Indian artists may not want their art to be weighed on a social justice scale but don’t mind if their actions are, finds Aradhna Wal
IS ART functional or just for art’s sake? The camp lines are redrawn in Mumbai on 5 April, with the opening of the Art for Humanity exhibition. Teesta Setalvad brings together 74 contemporary Indian artists, in the fund raising collaboration by her foundation, Citizens for Justice and Peace (CJP).
CJP’s raison d’etre is championing communal victims, a cause that puts them at odds with political heavyweights. Their ability to ruffle feathers has lost them corporate donors, who prefer to stay away from those imbroglios.
Short on money for her many causes, Setalvad struck upon art as a solution. “The obstacles we face are mainly political. In artists we found natural allies. People unafraid to ideologically challenge the powers that be”, says the 50-year-old activist. “Communalism is like racism. It’s a fight against the demons within us. Not everyone is strong enough to face them. Artists are.”
The seed for this exhibition was planted in 2008 when CJP successfully held an art auction fundraiser. The positive response led CJP to reconfigure their auction, with an eye to also remunerating the artists for their work. A few artists such as Jitish Kallat, Rajan Krishnan and Viveek Sharma have even created works especially for this exhibition.
Art for Humanity is a collaborative platform where both the artist and the initiative get a percentage of the sales. An arrangement photographer Ram Rahman finds extremely equitable: “People constantly ask artists for donations, without realising they too have to pay bills. However, there is strong support and commitment from the artist community for these causes.”
The deterrents for other types of sponsors do not factor here. Rahman explains that artists naturally need to express themselves and fear would make that redundant. Art and justice, he feels, are a natural corollary. “The subject of a work need not be directly political. A Ram Kumar (Delhi-based artist) piece might be a simple landscape, without any bearing on CJP’s cause. It is the act of participation that counts.”
His own contribution captures the Muslim community during Ramzaan, in Old Delhi’s Matya Mahal. While Setalvad sees the connection to a minority community, Rahman himself says it has a “cultural context rather than a political context. Somebody has to like it enough to buy it. Otherwise what is the point?”
Photographer Pablo Bartholomew stresses the futility of seeking a direct connection. “Many times we keep looking for deeper meanings when there aren’t any. Why does a work have to correspond to the cause? It has to sell, so that it raises the needed funds. I sent in Mosque in Pydhonie because it has sold well in the past and will hopefully do so again.”
Preserving the integrity of the subject is a major concern. According to art critic Meera Menezes, there is a long-standing tradition of artists supporting social causes, be it Shireen Gandhy raising funds for flood victims in Pakistan or SAHMAT dedicating years to creating social awareness. It has proven to be an effective tool to raise much needed concern. However, as generous as artists have been, it is not necessary that their work must carry political overtones. Sensitivity to social upheaval and support is reflected equally in their actions.
Art critic Maya Kóvskaya backs Menezes and Bartholomew on this, saying, “Using art as a direct ideological vehicle often makes for heavy-handed, ham-fisted art, and thus also fails to produce an effective polemic.”
In India, where other avenues of outreach for causes of social justice are often closed, there is consensus on the old art as utilitarian debate. The verdict is unanimous. “Artists and photographers are a more liberal lot. They may not be overtly political but they do take a stand,” concludes Bartholomew.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
‘I paint those tortured by everyday violence’
WHO: Kochi-based Hussain works with mixed-media. The recurring theme of his work has been the link between nature and humanity. He got his Master of Fine Arts (Graphics) from the Maharaja Sayajiro University of Baroda. He has exhibited at the Galerie Krizinger, Vienna, Grosvener Gallery, London, GallerySKE, Bengaluru, and most recently, Vadehra Art Gallery, Delhi.
What is the one incident that changed or formed your artistic vision?
I was introduced to the Quran at a young age, which familiarised me with the concept of death; death is the brother of life. It was a rather existential childhood development, which formed the basic structure of my perception of life. I began to look outside myself. There should be no obstacle between what is inside and outside. The artist is a bridge that brings together one’s interiority and the life outside.
