Fictional Crimes and Criminal Fictions

Internationally acclaimed artist Sheela Gowda, in her latest set of works presented at the SKE Gallery, Bangaluru, speaks about the ‘truth’ of crime and attribution of criminality on people by the state. Taking a victim’s positions she, through her works actively questions the highhandedness of the state, says V.Divakar.

“I prepare to hurl a stone; I am the victim wearing the predator’s clothes, the aggressor. Perhaps my aggressive posture will be enough of an intimidation, it should be, because that is all I have at my disposal against minds that show me that creativity can come in handy even for the devious.”- Sheela Gowda in her artist statement for “Crime Fiction”

"Peoples do not judge in the same way as courts of law; they do not hand down sentences, they throw thunderbolts; they do not condemn kings, they drop them back into the void; and this justice is worth just as much as that of the courts."
- Robespierre put it in his speech in which he demanded the execution of Louis XVI

Acclaimed artist Sheela Gowda had her solo show of artworks in Ske gallery titled “Crime Fiction” from 5th to 27 September, 2008. Known for her subversive use of common materials, “crime fiction” was a multi pronged take on the various discourses around the “crime” as defined by the state.

The normative definition of crime is that of a deviant behavior that violates prevailing norms- cultural standards prescribing how human beings have to behave normally. The act of crime is indeed a complex phenomenon to be pinpointed and defined. Sheela Gowda takes a strategic position as the victim (criminal) thereby questions or rather destabilize the very premise of such definitions of crime. Since crime and criminality is inextricably connected with what is legal as defined by the state, her position as a victim/ criminal gains a political and symbolic significance. By camouflaging herself in the victim’s clothes she is able to destabilize the legality of the state itself.

The diptych “crime fiction” is technically well manipulated work which uses the grains of the news print paper to camouflage the beads. A normal viewing of the work doesn’t allow one to see her intervention. If one takes a deviant anamorphic position alone, one is able to see the glass beads camouflaged in the dark shades of the victim and the entire picture. The print of a women throwing stone is the cloth/surface for the artistic act. As the moth’s wings resemble the snake or the face of the owl, which deflects its predator thereby escapes from being victimized, so is the women’s aggressive posture of throwing stone which the state does to victimize/terrorize the people. Her intervention is in extending upon this act of aggression by the victim and constructing a genealogy of such acts (within representation). As it is natural to produce a defense mechanism by camouflaging with the predators own appearance, so is her (the women’s aggressive posture) a natural defense mechanism against the violence of the predators (here the state and any predatory mechanism against the people) The innumerable beads that are hiding in the texturous news print paper writes the justification of such acts of defense and extends it through “deviant” viewing alone.

“Fake” is a triptych with some abstract designs and some (ill-) legible images with marks and writings. A normal viewing allows us to consume the aesthetically manipulated surface. But once the original source i.e. currency note of the surface is known it collapses such consumption. The abstract designs are the designs which are found in the Indian currency note. The impossibility of faking the note is due to the complexity of the design which is hidden from the normal view. She takes upon this impossibility by not faking it, but by showing the fakeness of the representation in the original itself. Her selection of the last two figures in the march towards freedom led by Gandhi is significant enough to show the fakeness of the original itself. The act of showing and persuading the weaker towards a future, here towards the utopian dream of democracy of people is what is shown as fake or a grand lie.

The history of Indian democracy has shown that the policies and programs of the state apparatuses are against the people by a privileged minority/ majority. The original is itself built upon the fake dream and promise by the state. The more real the promise of democracy more it is a crime for the legality of the state since the more near the ideals of democracy are achieved the more the existing state should wither away. Her manipulation of the surfaces with the colour washes distracts us towards a surfacial consumption. But if we stay to the surface we fall trap to the aesthetic consumption alone. But the secondary meaning (allegorical/political) is in the layers which are hiding within this act of fictional faking. The irreproducibility of the original which gains for its authenticity is itself shown as faked. The grand narratives surrounding the authentic signage (the figures/designs) in the currency are themselves the stimulations of the state to maintain its authenticity.

Line up is another take on the blindness of the state in its legal procedures. She does this notably by giving the artistic act as an analogy to the acts of criminal identification. As the state/ police identify the criminal by scrutinizing closely so does she make us see the subjectivity of the marks on the surface of the totemic/ritualistic/ art objects? As one disposes the marks on the surface of the art object as random/accidental marks forgetting the myriad expressions which bring about the subjectivity of the maker, so does the varied stories and subjectivities of the criminal ignored by the police/state when it identifies the person as just a “criminal”. The close-up photographs are placed in a line next to the raised platform where the totemic figures resembling the famed Stonehenge. The close up and the minimalist sculptures seen together bring problematises “viewing” itself. The abstraction of a concept in general (here criminal) and the marks which establishes the individual subjectivity contest each other according to the position one takes.

“Best cutting” is a drawing over news paper for an attire to be made. The drawing traverses through the varied news of victimization and repression. The cloth would be then made up by the stories of victims which for her are the most strategic one to question the repressor. The famous Patna lynching of the petty thief by the mob and the dragging of him by the police captures our eye and reminds the dreaded act of inhuman legality and excesses involved. Also are the various news reports of religious intolerance and intervening politics. Probably it’s in the story of the victim the probability of resistance lies. The numbness in the coverage of day to day is brought to question by wearing the attire of the same news revelations of victimization in the day to day life of the people. Also is the story of miracles of the divine eye opening and the corresponding responses.

