on the subject," he says.