Imagined Locales: Book Opening

On Friday, I attended the opening of "Imagined Locales" - a book authored by Shubhalakshmi Shukla on Contemporary Indian Art. The event took place at Kitab Mahal, Studio X and was attended by a small audience, mostly including artists and friends, some students and colleagues (like me). Gieve Patel and Bharati Kapadia were in conversation with Shubhalakshmi on her book.

I was practically seeing Shubha, with whom I would teach the Art Studio at Academy of Architecture (of whom I have also been a student), after almost three years. I had kept in touch with her while away for my masters, and after I was back. However, Friday was only when I actually finally met her back. Shubha met me like time did not exist, and that we had just seen yesterday. In her calm disposition, she made our meeting feel almost as if we had never been apart. There was no drama of "revisiting", there was no over-expectation, no hugging, no asking of the past, no queries of the present. She made everything feel at rest, equilibrium - almost questioning - "wasn't this how things were supposed to be/happen?" This unspoken mood of the environment was reassuring. She hadn't changed, perhaps also demanding the same of me? I greeted Shubha like I always did - with composure and a smile. And I moved.

And I guess this sense of greeting flowed off the presentation itself. When we used to teach together, Shubha had once mentioned to me, "I am not a Marxist." I did not understand what exactly she meant then. (Regular readers of this blog will remember a post I wrote on "Who is a Marxist?" That post was triggered after Shubha's submission). Friday's talk made clear the statement Shubha declared to me long ago. The talk was centered around the idea of "imagination", and quite directly, as the title of the book suggests, referenced from Benedict Anderson's 'Imagined Communities'. The book documents the work of Indian contemporary artists in the form of conversations and essays collected through interviews and reflections over the last four years. Shubha mentioned that the book was made possible through the encouragement of the curator of Guild Art Gallery in Mumbai (the name of whom I am forgetting now).

Gieve Patel quite rightly said that Shubha had been able to empathise with a lot of artists in her conversation and its translation into text. All those involved in the process of interviewing and conversations will understand how easy it is to impress upon our own views and questions onto the other while talking. Such intrusions disrupt the thought-flow of the interviewees, often digressing their original thoughts. Further, it is easy to sway into different directions, not realising that our words have coloured someone else's thought and the conversation may no longer be as neutral. Shubha, in her calmness would certainly allow enough space for the interviewee to express fully, without intervening. Moreso, to understand, or to receive the meaning of the speech in the way it is delivered is important, because textual translation can have quite a flattening tendency. I am sure Gieve was hinting to all these aspects when talking of "empathy". Further the discussion also touched upon the ideas of transcendence, the act of drawing as therapy and so on.

Surely, the above ideas may not be completely accepted or even assumed to be worthy of discussion by hard core Marxists, to whom (now that I have a clearer idea), experiences have to be rooted in the material world (and not imagination, which can not be proved). I am surrounded mostly by Marxists, who often disprove many thoughts that can not be supported by hard facts. I thus fail to have discussions with people who do not rely on personal experience as their key teacher. I was thus able to join many loose dots through the discussion, and further it helped me articulate my position / world view further.

I am now looking forward to read the book and find myself further. For those interested, I feel "Imagined Locales" is an important book to understand the contemporary art practice in India, perhaps primarily in a non Marxist perspective. I have not read it yet, but I believe given the author and the discussion I witnessed, the book frames an interesting picture, that shall help one in internal reflection and contemplation.

The Aesthetics of Absurdity

In a recent review at SEA, some students intended to give a solution for the space that bus stops on the foot paths often create along the streets of Mumbai. They wanted to, for instance, look at how different activities happening around this shelter could be better accommodated by relooking at it. However, in their process of quick response, their attention turned to redesigning the buses instead of the bus stop! This happened because they had decided to lift up the bus stop to free up the ground space. Quite obviously, the bystanders at the bus stop now had to climb up to go to the bus stop. They would now board the bus from an upper level, for which the buses were altered. However, this didnot eliminate the lower entry into the bus. The students retained the lower entrance for physically challenged and old people.