“Loss” is about the loss of utopia, loss of peace and innocence in Kashmir valley where the common day to day life is poisoned by the murders and death by authoritarian systems outside the land. The photographs seem common shots of a village. But beneath it is hidden the cruel tale of the ruthless murder of thousands of innocent lives. The pathway is the path traveled by the dead bodies in their last journey towards the grave. Along with it are the tales of torture and killings of innocent victims. What she does with the prints is to manipulate it with water washes as though they seem to be part of the original picture. The photographic presentation is re-presented with the artistic manipulation. The seemingly natural is actually a closeted peaceful stimulation of gruesome violence which has shattered the peace and belongingness to ones own land.

The entire show takes up resistance as the strategy of survival for the victim. The victim’s voice is justified by her acts of over writing which is not to erase the victims real act of resistance but to reiterate the very act by extending upon that and by creating a lineage of such acts of resistance. Her position in the victim’s cloth is to resist the aggressor’s preying upon by camouflaging in the predators own. Probably the “divine/ subjective violence” of the people is the only alternative against the invisible “systemic violence” which the state pursues daily underneath our eyes.

Imagining (Hindu) nation through popular grids of geopi-ety/ ty

Imagining (Hindu) nation through popular grids of geopi-ety/ ty

“If you feel no shame for your country you cannot be a nationalist”- Benedict Anderson*

“Patriotism in modernity requires peculiarly novel technologies of persuasion. Maps of national territory are among the most intriguing and compelling of these”
- Sumathi Ramaswamy, Visualising India’s geo-body.

