'Their Own Commentary': Criticism From Creatives Against Anita Dube's Appropriation of Aamir Aziz
Tamoghna Chakraborty
Mumbai: Since Aamir Aziz – a poet, writer and singer based in Mumbai – wrote on social media, noting that artist Anita Dube has used his poem 'Sab yaad rakha jaayega' without his permission, debates about appropriation, elitism and social hierarchies in the art world have been re-ignited.
Anita Dube’s artwork titled Timanjala Ghar was in exhibition at Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery. The artwork featured lines from Aziz’s poem. Aziz alleges that they were used without his “knowledge, consent, credit or compensation”.
Aziz's poem was written and first performed during the protests against the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in 2020. According to him, it was aimed to be a poem of resistance against state oppression and injustice. It was also famously recited by Roger Waters of the band Pink Floyd in solidarity with the anti-CAA protests.
Aziz has said that it is ironic that a poem written “against injustice” was turned into a “luxury commodity” by Dube.
Aziz also brought up the issue of “cultural extraction”. He said that this is what the “elite section” of the art world have always been doing, “profiting” out of marginalised communities and denying them the value of their art.
Dube has halted sales of the artwork, but as screenwriter Darab Farooqui has asked, what about the profits she made from the ones already sold? He further questioned Dube’s response by emphasising how she used a “living” artist's work, compared to the ones she has mentioned in her response; and demanded a clarification on the compensations she offered to Aziz, in terms of “tangible” and “intangible” profits from her art.
Aziz said on his social media note, “If someone holds my poem in a placard at a protest, a rally, a people’s uprising- I stand with them. But this is not that. This is my poem written in a velvet cloth, hung inside a commercial white cube space, renamed, rebranded and resold at an enormous price without ever telling me. This is not solidarity, this is not homage, this is not conceptual borrowing. This is theft. This is erasure”
Aziz has also alleged that Dube had previously also used his poems in her 2023 work titled “of mimesis, mimicry and metamorphosis” without his knowledge and permission.
Numerous artists, writers and cultural commentators have spoken in solidarity with Aziz on social media.
Writer and multimedia artist Anurag Minus Verma shared an analysis into the issue in his newsletter,where he brought to attention the pattern of appropriation and exclusion in the art world.
According to Verma “the performance of lament” is very essential in becoming a successful artist, hence artists coming from privileged backgrounds often resort to appropriating the struggles and experiences of those from marginalised communities.
He also focused upon how privileged elites plagiarise from the works of those who are marginalised and powerless, because they can get away with it without accountability.
Anita Dube is a well known artist and critic, and is also a former curator of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. Apart from Vadehra, galleries such as Barbican Art Gallery have featured her art in the past.
She has been featured in articles in Asian Art and Art Daily and two of her pieces have sold for more than $100,000 each, according to her profile at MutualArt.
Mumbai based visual design artist Adrita Das told The Wire, “I feel that she (Anita) belongs to an older generation of artists who built their entire practice on referencing other artists, writers, poets and deliberately obfuscating the art, which then becomes a part of her own 'commentary'.”
Dube notably responded to Aziz’s allegations by accepting there was an “ethical lapse” on her part, but only in not giving Aziz credit. She said “However I reached out and called him, apologised, and offered to correct this by remuneration. Aamir instead chose to send a legal notice, and then I had to go to a lawyer as well. As far as the accusation of my wanting to monetise the poem goes; I immediately put the works not for sale”.
Vadehra Art Gallery told The Wire that it also accepted that there had been a “lapse in checking with Aamir Aziz beforehand”. They said that the artworks were removed from sale as soon as they heard from Aziz on March 19, but the exhibition was allowed to continue till its scheduled end on April 19.
The gallery also added that they have always “stood behind strong, political creative expressions” and are hoping “that the discussions that are ongoing between Aamir Aziz and Anita Dube can be resolved in an amicable and constructive manner.”
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