You grew up in a coastal town, Chandiroor. What part does the sea play in your work?
The sea always features in my paintings. The sky has always been more visible than water. There is a division of spaces in nature that I bring onto canvas. It is a theatre set, with the lines and the beams of lights.
Who is your biggest inspiration?
There are so many. Jyoti Kumar, Bhupen Khakhar, Gulam Mohammad Sheikh, Prabhakaran K and the Mughal miniature artist Basavan.
There is a certain shift from the calm in your earlier works to a chaos in the current ones. What are you trying to convey through the aggression?
Contemporary life is chaotic. We cannot live in a secluded way. The most obvious example is that we live in a time of war. However, our everyday lives are filled with equal amounts of aggression. You see how I depict the body, the woman’s body. That is the violence that is inherent in our lives.
Where does that stem from?
These punished bodies can be local and global. They are tortured, displaced and do not fit into the well polished hypocrisy of urban life. We live with moral armies that love to control different bodies. These armies exist in our homes, in the extreme right wing groups, in gangs belonging to different religious groups. They safeguard the existing system by inflicting punishment. They try to control basic human relationships and love.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
Master takes
Compiled by Aradhna Wal
Arshiya Lokhandwala On Art
Anita Dube was trained as an art historian and has been in the field for several years. I thoroughly enjoy her politics. She is very focussed with the materials she uses. In one work she covered objects with velvet, lending a sensuality to the way it looked and felt. One of my favourites is Intimations of Defense. A corner of a wall is covered with a cluster of 1000 ceramic eyes, the kind sold outside temples, called the Eyes of God. You cannot look away from it. It’s also a very sexual imagery. She uses these eyes often, as seen in the work Sea Creatures. She is concerned with the woman, and the virtue and sexuality forced on her.
Lokhandwala Is The Mumbai-Based Director Of Lakeeren Art Gallery
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Amit Sheth On Books
Laura Hillenbrand’s Unbroken: A World War II Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption is the autobiography of Louis Zamperini, America’s hope for gold at the 1940 Olympics, when World War II erupts. Louis enlists as a B24 Bombardier but crashes into the Pacific. After 47 days on a life raft the Japanese capture him. Despite the tragedy, the book is a story of learning to live again.
Sheth Is The Author Of Dare To Run
‘The book chronicles the tragedy of a POW, yet ends with survival and learning to live again’
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Gaurav Raina On Music
Papon & The East India Company is a rather interesting Delhi-based outfit. The members are all from Assam. They do a very intriguing blend of Assamese folk music and electronica. Their presentation caught my attention. It’s a blend of Hindi and Assamese, set against a mellow electronica backdrop; soothing music for all your daily needs. Even live, they’re fantastic. They are a bunch of talented guys who are successfully doing something different.
Raina Is One Half Of The Delhi-Based Duo Midival Punditz
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Paromita Vohra On Film
Z32, by Israeli documentarian Avi Mograbi, is a young man’s confession of a revenge killing of Palestinian soldiers during military service. It uses two brilliant devices – a digital mask over the man’s face grows increasingly life-like; the filmmaker’s commentary is in the form of songs, performed by him with a full orchestra in his living room. Though the songs are funny, they push us to reflect on the nature of truth, the self-aggrandisation of political indignation, and the search for a real way to talk about how violence brutalises us.
Vohra Is A Mumbai-Based Documentary Filmmaker
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Jitender Himral On Food
I think Bohème is a great place to visit once in a while. It is well located, in Delhi’s Hauz Khas Village, with a spectacular view of the lake. It’s got a menu ranging from Mediterranean to Italian and Spanish cuisine. However, I stuck to the basics with a simple mushroom pasta, and thoroughly enjoyed it. They’ve got indoor and outdoor seating, so you can enjoy nature along with the meal, greatly adding to the charm of the place. It is spacious and relaxed with friendly, unobtrusive service. In fact, it makes for a nice romantic destination; the best place to go with one’s spouse.