If the state’s disenchanted cartographic imperative is surveillance through an abstraction Balaji re-imagines the maps like the patriot who aimed to weave a structure of sentiment around the nation’s geo-body during the colonial times. He follows the same patriotic “modern” sense of cartography where the geo body is available as a framed whole, as a picture*. But it also follows that the enchanted patriotic sensibility invested in these maps as pictures by him brings to fore the contemporary crisis surrounding the idea of nation. My attempt in this piece is to read the works of Balaji as reflecting the fragile nature of “geo bodies” which is ephemeral and shows the tensions involved in maintaining its materiality. By comparing with the popular cartographic anxiety of the colonial times I would try to see how his works also deals with such an anxiety to interpret the nation’s map/ nationalism in the contemporary times.
Historically the “cartographic anxiety” both of the state and the patriot had always been in a constant tension in its production of meanings. Balaji adds “the sense of pity” to what Yi- Fu Tuan has charecterised as “geo piety”. He also uses texts as an important device to speak about nation. It is here that Balaji’s earlier engagement with the popular sign boards and vehicle paintings come to the fore. As an artist who had been practicing these poplar representations, his usage of the text is closer to the sign boards and popular signs than the high art practices lately. If one is familiar with the popular sign boards particularly in the south one could grasp the context of these texts. The texts in those popular signs have a particular style of functioning both as texts and visuals. The texts are rendered in such a way that the texts itself speak or represent the idea/ name they stand for. So if we take these texts as “textual-bodies” in his works, i.e. texts themselves standing for the idea of nation it would be apt to charactersie his usage. The texts in his paintings are themselves the titles of the paintings. The texts are often related directly to the visuals but they often bring in contradiction/oppositions within the paintings. The texts like “mera Bharath mahan”, “India is my country” are the popular utopic texts in circulation through the entire stretch of the country in almost all the vehicles and popular signs. These patriotic texts are at once contradicted with its double and adversaries which bring the dystopic reality of the nation today.
He uses specific visual devices which might be called post modern in the formal level but they inherently have the popular signage. The use of grids, frames, photography, text etc… and attempts at a subversion but might be populist in its core. His usage of soot serves both as a formal aesthetic device and a definitive signifier. It is used sometimes to close thereby to open up the hidden histories and realities behind. Another interesting aspect is that though his work resembles some of the patriotic maps of the colonial period his maps are without the feminine “bharath matha” but textually refer to her always. Grids and frames are the devices which structure his paintings and hold them in an order. His usage of grids might serve more the aesthetic viewing than the symbolic one since he draws those grids over the image and not as a ground/base/tool to build up his image. His use of frames in most of the paintings is another aspect which is closer to the popular signs where the border acts a significant element in the overall composition and function of the boards. In the painting “India is my country” the frames are people themselves holding the banner “but I don’t own an inch of land in India”. Arranged like a border they occupy the position of the internal others of the central text of nation which is written in smoke emitting from the flying planes. The rituals of national day parades where the acrobatic planes perform their skills in writing such texts are downplayed by the popular banner of protest of the people. Interestingly the ephemeral smoke of patriotic text is bound to vanish in thin air and the relatively permanent banner is to stay until the people are made to witness at the corners. The paintings portraying the nationalist leaders resemble the patriotic images in circulation during the colonial times. But the significant difference is that the colonial portraits of these leaders were used for urging the nation/ people to die for the motherland. The leaders in his paintings though show a similar nerve of sacrifice and remind the nation also lament their struggle. The painting where the portraits of the national leaders are shown as match sticks flickering out is about the present where these leaders and their struggle are forgotten. It resembles the text book curriculum where the texts of the life struggles are drilled in the minds of the pupils. What is also interesting is the range of national leaders who have been selected. You have portraits of Gandhi, Nehru, Ambedkar, Rani Laxmi bhai, Sarojini Naidu, Sarvarkar, Tilak, Azad, Patel, Bhagat singh …etc. The ideologically antagonistic positions taken by these leaders are nullified in his paintings like Ambedkar sharing the same plane with Savarkar or Bhagat Singh sharing with Gandhi etc... As the text book curriculum nullify the caste, class difference in the national struggle for independence so does the uniform plane of Balajis paintings flatten the different caste/ class positions of these leaders. Such ideologically antagonistic positions are taken for granted as national symbols for veneration in the public life. In the painting ‘I hate India. I love bharath’ once again the yearning for the Hindu nation comes to the surface. Again the letters ‘I hate.. .’ are written through the emitting smoke whereas ‘I love bharath’ is written in a manner that they are to stay permanently. Does it remind one of the ever recurring Hindu nationalism in India? Does “bharath” textually refer to the visual body of “bharath mata” in the colonial times? The painting ‘deep devotion makes them disappear’ is another example of such ideas in circulation. The images of gods and nationalist leaders are covered in the smoke soot probably out of deep devotion in the Hindu manners. Politically correct images of Dalit leaders like Ambedkar are left out of this Hindu veneration. The regular ‘arathi’ of camphor have blackened or made them disappear. The national leaders are seen in par with the bazaar gods whom adore the Hindu middle class homes.
In the painting ‘delete’, the text of national anthem dominates the whole picture. Beneath it are further layers of a sketch of a teacher teaching students which is overlapping a map probably of colonial times? The word “Sind” is covered with smoke or probably deleted by smoke. His attempt to delete the word ‘Sind’ now Pakistan from the national text and to give the text referring to the actual national boundary as it exists today can be seen as a utopic attempt to make a cartographic abstraction coincide with the actual reality existing out there. Can it be also read as the national forgetting of the people (both Muslims/ Hindus of now Pakistan) in the joint struggle for freedom from British?
The map of India in his paintings is always singular. The “enchanted globe of patriotism which frequently features India, as if it is the only entity that exists on the surface of the earth is a powerful visual enactment of the patriotic claim of the singularity of the nation”. . The India that of the patriotic globes (colonial) stretched its extent and reach and were left to the patriotic imagination. Unlike that his maps and text of national anthem makes us rethink that patriotic stretch into a reduced boundary with Pakistan separated. Also the soot which develops in the map is the ephemeral map which would bend and vanish as the internal conflicts from all the stretches are increasing from north to south from east to west. All brings to fore the fragility of the Indian state to hold together the differences which were portrayed as blended in a unity out of diversity. If one could see a formal connection with the painting “enemy at the doors but anyways they meet at the end” and the painting where the map of India is formed by the soot emerging from the neighboring houses brings in some interesting understandings. Though both talks about the neighbors, the second show the neighbor’s house also emitting the smoke to form an Indian nation and not any other neighboring country. Who can be our good neighbour? The patriotism which is exhibited by his works is in contrast to the patriotism which was whipped up during the colonial times. During the colonial times the maps or bodyscapes were always stimulating a positive light to fight, but what we find in his paintings is the negative and the failure of the democratic project in India. By remembering these leaders sacrifice an attempt is made to think of the glorious past of struggle for freedom under the stewardship of these leaders. Again the popular notion that the rule of these leaders would change the problems of today is yearned upon. Also is the loin claded worker/ farmer is the face of India today who has been neglected. As the work suggests “mera bharath mahan” the nation is great ‘but I am not’ and the work India is my country but I don’t have an inch of land. It brings in the problem of the displaced people, farmers, tribal and the labouring working classes who are within the painting but yet are the borders of the great country.

His entry into the aesthetic is via the popular there by the intellectual and the critical gathers its subjectivity from these popular visible ideologies in circulation which have created/ addressed an audience which is receptive to these slogans of nationalism and Indianess. What Balaij does is not to restructure the ways the country is imagined but to re-imagine pitiably the (Hindu) nation through the popular texts of geo piety which are still in circulation at large.

*Interview: Lorenz Khazaleh, translated by Matthew Whiting (http://www.culcom.uio.no/aktivitet/anderson-kapittel-eng.html)

