When balconies, kitchens & bedrooms morph into art galleries

BENGALURU: A 15-minute film about love and relationships. Watched while sitting on a bed, with a couple of others. This is no movie night but an art showing at an alternative art venue called Home Sweet Home in Bengaluru.

One-on-one audience engagement in informal settings where people watch, sit around and discuss art are becoming a popular way by which young artistes are displaying their work.

These homes-turned-studios are also opening up unconventional spaces like balconies, terraces, kitchens and even bathrooms to put up art on display.


Chinar Shah, visual artist and owner of Home Sweet Home, has conducted several such showings in her alternative space. “In the past, we have displayed art in various corners of the space, which have included the bedroom, kitchen and the bathroom. For such informal shows, we organise pot-lucks, so that people can hang out together, bond over food and discuss art,” Shah says.

Says mixed media artist Indu Antony, who recently curated the show, To J. Alfred Prufrock, at an informal space, “The idea is to bring art into a relaxed setting, over the formal whitewashed walls of a gallery. This lets them take their own time to go through, interact with others and have the ease of interpretation of the artwork,” says she.


The focus of such informal spaces is more on the experiential value than just selling art. To sustain as a space, they either have a minimal entry fee for visitors or raise money through conducting artist residencies, workshops, venues for pop-up cafés and even doubling up at coworking spaces.

Vivek Chockalingam, curator and founder of Walkin Studios that has in the past hosted alternative art and music showings, says younger artistes are choosing to showcase their work in such spaces over galleries because of the informality of the concept.

“We also don’t take a cut out of the art sold, unless it’s upwards of a certain value. So there is no pressure to sell for them,” he adds.

Benedict J, analyst with an IT firm in the city, who visited an art show at an informal venue recently, says his idea of appreciating art in a singular space was debunked.

“For someone like me, who is not directly from the art world, the experience was non-intimidating and completely out-of-the-box. I felt free to ask what a certain display meant, discuss it with others and form my own opinions of it,” he says.