Himral Is The Chef In Charge Of The Oudh, The Ashok, New Delhi
‘My audience becomes participants and voyeurs’
WHO: Baroda-born Upadhyay completed her Bachelor’s (Painting) and Master’s (Printmaking) in Fine Arts from MS University, Baroda. She moved to Mumbai in 1998. The city features heavily in her work. Her work has been exhibited at the The Art Space, Sydney, Bodhi Art, Singapore, Nature Morte, New Delhi, and most recently at the Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi.
What is the one incident that changed or formed your artistic vision?
It was a very personal experience. This is back in 1995. I was still in college when my father lost his foot to gangrene. The whole family dynamics changed. My carefree nature changed, along with the way I looked at the world. I needed an outlet to express that. I developed a language of metaphors and symbolism. For example, I did a whole body of work with toys from my childhood. The whole meaning changed, because now I would look at those toys so differently.
What is the one thought or feeling you have never been able to translate into art?
My work has actually moved on from being personal and subjective to being objective. Part of me is still present in it; but now I work with objects and images rather than the body. I’ve gone from personal surroundings to public spaces; the mental landscape of the city and the claustrophobia and schizophrenia. I can recreate the physical aspects, but how do I regenerate the mental experience of the urban landscape? I have a work that is a 20 feet high wall with a city skyline reproduced in miniature. The audience walks through it, so that they can experience the claustrophobia of a city. They literally feel trapped in that alley. They become participants and voyeurs. They feel what I feel in Mumbai.
What part do Mumbai and the cityscape play in your art?
Moving to Mumbai made my view more panoramic. My family has a history of immigration, moving from Pakistan to India during Partition. I grew up with those stories of life, death and journey. Mumbai is a haven for migrants. It has a very beautiful skyline, but also these little pockets of poverty and claustrophobia, which exist because of the socio-political hierarchy. All parts of the city are thrown together; you’re an unwilling voyeur of everyone else’s life. The politics of the city has lent itself to the aesthetic, which is what I’m interested in bringing to the studio.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
Master takes
Compiled by Aradhna Wal & Naina Manjrekar
Nandini V Muthiah On Art
Photographer Vivek Vilasini’s The Temple is full of dark humour; it is a film noir look at society and public figures. Annu Palakunnathu Matthew’s photographic work deals with identity. That is something I can relate to, as it is also part of my work. I quite enjoy Raja Deen Dayal’s studio portraits. They are outstanding and will stand the test of time. My absolute favourite, however, is Gregory Crewdson. He inspires my work. His art is a huge production. It is like a movie set-up for one image or a series of images, like a story being told. These are some of the artists whom I’ve enjoyed and thought about recently.
Muthiah Is A Chennai-Based Photographer
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Vijayendra Mohanty On Books
I read The Complete Professor Challenger Stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle starring his lesser-known creation, Professor George Edward Challenger, an over-the-top mad scientist who undertakes extraordinary adventures. His companions detest his arrogance but respect the man. The engaging stories transport one to other worlds.
‘Doyle’s creation is an arrogant, mad scientist who goes on extraordinary adventures’
Mohanty Is The Delhi-Based Writer Of Ravanayan
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Arijit Dutta On Music
I really enjoy Sandeep Chowta’s music. I was completely bowled over by the beauty of his album Matters of the Heart. It has an all-star line-up of some of the greatest jazz masters — John Scofield, Dave Grusin, Scott Kinsey, Lee Ritenour and my favourite Pandit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt. It has some fascinating songwriting and amazing production with no discernible musical divide. It’s one unified sound that goes way beyond terms like fusion.