Picturing possibilities

Of the numerous words which are related to the fine arts, visual arts in particular, it’s the word “picture” which is most interesting for the myriad and contradictory meanings it stands for. This is owing to the contexts within the various discourses it’s entwined with which defines (defies) the varied meanings of the word. The oxford dictionary offers a set of meanings for the word “picture” like a painting, drawing or a photograph, an image on a television screen, a cinema film. It’s also an impression formed from a description of something, and it also means to form a mental image of. What might interest us in Devaraj’s paintings are these three meanings of painting, a photograph and to form a mental image of. The reason for such an attempt is Devaraj’s indebtedness to (popular) photography and his passion for painting. What strikes immediately in his paintings is the amount of skill (labour) that he has put in making it. Often his paintings are based on photographs of people, objects and places which he himself pictures. Though high modernism had categorically rejected the realism or illusionism in painting, we know through various sources how the masters of western art themselves were indebted to photographs of models for doing their paintings and sculptures. But the argument about the pictures/paintings of Devaraj is not the same. We pass through another discourse of the ‘popular’ which in his case is very much local.
Devaraj comes from Mandya which is in between the all well stimulated metropolis of Bangalore and the cultural picturesque Mysore. He completed his graduation from CAVA, Mysore and is now working as a computer graphic designer in Bangalore. Even as a student he had been continuing the popular paintings like portraits, marriage set works/ backgrounds, photography, and public sculptures etc in Mandya and other places. This semi urban/rural mandya known as the sugar bowl of Karnataka has been recently in news for the tragic suicides of the very farmers. The visuality in and around Mandya is also very significant while talking about the works of Devaraj. In Mandya the tradition of figurative popular paintings are still continued in Bullock carts, popular film personalities in the cut outs, sign boards, advertisements and other public works. This would be the ideal ground for locating Devaraj’s works in contemporary context.
The idea of “popular commercial paintings” or colloquially called “order works” has been always seen as “supplement” or as the “other” of the fine art practice. The academic modernisms particularly in India have been instrumental in delocalising the culture and efficient in creating quasi national and international styles in painting/ works of art. Though there have been attempts for negotiating the local through the indigenous styles, the short coming was always the hypothetical attachment with the roots of tradition. Devaraj works opens up a possibility to read the local in its contemporary context without essentialising/ valorising the tradition. Devaraj tries to make a picture/painting according to the norms of art school training. But the reference for such a painting/picture is not necessarily what the discourse is ingrained with. The high art values are easily subverted by the mental images (picture) of his referents which can be read as the popular pictures. The popular signs and other forms have the efficiency to decontextualise any image and put it in own context there by ripping off the aura attached with the image/picture. In one of his works he uses the plaster cast models which were considered as the classical types of any academic studies are dethroned in his paintings. The high pedestals which they occupy within the discourse of the western art are replaced by the kitschy images. Interestingly they occupy the position below the popular lingerie sporting female busts. The female busts are references from magazines and dailies which were considered outside the realm of high arts. The replacement still but holds the idea of the male stereotypical representations. This but can be read as the popular reproduction of the idea of gender in his pictures. In the very painting though there is another cast over a pedestal we see that the pedestal itself is getting disengaged or dismantled. The peculiar technique of the popular painters is to merge the contradictory values in a single picture. This is also what we find evident in the pictures of Devaraj. He blends the ground where the photographic and the realistic (representation) occupy the same space. Thus he blends the mental and the mechanical to create a contest for the same space. His use of graphing technique to transfer the images from the photos of his choice is blended with the mental picture of what his painting is to be. His other paintings using the chess pawns with the photo realistic representation of the same in the real life also bring the analogical play of signs within the same picture. The painting with the lady praying over the chess board with the image of the crucifix is yet another example of the skilled labour. The background reminds of the aspect of “getup” as the popular artists (sign board, studio artist) give effects to their paintings. This brings us to the still debated criteria of defining the popular and the high. Though high art discourses have consumed the popular in varied ways like “pop art” and other languages. The popular realm still suffers owing to its stain of un-intellectuality and the investment on excessive manual skill/labour. Probably this makes his painting differ the meanings of picture making. His pictures can be then summed up as the curious contest/play of the mental and physical labour which is the deciding factor of what value the painting is to generate in the respective discourses it is entering into. It is this value then which decides/differs the meaning of the word “picture”.

V.Divakar

writing for a group show in Jodhpur

Some other views of a city…..


If we can imagine a city as not just the dominant portrayal of a certain group of its inhabitants and include the multitude of the people who have made it their home in due course then a show of such a kind would gain its relevance when it becomes a representation of the city’s cultural ethos. As evident the urban culture has speeded up the influx from the erstwhile rural of the same region (state) and other part of the country, and then same is the case of the now racing metropolis Bangalore.

