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15
Hello Shrutika and welcome to NotRandomArt. The current issue is revolving around the problem of communication and identity. You state: “The concept of artwork, for me, is nothing but a journey. It constitutes thoughts and their evolvement; process, technique, and finally, the result.” Is there any particular way you would describe your identity as an artist but also as a human being in dynamically changing, unstable times? In particular, does your cultural substratum/identity form your aesthetics?
I believe the concept of an artwork and concept of life goes hand in hand, it is a lifelong process, during which you experiment, and sometimes you get good results and sometimes bad. We discover many things about life, art and culture being in this process. We build up an identity throughout the journey and as the time changes, it evolves. We have to keep ourselves relevant in life, as in art.
Being a full time female artist itself is an identity though I believe in equality of genders. Artist itself is a kind of gender. I am proud of myself as I am successfully managing many things like domestic affairs, kids, social affairs and also I am passionately doing my work.
Culture plays a significant role in building up your identity as well as aesthetics. I am attracted to a most powerful phrase from Indian philosophy which is “Satyam Shivam Sundaram” This is a Sanskrit phrase meaning “Truth-Goodness-Beauty”
Satyam or Truth is multidimensional, unchanging in time and space. It is the basis of entire creation.
Shivam signifies the embodiment of calmness, tranquility, innocence and benevolence. All that is good, valuable and precious in you - the ultimate good.
Sundaram means beauty. We move from recognizing external beauty to the beauty within. The greatest beauty is to see the totality, the intensity of the mystic. That is the greatest gem in the existence of consciousness itself.
Satyam is the experience, Shivam is the action that comes out of the experience and Sundaram is the flowering consciousness of the human who has experienced truth.
I was introduced to this philosophy during my under graduate program. It helped me form my aesthetics and took me to the spiritual path of art; so, although I have learnt all the technicality in art, I still follow my ideological philosophy.
Would you like to tell us something about your artistic as well as life background? What inspired you to be in this artistic point in your life when you are now?
I was born in Gwalior, India in a family where everyone worships art. It is my passion since childhood and like all children, I also had my hobbies and interests which were art and music. My mother played an important role in cultivating this passion in me. Being an artist herself (Hindustani classical vocalist) she used to encourage and motivate me a lot. When I was 5, I used to have specific time for art and music in my daily routine and so the journey began from there itself. Later in higher secondary I had fine arts as a major subject and then completed Bachelors and Masters in Visual arts in 2010 from Institute of Fine arts, Gwalior, MP, India. At the end of my masters I received Madhya Pradesh state artist award from the Government of MP, India and also the 2 years young artist scholarship in visual arts from ministry of culture India.
I learned figure drawing, watercolors and all basic art techniques during my time in school and eventually learned how to break the form - realistic to abstraction, which fascinated me a lot. In university my professors asked me to practice line a lot. They emphasized on the line element, which is strongest part of any kind of painting and speaks a lot.
The perpetual emotion of my artistic practice which always motivates me and has brought me to this point of life is me, myself. I follow the philosophy which can be described in this Sanskrit phrase ‘Aham Brahmasmi’, which means the creator and his creation are not two separate things, but one. The world around me is a part of me. It starts from me it ends within me. I feel the connection with each and every one and with my surroundings. A connection of energies or you can say connection of the spirit. This connection keeps me going and makes me feel that I am here to make a difference in the world, which is why I am always looking forward to express myself through my art. Not a single minute goes by without thinking of it.
Could you identify a specific artwork that has influenced your artistic practice or has impacted the way you think about your identity as a participant of the visual culture?
An artist gets influenced by many artists and their works in his or her life. I also get influenced by different artists at times but the most influential artist and artwork was ‘Picasso’ and his world-famous work ‘Guernica’. In fact, I recreated a smaller and my version of that painting in 2016. I used to study that particular work a lot and somehow after that I started getting attracted to negative side of the world. This incident is from 2008-09 and I started depicting that. The negativity around the world in form of terrorism and brutal criminal cases broke my heart which was the same environment from which The Guernica has born and in 2016 I depicted the scenario in one of my work called ‘Qahar’ which is an Urdu/Hindi word which means havoc.