The Garden Chair, one of the works at the exhibition

Calcutta artists wanting to experiment beyond the tried and accepted, take heart.

Delhi-based Khoj International Artists? Association (part of the internationally-known Triangular Arts trust) now has a city chapter. Being a ?purely artists? initiative?, Khoj Calcutta is expected to be more open to the promotion of alternative art practices.

On January 29, Khoj Calcutta held its first public exhibition, the fruition of a weeklong workshop at Sen Bagan, Joka.

The Open-Studio day, or ?introductory bonding exercise?, evoked very little response from the city. But many from the surrounding area turned up. The six young participating artists were not disheartened, though, because they had found the workshop ?involving a lot of discussion and exchange of ideas very fruitful? and their work had involved the local people to a large extent, said member-artist Chhatrapati Dutta.

One of the groups of artists, from Rabindra Bharati University, had based its presentation on its interactions with the families of the fishing folk, small traders and labourers living nearby.

Akash Ganga was an isolated waterbody made of hundreds of water-filled plastic bags at a height of 12 ft. The bags reflected on a puddle below and an audio-visual projection formed an acrid comment on the encroaching farmhouses of Joka, that had turned the Adi Ganga (close by) into a series of ponds. Babu and WC presented the dreamy eyed, pleasure-loving Bengali Babu as a refugee in the ongoing real estate drive.

This November, Khoj Calcutta will host an international workshop, to be attended by six major Calcutta artists, six from the rest of India and 12 international painters.