The two major fine art establishments ( C.K.P and Ken school) along with the other small colleges have been the major Art(ist’s) evolving institutes in the city. The recently started Bangalore university visual arts departments has also added to the vast majority of the fine arty’s in Bangalore. The significance of the art culture in Bangalore is its variety of experiments in art forms. The city has been the dominant centre of fine art activity apart from Mysore and other centres in the state. Further the “avant-garde” and new (media) experiments in Bangalore have become synonymous for the entire contemporary art practice of Karnataka.
This show brings together works of few upcoming artists who are native of Bangalore and also who have made it their new home at least temporarily during their study years and after. The languages these artists handle have varied cross references right from local cultural traits to the relative regional cultures. Also is the attempt at languages which is international in its approach. The significance also lies in the varied languages which are often contradictory historically/socially/politically. The stylistic modernisms and post-modern subversions along with surreal attempts and photographic hyperrealisms reflect the multitude of artistic experiments which may characterise the art practice here. Tikendra kumar sahu works speak of the hidden desires and fantasies of the youth. It often treads a line which is erotic but also attempts at times to alter the popular representations of sexualities through varied technical means like embossing. His language has a potential to visually play a hide and seek of what is latent in the work.
Nishad makes use of photographic images to talk about local, personal challenges. This he universalises with the images taken from history, popular and contemporary times which have stood for a similar situation and moments. Also he plays with the idea of the double by using literal meanings to talk about a very structure’s ingrained contradictions. He subverts the now naturalised meanings of any practice by using techniques which seem decorative at the surface but transforms the idea by his subtle play with meanings those images stand for.
Ravi Kumar views the city and its architecture not as a passive structure but as the product of the toiling labour. His portrayal of the self, deals with questions of individual and self identification.
Gururaj relates himself with the local problems of his region may it be water scarcity or the vanishing trees. He tries to use mythologies to put across his ideas about contemporary problems.
Trirumala’s preoccupation with his self and belonging, stresses upon the question of a individual’s identity. His dilemma about the difference of the culture which he encounters newly becomes evident in his works.
Nataraj’s images deals with fantasy and imaginary. His realities seem imaginative options for various problems for/of existence. They tend to move towards a surreal world where the definitive truths of objectivity are brought to question playfully.
Rollie Mukherjee’s water colours talk about the immanent danger of humanity due to the ongoing natural destruction it has programmed itself to continue. The works are fictious predictions of the repercussions of what man has done to nature. The fade memory of the blue lake with crescent moon lingers inside the body of the antelope. All the human beings are vulnerable and are in misery in her paintings. This is the reversal picture she portrays which challenges the arrogance of man.
Satish kumar’s expressionistic tendencies are evident in the manner he handles the figures and peculiarly handles the figures gestures. His skilful technique of layers the colours as the ground makes the process enjoyable and results in a visual appeal which is a blend of decorativeness and expression. Mukesh shares a similar tendency but lately he has moved towards a style which resembles abstract expressionism. This he has achieved by reaching out at the bare minimum of his surface which is his shading.
Varna sindhu heavily depends on media images for his works. His personal is often juxtaposed with what is public. Ragu works with mediatic images and tries to transform them in the canvas. He takes those representations as a form over his canvas and adds various hues as the background even though at times its criticality can be argued.
Jino kurien works within a stylised expressionistic language and the theme of women has been central to his body of works. Taking references from media and other popular visuals in circulation he tries to load the canvas with his personal views and interpretations of characters and stereotypes.
Nagraj skilfully renders his images to achieve a visual treat which often talks about possibilities and hope. Often the activities are in a state of beginning or things are about to happen. He chooses instants where incidents are pregnant to occur.
E.K. Venugopal analyses the human frailties and his images invest upon existential tragedies and the resulting absurd situations. His portraits may be read as the various characters which are bound in absurd situations where relation between them seem to an accident and the spaces between them are written in an open landscape.
Kishore .V.S depicts city with its difference. The dominant architecture hovering over the entire space is juxtaposed with the negligent rickshaw. He brings the inherent contradictions of the urban which poses as the haven of the moneyed class neglecting the people who really have built the city and its culture. Also is the issue of the migrant labourers who are at the receiving end in any upheavals.
Venugopal Reddy’s works talks on the fragile human situation today. The question of existence is brought to fore with its dilemmas and contradictions. He uses contradictory techniques like the golden colour over which the images of skeleton are depicted. The idea of consumption is critiqued.
Shiva reads the urban culture with his personal experiences he has gone through in the city. His images are a direct reference from the public. The rickshaw meters are depicted with varied numbers which bring about the exploitation happening at the commonest level.
Sunil kumar’s sculptures talks of common human situations. The figures in his sculptures indulge in ordinary gestures as seeing/looking. His usage of painted colour over the sculptures adds another dimension to his work.
Vipin’s sculpture has an overt sexual connotation added to the everyday object. The phallic like lipstick shows his views of sexual fantasy and opinions of the other gender.
Satheesh creates a landscape full of lush colours and talks of a spring which is the period of joyous union. His romantic landscapes have within them the arterial veins which connect the sky and the earth in a joyous mood.




Venu.r, Manoj, kuntal and boul though aren’t connected to Bangalore but share similar concerns towards nature, culture and society.
Venu.r works speak from a subaltern position where the narration often is a tale of destruction, solititude, alienation and pain. These narrations are often from the remotest social memories where these tragedies are inscribed in the harshest manner. They can be seen as remembrances of the collective which is already handicapped to narrate.
Manoj Bhaviskar’s has been working with medicine for sometime now. He uses the idea of medicine/ healing. The work titled love for love deals with the therapeutic values art may stand for. It can also been seen as a healing for the entire society from its loss of love. The usage of mirror urges the viewer to participate in the work and makes them also a healing agent.
kuntal and Boul see nature as the source of inspiration for their life and works. Kuntal though laments a loss of rhythm in the relationship of man and nature. This he brings with angst filled images with an expressionistic tone. Boul on the other hand finds in nature a space for recollecting her memories and nostalgic moments.
Most of the works deals with the changing urban situations and the dilemmas which are inherent within such a mindless development. The vanishing greens, the invisible poor, the personal and psychological dilemmas are all the issues the artists deal with. The languages these artists handle also are majorly urban in its references. Also the use of photography as one of the primary source for subverting is seen in most of the artists. These views then are the other representations of the city which the dominant culture hides through its stimulated perfections.

V.Divakar.
Art critic, Bangalore.