The second part of the presentation was focused thus, on the redesign of the bus! They had quite elaborate drawings of the bus, with quite funnily miniscule wheels! They explained their project with quite some confidence and enthusiasm. The exercise demanded that they think out of the box, but they just went berserk, in a direction where things became more uncomprehensible and the gaps between the problems and offered solution increased exponentially.

While a person like me would have trashed this idea, Prasad had an interesting take. He provoked the group to imagine, what would be the next logical absurd step they would take in their process! I was quite intrigued, but at the same time, waiting to hear if students could take it further. I am not sure if students understood either the critique or the provocation. Perhaps they understood both! But I am not sure if they were able to understand, at all, that they were designing absurdity. And further, I am not sure, if Prasad meant to hint that there is an aesthetic in absurdity; or whether absurdity is inherently disturbing.

However, thinking about the aesthetic of absurdity would make us agree that there probably must be some undeciphered order to it that gives us pleasure. The immediate example, and the one quite apparent, is the expression of the golden ratio. The fibonacci series which results in the golden spiral is one of the most aesthetic curls that we can probably draw, while the fact remains that it is derived due to the plotting of some fractions which donot ever resolve themselves. The golden rectangle or spiral, one of the most revered aesthetic figures, is thus in essence an expression of irrationality.

Numerous other propositions like the Brownian motion, the Chaos theory, the pigeon's dilemma and so on may seem quite absurd, but have been deducted as quite aesthetic. I wonder if scientifization of these irrationalities makes such phenomena aesthetic? Perhaps, the act of fiddling with these undefinable entities is aesthetic. But I am forced to think by mentioning quickly the above examples, that absurdity has a distinct aesthetic that can be perhaps explained in the sublime. But if absurdity can be explained, and even studied, does it at all remain so any longer? Does it qualify to be irrational? These are questions that opened up for me quite late after the students' presentation explained above.

I am wondering now, what Prasad's proposition actually meant? Further, what is the value of absurdity? How do we, if at all, benefit from it? Should absurdities be meant for benefits or should they assume wart-like characters? I think I mean 'pleasure' by benefits, pleasure in the thought, experience and engagement. Further, what place does absurdity have in academia? Does it have a method of deployment (this proposition is almost paradoxical)? If absurdity has a method, does it remain absurd (irrational) any longer? These are questions I have now come to think of loudly.

And what feedback with this background would one offer this group at hand? To be aware of absurdity and handle it with maturity is one thing. To be innocent with it is another. But meanwhile, this group was almost frivilous, pseudo-serious and presumed that they had been quite innovative. I do not blame them, but their age! But architecture school often makes students produce absurd artifacts which only become more meaningful in hindsight, when one has gained considerable maturity. Then, the way in which they are presented must change, and they way in which they come to inscribe people's lives are quite different. 

Visit to Navrachana University, Baroda

Over the last weekend, Ravi Punde took us to visit the Navrachana University in Baroda in oder to look and learn from the Year-end Student Exhibition hosted by the school. For the first time, I had been taken to a trip with a purpose of learning from peers, and I must admit that it was quite refreshing to step out of one's own confined bubble and gain a fresh perspective at oneself through the works of another school.

The Navrachana University, like SEA, is a young architecture college. It was established in 2009, and the architecture wing is headed by Ar. Gurudev Singh - an individual dedicated to educate young minds. Gurudev is on the academic council of SEA, and a close friend of Ravi Punde. The visit thus became more productive, for beyond merely seeing the exhibition, the two institutions also exchanged notes on their pedagogies. 

Instead of turning to the exhibition, we found the workshop more inviting. It was full of machines, and each corner filled with wood. Part assemblies of models lay all around, and Gurudev was happy to begin from there itself - explaining to us how each machine worked, and what it could do! His energy was contagious, and immediately gripped all of us. Gurudev believes in learning by making, and in the first two years, the students spend considerable time in the workshop devising structures and making simple contraptions.

