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Journalism of Courage
Most Indians even today are brought up on a definition of art as celebratory. And many of our contemporary painters second this often enough. Look at the immediate evidence, in the current works of artists exhibiting with Gallery Art Alive in Delhi, in a Sushma Behl curated show called 8216;Art and Nature.8217; In many works, Nature becomes a moment of reminiscence: a millenarian harking back to the ideal, as experienced, perhaps even imagined. Why this is interesting is because most artists actually base their perspective on their received understanding of nature, rarely challenging it. We see how an artist like French Maite Delteil goes back to her village in South West France. In a series of poetic works, she paints trees bursting forth with blossoms and birds, much like her childhood fruit trees and creepers. Gogi Saroj Pal, in another new show, recalls her Himachal home, bathing her paintings in flowers. Sanjay Bhattacharya yearns for the welcoming embrace of Nature that has been walled out socially and culturally. In the first installation work he has ever done, Sanjay places almost 200 condoms encircled with a rope, pushing out elements like water that symbolise life. And Jaishree Burman examines the mythological explanations of the origins of the swirling Ganga in a giant tussar silk scroll.
What is particularly interesting is that all these artists live in big cities and travel across the world. Yet, their works go back to a setting that might be rural, peri-urban: far removed from their very everyday world and the nature they encounter within it. They then reinforce the popular belief that the concrete jungles are lifeless and hostile. But more than that, they reflect the wider perception of the city, as the opposite of the fertility that can be found in the fecund Earth, or dharti. Note, for example, Jaishree Burman8217;s use of earth colours in her scroll, as if to refrain from despoiling it. By default, we find that the city slowly becomes a necessary evil.
In similar mode, British artist Lyn Huso uses recycled materials to what she said to the news magazine Edie, 8216;8216;demonstrate the ideas of rebirth, renewal and regeneration8217;8217; and the menstrual cycle. She tries to use green products in her art, such as old mobile phones and organic tampons as a means of environmental education.
Such work may still be shown and seen infrequently, but it is slowly gaining currency in India. For those of us who see the artists8217; outputs, the point is to use our own faculties and experiences to see the many strands they put forth.