Catalouge for tracing Erasures, a show curated by Abiram Podwal

The paintings of Ashok tread the problematic line of voyeurism and hidden fantasies of the male. As known vision itself is invested with power basing on who sees whom. The tradition of easel painting right from renaissance times had time and again reiterated the structure of power operating through paintings particularly in its representation of women. The objectification and animalistically representing the other gender has been a major genre if we separate the representations by male artists. The voyeur has been always present in the history of female representation. The artist by exercising his own fantasies gives an opening or exposes the body to the viewer (male) and allows the body to be consumed without any hindrance from the subject represented. This has been contradicted and fought and is continued to be fought in all spheres of representational politics till now. But the since the societal awareness regarding the representation of the “other” particularly women is not conducive because of the structure through which the discourses operate upon. The fine art academic structures here and in many places are still reproducing the bygone discourse on art. This may include still life, life study, anatomy etc. though there are very few academies which still follow the nude studies; they are done majorly with the clothing of morality. Rarely has this discussion of the systemic insufficiencies of including alternative discourses of gender accommodated in the courses. Reading the works of ashok one easily slips into the position the painting offers. The voyeur in the painting accommodates the viewer if he is male in his position and grants him the easy condition of consuming the female body. Thus by reiterating that he has the access for the vision the painting furthers the pleasure not only in the surface but reproduces the fantasies to be practised elsewhere. Though he attempts at representing pregnant women they are juxtaposed with the same desire (re) producing images in circulation there by creates the friction with the subjects intend.
In the painting “she” ashok tries to over come restrictions and attempts an auto critique at the very representation itself. The painting is the representation probably of a single nude in 2 ways. One of them is represented near realistically. The other has been done in a similar way but has been erased. This deliberate erasing “unables” the viewer’s fantasies to be prolonged. The erasure here not only enables a dialogue within representations but mediates the idea of the politics of representation in a particular manner.
V.Divakar,
Art Critic,Bangalore.

Catalouge for trasing Erasures, a show curated by Abiram Podwal

On some motives/ motifs

“Experience is indeed a matter of tradition, in collective as well as private life”- Walter Benjamin


If we start from such an understanding then it would be easy to locate the works of Baiju because his works are indeed based on experiences which are both collective and private. If we trace the traditions which have informed and influenced his works considerably, Baiju’s language resembles the expressionistic tradition which has now become “sign” for many artists from kerala. The stark/dark outlines and the neo- expressionistic colours with recurring metaphors like the traditional house, differential perspectives, anthropomorphic figures, heads and mutilated parts, pyramidal forms, coconut trees etc are all part of the collective vocabulary Baiju shares with many artists from the region. What he also shares with these artists is a consciousness/ awareness of the history. This politico social awareness enables Baiju to interpret histories past and present within a dialogical framework. Seeing history dialogically then would enable one to see the narrative as just not a sequence of happenings but also as events and instants of social forgetting and repression. The significance of the retrieval of these moments of mourning and social forgetting would bring to fore the fundamental contradictions which lie deep beneath our contemporary society. The images of Baiju can be read as these wilful acts of remembering those instants. His images are neither direct reportage nor montages from the past but they are experiences which intervene with the subject’s present memory of incidents which have left marks and remain unaltered. Then the reading of his works would be reading those traces.
The motifs that recur in his paintings are of contradictory values. A new born baby in the cradle is depicted with a sword ready to cut. There are similar images of cutting, mutilating and breakages in his paintings. This reminds of the violence inflicted on a generation of a community in contemporary times. It’s these acts of violence and tragedies which create a rift/asymmetry between the outside and inside of a being. In the same painting one can see a pig lost in narcissist seeing of itself in a mirror. The pig is carrying a globe tied to its body rather uncomfortably. Does it remind us about the geopolitical ambitions of a fundamentalist regime? Traditionally also the image of the pig/ boar has varied authoritative meanings within the religious context. The additional globe which was added to the traditional image of the popular boar/pig iconography was the result of the nationalistic ambitions of sectarian groups in the country during the struggle from its colonial powers. Also we find the pig wearing the shoes on two legs. Does it show the continuation of such ideologies in circulation even now? What is it looking at? Is it the charm of its ambitions? Baiju also invokes the claustrophobic through his compositions. Most of his compositions are tightly arranged. If not they are otherwise bordered with images of fences and barricades. Even the house with its walls becomes a sense of restriction and control. In one of his drawing a cat is viewing a portrait of a family. It also holds a fish/key in its mouth. Does it remind of the memory/nostalgia which would also be lost/ swallowed or suppressed? His present is always a continuum of fractured remembrances and nostalgic feelings. The nostalgic is always captivated within enclosures. Yet there are attempts within to be free in those memories which are cherished as safe heavens from the chains of probably the present. There is also a head which illustrates the general idea of human vision as inverted and virtual. In another painting two anthropomorphic images are struggling at something. Their intent is not made clear except their act of struggle. The suggestions are through the landscapes and the vegetations/erections/ horns all over. These forms metamorphose into the modern buildings in the background. The concrete structures are transformed into quasi naturalistic motifs in most of his paintings which further suggests at the ambiguity engulfing our stimulated natural conditions. In a Léger like landscape all beings are laid to rest with mutilated parts spread all around. There is no act of violence overtly. What stand upright are the horizon of city and the dressed/ cut-off trunk of a tree. The people cling to their belongings which are but their memories. Does it remind again of some genocide or the impending doom of humanity? His paintings also bring to fore the existential dilemmas surrounding the human life. It’s these ambiguities and dilemmas which characterise the existence of both the individual and the collective within a realm of fractured memories and suppressed desires for an egalitarian society.