Dutta Is The Vocalist Of The Delhi Based-Band Airport
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Avinash Roy On Film
A film that I recently saw and found fascinating was The Story of the Weeping Camel, directed by Byambasuren Davaa and Luigi Falorni. It combines elements of documentary and drama to create a stunningly beautiful montage of life in the Gobi desert of Mongolia. A newborn camel is rejected by her mother and the herdsmen try to bring them closer. The resilience of the people, their stoic attitude towards life and the vast undulating desert all come together to create a magical and almost spiritual filmviewing experience.
Roy Is A Mumbai-Based Filmmaker
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Seemant Kumar On Food
There are two places I’d like to recommend: Pickwick and Sevilla, both in The Claridges, New Delhi. Pickwick is an allday multi-cuisine diner and coffee shop. It’s a nice little place. Anytime you go there, you can sit and munch on something. It has some great continental breakfast that hotel guests generally go in for. Sevilla is a fine-dining restaurant with Mediterranean cuisine and a good selection of wines. It is built to resemble a nature park with machaans for seating. It reminds me of the Jim Corbett National Park. Because of the decor, set-up and good service, the atmosphere is very relaxed.
Kumar Is The General Manager Of Rara Avis, New Delhi
‘It was my father’s ending but my beginning’
WHO Gujarat-born Nai got his Diploma in Drawing and Painting from the LS Raheja School of Art, Mumbai. His work focusses on jute, including it in different ways in different creations. He has exhibited at Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, Mumbai, National Gallery of Modern Art, Mumbai, Beppu Museum, Japan, and has been awarded the Pollock-Krasner Foundation Award 2004-05, New York.
What is the one incident that changed or formed your artistic vision?
There is one very important incident actually. This happened when I was already at the LS Raheja School of Art. My father’s jute business suffered a lot of losses. Somehow that triggered an inspiration. Since then jute has been my primary medium and canvas. I paint with the material, and colours inspired from it. It was my father’s ending but my beginning.
Is that why your colour palette is largely restricted to earth tones?
I do use colours to work around with jute. However, I don’t deliberately start out with them. In the beginning, there are a lot of colours on my palette. I play around with them and slowly the shades I want to use emerge.
What is the one thought or memory or feeling that you have never been able to translate into art but wish you could?
Every time I paint, I feel that something is incomplete. I can never translate my vision completely onto the canvas. Canvas also takes me in unexpected direction many times. I keep my mind open to all and any surprises and I allow myself to believe them.
What’s been your greatest moment of fear or exhilaration?
My son was hospitalised for a whole month from the day he was born. That was a time of great fear for me.
Biggest influence/mentor?
My biggest influence and mentor is Girish Shahane, a writer and art critic from Mumbai. He is a big name in the art circle. He was one of the advisers at The Škoda Prize 2011.
What are the two fundamental values you wouldn’t give up for anything?
There are no two specific values. I do not wish to change my nature. It has a strong connection with my work. I believe that if you stay the way you are any change that has to happen will come.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
Master takes
Compiled by Aradhna Wal & Naina Manjrekar
Parul Vadehra On Art
An interesting show is The Elephant in the Dark, an exhibition of contemporary Iranian art curated by artist and curator Amirali Ghasemi at the Devi Art Foundation in Gurgaon. Including works by 52 artists, the exhibition takes a poem by Rumi (with the same title) as a starting point to articulate the concepts and ideas that Iranian artists have been engaging with over the past few year. The works are a commentary on the social and political conditions surrounding the artists, within and outside Iran. There is a great mix of established and young artists giving the viewer a palpable sense of contemporary Iran and how artists are responding to it.
Vadehra Is The Director Of Vadehra Art Gallery
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Easterine Kire On Books
Malawian poet Jack Mapanje was imprisoned for his writing for almost four years in a maximum security prison. The poems in The Chattering Wagtails of Mikuyu Prison were first “written in his head” while he was in jail, deprived of pen and paper. The sweeping time structure spans the biblical era to Yorkshire, his present home, and drily humourous descriptions of Mikuyu prisons .
