The Real Taste of India by Chinar Shah & Nihaal Faizal

Description

Every major city in the world probably has a restaurant called Taste of India. Serving Indian food, these restaurants promise to deliver the essence of a country through select menu items, wall hangings, and softly audible classical music. A consumable brand offering India on its plate, these restaurants extend themselves as souvenirs. As markers of experience, they summarise an imagination of India consolidating it as take away ‘naan bread’ or tabletop pictures of the Taj Mahal. Drawing from these restaurants, their branding, and their identity, ‘The Real Taste of India’ offers a commentary on homogenised national identity and the commercialisation of culture.

This brochure is published on the occasion of ‘at the kitchen table #2’ curated by Reliable Copy at Ark Foundation for the Arts, Baroda. It serves as a catalogue of the installation’s various components, a record of its previous iterations, and as a proposal for future presentations.

Chinar Shah and Nihaal Faizal are artists based in Bangalore, India. Together, they have initiated two projects: The Real Taste of India, 2017—a work featuring souvenirs for Taste of India restaurants around the world and ‘Photocopied Blow Out’, 2016—a photocopied version of the Brian De Palma film ‘Blow Out’ from 1981.