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.
