China Rising? India Shining? The Art of Comparison

It has become something of an academic fashion in the last decade or so to bring China and India, these two "Asian" giants and fast-growing global economies, into the same comparative framework. These acts of comparison have generally focused on politics and economics, and especially international relations and current affairs. Benefitting from the insights of this scholarship and also building on a landmark 2010 exhibition in Shanghai, China Rising? India Shining? moves the focus of academic conversation to the visual arts and media practices.

The conference serves as the inaugural event of a month-long exhibit of recent art works of Indian artist Gigi Scaria, who lives and works in New Delhi. Our goal is to draw on Scaria's oeuvre-and other art and media practices from modern China, India, and elsewhere-to explore and explode what have become new founding myths of and for our times as encapsulated by the phrases, "China Rising" and "India Shining."