V.Divakar
Art Critic,
Bangalore.

Group 6
Visualising realities

The general tendency of searching commonalities within a group has the pitfall of erasing many peculiarities and individual subjectivities for a homogenizing common subject, theme or style. My objective in this writing would be in reading the heterogeneity of these works and the significance of each individual’s subjectivity. This is not to say that the works cannot have a common ground or I am against any subjective grouping. Rather by searching the peculiarities we could reach at a significant point where these differences meet. This juncture would be then a platform where one is not guided through a bracketed context rather a platform where free play of different modes of imaginations is encouraged. Hence the attempt in this writing would be primarily to investigate the various imaginative modalities, which are but the linguistic signs employed to achieve respective ends.


Nataraj’s images often speak of a world which is logically in rupture with reality. The situations are like a dream which occurs commonly but with an underlying understanding that those are not possible in this (hyper) “real” world. The image referred is the man pulling the elephant’s tail through the safety pin. The absurdity of the image is easily forgotten for the humor it is embedded with. The question is not whether the pin is made larger or the human and the elephant are made smaller. Rather the question could be where is it rupturing with reality? It’s in the dreams and the fantastical imaginations that the real is in absolute conflict. The made believe ‘impossible’ (possible) as fed to us through various structures of society are put to test. The instinctual self contradicts this impossibility by positioning ones individuality as better and abler to contest. Interestingly the moment is then not a triumph or overcoming but an attempt to question, contradict, there by create a rupture with the given (hyper) “real”.


Tikendra Kumar’s images are about deviations. This is because the banality and eroticization he boldly takes up is a deviation probably according to the generally accepted societal imaginations on sexuality. His eroticizations of the figures are individual fantasies nurtured by hyper real visuality. The print and video inferences are readily evident in his forms. His interference happens when he uses those erotic images by clothing with a humor which makes it consumable. This he achieves by camouflaging his figures with excessive hues of colours or by his other technique of embossing. He also plays with the title to keep the layer of humor. His paintings are hints at our contemporary times where the now completely open area of web pornography traps the youth and nurtures a fantasy which is possible only in the hyper real world. He interestingly also uses symbology where objects of everyday life are eroticized and also celebrates the youthful instincts. He also juxtaposes popular visuals with thematically similar images from history.


Hope and nostalgia are the recurring themes in the works of Thirumala Trupathi. The untitled work where the dry scaffolding itself regenerates to sprout again is a significant symbol of the underlying hope. Interestingly the scaffolding is just a supportive structure which is not permanent and is to be dismantled once the main structure is built. He gives a positive meaning to this temporary structure by making themselves alive again. The question is whether these structures grow to bloom in posterity are would they be dismantled when the main structure is over. Can these structures be permanent? The scaffolding in his painting gains its significance because the future concrete structure is not depicted; rather a vague flat space occupies the background. There are graphical images of ladder floating on the dripping surface of colours. Can we read them as the impending tragedy? Or can we read them as the simultaneous existence of tragedy along with the hope with which the figure in the painting is constructing the ‘living’ structure.

Rollie Mukherjee’s works speak of a self which attempts to question stereotypes. This she does by placing herself in positions which are mythlogically and traditionally celebrated and venerated. By assuming those roles which are assigned to the male she tries to question the patriarchal archetypes. Her use of the text in the painting “I am not born out of my Adam’s rib” is very interesting. The image is of lord Vishnu, here she is herself the lord. The great oceans are the upturned words/ texts. The images themselves refer to the contents they stand for subversively. Creation which has been regarded as from the male germ alone in various scriptures around the world is inverted. The image of the women lying over this upturned ocean of gendered texts signifies the assertive celebration of womanhood. Also in her other works she attempts at a critique which is against bondage by symbolizing Prometheus as the captured clouds.

Lingaraju uses contradictory sensibilities to talk about the problems of the society within his work. He attempts to see conditions and problems not as isolations but in relation to each other. He tries to bring contradictory metaphors to play within the same work. This he does by either treating different forms in different styles or even by juxtaposing different linguistic modes. The image of flower juxtaposed along a rocky landscape is a recurring theme in his works. The portrait of the girl engaged in a domestic (cooking?) is done with at most care and empathy. This image is juxtaposed with a lady hurrying with water pot for fetching water. The background is treated flatly with stripes of horizontal and vertical which though remain passive creates a virtual space where the juxtaposed flowers float within the same surface. His identification with the Dalit and downtrodden particularly women opens up a significant possibility of future works.

Mouni’s hyper real images can be seen as representing the flat reality of our times. The crisis of our times is portrayed in a very skillful manner. His repertoire of images varies from famous media images which have shaped our imaginations about communities to locally relevant objects. He skillfully translates them to the canvas by adding his views which may not necessarily completely differ from the original meanings other than the dexterous handling. He also takes cues from the now famous bar code and other popular linguistic motifs.
If we surmise that there is a thread of thought which finds a common ground within these selected works, it would be the attempt to create alternative realities. I would also prefer to say that it is the existential contradictions of our time which urges individual for imagining these alternatives. What is visible is the increasing crisis of the constructed realities which are obviously hegemonic and does not give scope for individual imaginations. This denial of identification with the real and suppression of the subjectivity finds its vent through these art works. These youthful attempts then can be seen as alternative possibility of “real” which might be close to individual imaginations and free from the clutches of the monitoring hegemonic structures. Probably it’s in these varied versions of the real that each individual could celebrate ones freedom which is nothing but a bare necessity of existence.

