Desperately Seeking Vikas: The Many Meanings of ‘Development’ in Uttar Pradesh

In 1977 the telephone booths and walls of New York city found themselves plastered with sheets of paper bearing truisms. Listed alphabetically, a chorus of one-liner claims in all caps clashed and jangled in the minds of the city dwellers who encountered them.  The artist behind them, Jenny Holzer rose to fame over the years for her conceptual art that grapples with different forms of power and responds in methods traditionally considered “lowbrow”. The most famous of the truisms has taken on a life of its own: ABUSE OF POWER COMES AS NO SURPRISE. Over the years, Holzer has projected these truisms in public spaces, for instance a giant electronic sign board in Times Square. The signs capture attention by