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.
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.
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