V.Divakar
Bangalore

solo show of Rollie Mukherjee

The Other (as) Self

The discourse of the self and the other has now gained a great significance in understanding the politics and the polemics of existence of any being within the social and natural spheres. The significance of such a distinction in understanding any phenomena (individual, social, natural) is its emphasis on the ‘difference’. Difference which helps in respecting/accepting the other with its own specificities without forgetting and negating ones own existence and specificity. Such a position has helped to understand any polemic within a dialectical framework which unables! a problem’s ideal solution.

The reason to title the show as “The other (as) self” is to read the works of Rollie within the above mentioned framework. Her body of works can be seen as an attempt to formulate a language which is based on personal experiences, secondary know ledge and art historical references. Differing from the general stereotypical representation of women Rollie tries to identify her with nature and also at times tries to distance and see nature as an entity in itself thereby reacting consciously/cautiously to the patriarchal stereotypes. This she does by placing herself and her immediate experiences within the discourse of what may be called “eco feminism”. Eco Feminism tries to relate the oppression of women with oppression of nature in general. “The Basic argument which underpins ecological feminist approach is that the ecological crisis cannot be attended to without reference to the underpinning assumption in differences between entities, such as that between men and women, mind and body, human and the rest of nature, are related to one another in hierarchical fashion. This hierarchy requires that one element of the pairing is given a superior position.”* She tries to take help from such an approach and brings the idea of male as the primary cause for displacement and uprooted ness. This identification also stands for the destruction of nature by the male centric western capitalistic mode of production. The works like “uprooted” “curse of the wild” and….can be seen within this hierarchy of male/female, human/ nature binaries. The recent works have also tried to make comments in direct ways which doesn’t only take gender positions but comments on various social and political happenings of which “The Fall of Icarus”, “Entrapped Promethus” “Will-o- wisp” are best examples. Though they seem illustrative at one level in their comment its symbolism and the handling helps her in taking the language bit further.

Her realism is a blend of expressionism and stylization which is very personal particularly in the case of handling the figures. Though the references are photographic baring the flatness and the postures it doesn’t remain static because of her personalized way of rendering the figures. The rendering is more painterly and the colours allow still the possibility of thinking beyond the imagery. Interestingly she appropriates images from western masters (male) but puts them in a context relevant to conditions and questions here. This is also supported by images and photographic references from magazines and newspapers, thus allowing possibility for an aesthetic which is not closed. Having academically trained in an art historical discipline her references are particular to issues addressed rather than formalistically random. The appropriated imagery still holds reference to its original context by the associated meaning and also in some cases an attempted critique of the “original representations”.

[This can be evidently seen in the works like the “portrait of Madhu master”, Will –o-wisp, curse of the wild and The fall of Icarus. The landscape of Bruegel often represents the peasantry as symbol of foolishness and stood for human folly which was itself a bourgeoisie idea of seeing themselves as better of from the peasantry. This she tries to question by juxtaposing the now urban idea of a rural retreat which is a lustrous picturesque landscape. The spoilt ambition of the farmers by the state can be seen as the falling Icarus which is again an appropriated image from Chagall. This can be seen as the boastful rhetoric of the modernist advancement and industrial progress at the cost of ruining the agrarian systems and peasantry. The great urban rural divide particular to the erstwhile colonies is a problematic which the native systems never tried to address. Rather the state and its repressive machinery suppressed the voices with neglect and bloodbath. The legs in the houses are the representations of the continuing suicides of farmers. The figure lying dead is the killing of the voices in revolt. The psychological trauma is represented as the man hitting against the door of the house.]

The set of ink drawings bring to fore the medium’s ability for instinctive and spontaneous expression. The conflict of the various selves becomes very evident in these drawings. The problems of identifying oneself with a stream of thought particularly when the question of sin and guilt becomes apparent. This contradiction happens when the self itself becomes a shadow of the conditioning ideologies. The medium helps her in a cathartic experience due to its immediacy and spontaneity.

Also included is her earlier bachelor’s work which clearly shows her present concerns shaping up. Here rather than seeing a linear progression in the works I would try to see her earlier works as her present references. In the earlier works the self becomes almost a site of confrontation. Allegories, portraits and nostalgic references were the very part of the vocabulary she was dealing with. Though academic influences are easily recognizable the ‘excess’ of the personal easily broke the monotonous academic approaches. The absence of grounding in theory particularly when dealing with gender is though apparent those could be seen as honest and direct experiences worked out for commenting some relative problem.

Those initial experiments in handling with medium and a definitive thematic gets a theoretical support with her schooling in art history and helps her in positioning her argument in more subtle ways now.

V.Divakar

because it is like this

tirukan was an empty dreamer or to put in other words a beggar who only dreamed. i was always called as trirukan and what all i blabbered was considered as empty dreams. yes there is surely an element of fact in it. this is basically an attempt for myself to materialise my dreams. the title i chose as like this and like that because this what i still speak today, like this and like that