We were walked through the exhibition by Gurudev Singh himself, along with some of his colleagues. It was so inspiring to look at his enthusiasm and dedication, more than any thing else, honesty and commitment towards educating his students. We walked across numerous models made by the students using not only the wood workshop that was on their floor, but also the metal, welding and other tools like laser cutter, etc from the engineering department.

The school of architecture in Navrachana exists on a single, but large floor plate. The top floor is what the design students occupy. It consists of a full fleged wood workshop, about 5 studio-classrooms, administration and large lobby areas which double up as exhibition spaces. The floor also has a computer room and several other facilities like meeting rooms, restrooms etc. There is ample natural light on the floor.  However, the school is soon to shift in a new building that is being built right opposite to the present one.

In the present case, when we reached, one part of the lobby hosted the exhibition, while the space right outside the lift area was taken up by a gang of students who had finally found some time after their year long slog to jam some songs. Guitars and hums filled up the background of our journey through the exhibition.

We were explained each and every work by the faculties in detail. It didn't bore me at all - infact, I was quite elated to listen to them speak so beautifully. They certainly added a mature dimension to the student projects they described, but I believe their oratory intervention was essential to theoretically mobilize the otherwise skill-heavy work. Much of their work took me back to my own school days from Academy of Architecture, where extremely crafted drawings were produced in good number, often craving for a better assisting narrative. This visit could have possibly turned out to be dry if the faculties had not taken over. However, I also believe that many of the students may have been on vacation and unavailable to assist a walk through to audiences.

Perhaps it was pre-decided that Ravi Punde would give a presentation to the students there, as much as talking about how SEA operates. This had to supercede the lovely musical time students were having after completing the rut of their classes for the year. I found it particularly annoying, inspite of being on the other side, for pulling the students off their music zone into a yet another building lecture! In fact, Ravi eventually also got Prasad and Rupali to present the work they displayed at the 56th Venice Art Biennale. While they promised to keep their respective presentations short, in apology of disturbing the students' music session, the discussion seemingly went on for far too long. I was bored, partly because of the heat, but moreso because I was hardly interested in listening any more to any one.

However, the presentations revealed to me much interesting work by Design Cell, headed by Ravi Punde. I requested Ravi to share with me his presentation so that I could study and review it. On the other hand, Prasad and Rupali's was the first public presentation of the Venice Biennale work. They have not discussed their work openly with any one before. The simplicity with which Prasad oriented the students with their work "Transactional Objects" was incredible. I had to pull out my notebook in order to make notes! 

Later, we sat with the core faculty of Navrachana University to discuss ideas to keep exchanging notes regularly and do more work in collaboration. We discussed dilemmas with regard to grading, discipline and interests of students. We also discussed the merits and possibilities of our pedagogical approaches and how they could be improved upon. I just felt that the SEA team was a bit too optimistic and over-confident with our methods and results. We often tend to put others behind in order to convince ourselves of our superiority. However, these are merely myths, and only time shall prove the success of our doings.

Santhali Scrolls

Following are some beautiful scrolls drawn by the Santhali tribes in North East India. These were collected by artist Archana Hande with whom I was taking the Art Studio for the students at SEA last to last week. Archana had brought these to share with students the ways in which narratives can be depicted through the form of screens.

Many of these scrolls depict a single story. Archana briefly explained in one of her sessions how these scrolls were produced - they way they passed from hand to hand, bringing together the people of the community in dialogue with each other. Once I begin to transcribe her lecture, I shall put in up more details. In the meantime, notice the beautiful drawings that come through off abundance of imagination and seemingly basic skills.

Most of the images you see below are from a scroll that imagines the different forms of punishment a soul goes through after death in hell. Note that these images are merely some of the many that the scroll depicted.

Projective Histories by Sameep Padora \ SEA