‘The poems first came to Mapanje in his head, when he was in jail without pen and paper’
Kire Is The Author Of Mari And When The River Sleeps
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Ankur Tewari On Music
Sahej Bakshi aka Dualist Inquiry is fast becoming a phenomenon in the indiemusic scene. The first time I saw him play was at an after-party during the first NH7 Weekender. By the time his set was over, I was a fan. He effortlessly juggles with genres and rhythms. His fearless skills behind the sound console are complemented by his sublime music production talent and dreamy lead licks he plays on his electric guitar. His Gravitat is on loop on my iPod.
Tewari Is A Mumbaibased Songwriter
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Steven Bognar On Film
Granito, by Pamela Yates and Paco de Onis, shows how a documentary from 30 years ago plays a part in the International Criminal Court today. It’s the story of an unknown genocide in Guatemala. The movie begins with images of 16mm film being gently threaded onto a Steenbeck editing machine. The hands are Yates’, who looks through her old footage of the CIA-backed war in Guatemala for clues to use in a trial against the former Generals now accused of war crimes. The story spans 30 years from the US to Spain to Central America.
Bognar Is A US-Based Filmmaker [/box]
Ajit Singh On Food
I’ve been going to Moet’s Sizzlers in Defence Colony Market, New Delhi, for years and the recipes have remained the same. They’ve stayed true to their roots, and concentrated on making the sizzlers their popularity is based on. The menu is select but delicious and value for money. My favourite dish is the baby lamb chops. The service, too, is very friendly. The same waiters have been there for some seven years, and I have a great comfort level with them. It is a small place, with barely eight tables, but designed after an English diner, with stone floors and wooden furniture.
Singh Is The Co-Owner Of Manajsa, New Delhi
‘In art, it is conventional to be anti-conventional’
WHO Bengaluru-based Subbaiah creates in many media, from sculpture to text, audio, video, electronics and informatics. He got his Master of Fine Arts (Sculpture) from Royal College of Art, London. He has exhibited at Saffronart and Bose Pacia, New York, Fort Vuren, The Netherlands, The Japan Foundation Forum, Tokyo, Chatterjee & Lal, Mumbai, and Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi.
What is the one incident that changed or formed your artistic vision?
There is no one great incident that has formed my vision. There have been little things over time. I think I’m still waiting for that big vision to strike. After that happens, I’ll stop making art. I’m waiting to be enlightened.
As an artist, do you subscribe to societal notions of sex and love?
I think this question is neither this way nor that way. Societal norms are something that have survived and evolved over many years, so all of them aren’t necessarily bad. One has to negotiate with them. In art, it has become a convention to be anti-conventional. That is a problem.
What is the one thought or feeling you have never been able to translate into art?
I don’t think I strictly translate ideas into art. It is not necessary that I start out with a specific idea. Many times, while I have been playing around with materials, something has struck me. Sometimes I work to find meaning. That is when I become the medium rather than the author of ideas.
What’s been your greatest moment of distress or exhilaration?
Distress? I don’t think I’ve had such a moment that would cause a mental breakdown. I was distressed when my girlfriend left me. Exhilaration was the opposite of that.
Biggest influence/mentor?
I’d say these two artists who are not very well known; Robert Filliou and George Brecht.
Why do you think art need not serve any purpose?
When I say purpose I mean it in a functional and utilitarian sense. Most people see art as entertainment, a way of deriving pleasure. It’s not like I’m building a bridge here. So if I make a mistake, there is no great harm in that. It’s just bad art.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
Master takes
Compiled by Aradhna Wal & Naina Manjrekar
Clare Arni On Art
I would like to recommend Venugopal VG and his stop-motion animated video Elusive Entry. He is a talented artist who combines his technically skilled and beautiful drawings with stop-motion animation. His work was part of a show I saw in Bengaluru, curated by Lina Vincent, called I Am Here, about the self portrait through the use of the moving image. Apart from his technique, his ideas captured my imagination. He says so himself, “The self is involved in chasing the intangible urban dream.” This is a question being faced by many of us in India as the country goes through rapid changes.
