Abstract
This research critically examines the theoretical construction of the dematerialisation of the art materials in Indian contemporary art. Derived from the writings of Lucy R. Lippard and John Chandler in the late 1960s, it is generated within and serves as an intervention into a particular Euro-American context to designate a turn towards conceptual, process-oriented, and ephemeral practices that problematize the commodified status of art within the art market. In India, Dematerialisation is a strategic and possibly inevitable tool for addressing the realities of these complex socio-political contexts, including the continuing impacts of colonialism and Partition, ongoing cycles of communal violence, concerns about gendered identity formations, and ambivalences about our new position in the world after globalisation and digital modernity. It is not merely the outcome of a direct critique of commodification. This study traces an alternative trajectory through studies of artists such as Nasreen Mohamedi, Mrinalini Mukherjee, Rummana Hussain, and Vivan Sundaram, as well as collectives like Raqs Media Collective. It argues that material and immaterial practices are in a synergetic relationship, always navigating and transforming themselves within the Indian cultural landscape. This study argues that Indian art actively remakes and globalises the vocabulary of dematerialisation, moving it "from substance to significance" in profoundly diverse and context-based ways, rather than merely "embracing" it.