Arni Is A Bengaluru-Based Photographer
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Mridula Koshy On Books
Waiting for the Barbarians takes its shape from allegory, a form J M Coetzee is known to employ. On recent rereading I was astonished again by how very un-allegorical he can be, accreting meaning and nuance – an endless dimensionality – to ethical and moral dilemmas. Whereas allegories are so often about resolution through simplification. Perhaps this old-fashioned form with its need to impose tidiness on the world is the very ground from which to resist tidiness.
Koshy Is A Delhi-Based Writer
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Warren Mendonsa On Music
Field Music is a British band with a very British sound that reminds me of The Beatles. They have very hooky melodies that are easy to sing along to. However, there is also some very intricate music going on simultaneously. They are more of an album band than a group that produces one-off hits. My favourite album is Measure. Then there is the US-based Tedeschi Trucks Band. Their debut, Revelator, won the 2012 Grammy Award for Best Blues Album.
Mendonsa Is A Mumbai-Based Guitarist And Composer
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Purab Kohli On Film
I love wildlife movies, but there is one I found particularly captivating: a documentary that I watched recently called And Man Created Dog. Unlike the usual wildlife documentaries, it does not only show the life cycle of an animal but also the evolution of a relationship through history. It shows how man and dog have co-evolved. More than a simple narrative, it’s about man and his best friend contributing to each others’ social development. I love animals, so I guess I enjoyed a dog’s life.
Kohli Is A Bollywood Actor
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Gaurav Sachdeva On Food
I recommend a place already well known. The Big Chill Café, in Khan Market, New Delhi. My wife introduced me to it. Though I’ve only had the pastas there, I love the food. The spaghetti or penne go very well with a side order of garlic bread. They have some delicious exotic mocktails too. The place is very casual. People feel relaxed, instead of being suffocated by a formal atmosphere. The posters they have, from classic movies and ads to contemporary pop-culture, add to the charm of the place. The clientèle is mainly young professionals and college-goers.
Sachdeva Is The General Manager Of Spice Water Trail, New Delhi
‘If my mind isn’t free then I cannot be an artist’
WHO This Delhi-born-and-based artist got her Diploma in Applied Arts (ITI) from South Delhi Polytechnic, New Delhi. Her works are steeped in the feminine body, subjectivity and sexuality. She was awarded the Lalit Kala Akademi National Award for Women in 2007. She has exhibited at A Jain Marunouchi Gallery, New York, Gallery Art and Soul, Mumbai, and The Nehru Centre, London, among others.
What is the one incident that changed or formed your artistic vision?
My vision is the result of childhood stories my grandfather told me. My works are a witness to the visual interpretation of his experiences and his perspective towards life. His stories of mythology gave my mind the wings to go into the world of the fantastical.
As an artist, do you subscribe to societal notions of sex and love?
I never like to be influenced by societal norms. The choice to be an artist was to say what I want to through my art, to be true, free and liberated in mind. If I am not that then the very basis of my choice is negated.
What would be the magnum opus that you’ve never created?
Art is a process of realising my thoughts. If a thought comes to my mind, then the artwork has already been created in my mind. What is left is putting pen to paper, to show it to the world. As such, I have never felt an inability to translate my thoughts to paper but the struggle is to always take my work to a greater level of execution.
What’s been your greatest moment of distress or exhilaration?
The birth of my children gave me the greatest joy. It was the first time I was part of the miracle of life so closely. The realisation that I had lost the physical presence of my mother in my life was a moment of great distress.
What is the one demon you grapple with in your deepest relationships?
The fear of losing them.
Tell me a little about your leitmotif, the golden womb.
It refers to sun, that source of constant positive energy, which rejuvenates and recycles all elements in this universe, making death a transitory space in this mysterious journey of unending life. I am amazed at this untiring rhythm of creation by the Golden Womb.
Aradhna Wal is a Trainee, Features with Tehelka.
aradhna@tehelka.com
