(Subodh Gupta)
Delhi based photography
artist and my dear friend Anurag Sharma asks me, after reading my take on the
tendency of artists copying themselves, about Subodh Gupta. He asks whether
Subodh’s works that have kitchen utensils as their major component could be
called ‘self repetitive’ works. Close to the heel of this question, my former
student and artist Vaibhav Sharma writes to me a very long mail to tell me how
he looks at the whole issue of artists’ tendency to be self repetitive. In this
mail he takes up Jitish Kallat’s ‘bone’ works as a point of reference and
debates by saying that couldn’t it be a sort of ingenuity that helps the artist
to do make different forms and shapes through the repetitive use of a catchy
material.
Perhaps I
have been always waiting for these questions. If anyone raises the issue of
installation, style and repetition in the context of Indian contemporary art
context, can there be a situation that does not invite a question on Subodh
Gupta or Jitish Kallat? There cannot be one. Many, in their circles must be
asking these questions quite loud and harsh and must be debating it with due
vehemence and clarity. However, many would not dare to ask these questions
because as these artists have been transported to certain levels of godliness
vis-a-vis our art scene, very few dare to question them in public. It is not
just about ‘questioning’ them in a negative sense, but raising questions so
that the artists feel the responsibility to answer those questions, of course
in a responsible fashion. I am happy for these questions put to me because it
tells the artists indirectly that ‘Look, here there are people who are watching
you. You just cannot get away with anything that you do.’
To anybody
who looks at the recent works of Subodh Gupta, it would be quite natural to
think that Subodh repeats himself, not only in methods and materials but also
in ideas. It is very easy to hurl an allegation and step back. But we need to
address the contexts in which Subodh, consciously or sub-consciously, feels the
pressure to repeat his own methods and materials. To address this issue we need
to look at the creative practice of Subodh in its entirety. Also we need to see
how Subodh as an artist evolved during the last two decades as an artist whose
name rings familiar when uttered even in the international art circles.
(Subodh Gupta giving a lecture)
I remember
Subodh giving an interview to some foreign corresponded a few years back (which
is available in youtube and you may check by youtubing Subodh Gupta there)
where speaks of his childhood and his encounters with Indian mythology through
films and other popular cultural forms. This is a pointer to understand Subodh’s
personality formation and the ways of his thinking. Though the comment might be
a momentary response to a question asked to him by a foreigner in a foreign
location surrounded by not so familiar people, the sudden establishment of his
connection with Indian mythology should be taken both as an anchor of his
cultural outlook and as a context of his creative understanding.
Subodh comes
from a Hindu family and milieu soaked in Hindu mythology. When you are a child
you tend to believe in demons, angels, gods and their various incarnations. You
believe in the largeness of life and the life before and beyond life. You
develop this idea of magnanimity through the medium of your innocent imagination. You don’t differentiate much between you and
the mythical characters. A young child could speak to his invisible companions
because those invisible presences are so real for him. As he grows up he loses
this sense of reality and is replaced by a strong sense of material realism.
You grow sceptical and negate the existence of gods and demons. You develop
your social thinking that leads you to a political thinking. You become so
frustrated and disturbed by the existing material realities and you feel like
breaking everything down and creating everything new. But soon you realize your
incapability of doing so. Shamed by your own impotence, you leave your place
and walk to another land in order to gain strength and visibility so that you
could go back and facilitate changes in your own place.
(Subodh Gupta with one of his works)
You are
political till you have this idea of changing. Self perpetuation of the
existing reality is a stagnated situation and you want to change it. Subodh
Gupta comes to Delhi with this fire in his mind. His early works (including the
theatre and films he has acted in) have the fire of a young man who wants to
change his reality. Like anybody who comes to an urban centre where
opportunities beckon you like the displayed dishes in a sweet shop. Only you
need to gather enough money and momentum to buy those sweets. Opportunities are
abundant. Subodh also had seen these opportunities and he knew that he needed
to find out ways to make use of those opportunities. And opportunities came
through contacts and affiliations.
In a
performance work he did during the initial years of Khoj in late 1990s Subodh
lied down on a clearing covered all over with mud. Before doing that he had
created a huge hut out of dried cow dung cake. This mud/sun bath and cow dung
cake hut that reminded one of the domes of a nuclear plant was interesting
because this was how Subodh was introducing his past and its present and the
huge possibilities to a larger audience in Delhi. It brought the mythological
affiliations he had besides the rural milieu within which he had grown up. This
work had set the tone of Subodh’s future works. And that’s why when his major
solo show happened with the Nature Morte gallery in Delhi, he could bring the
lathis, bicycles, milk cans and so on casted in aluminium and bronze.
(Work by Subodh Gupta)
As far as
Subodh was concerned at that particular juncture of success in his creative
life in Delhi, he was coming out as a political artist with a sheer sense of
cynicism towards the aesthetic object. This Bihar rural boy with no linguistic
skills (Subodh’s speeches for the scholarly audience could be compared to the
speeches of Lalu Prasad Yadav, former Bihar Chief Minister and Central Railway
Minister, who had given lectures in high end institutes like IITs and IIMs
regarding the topic of effective management after his successful stint as the
central Railway Minister) was responding to the urban public’s taste in a
critical way by placing something totally non-palatable before them in highly solidified
sculptural forms. The lathis (long sticks) that he used were emblematic of the
violence as well as the quotidian like of a rural Bihari. The milk cans and
cycles were the daily reality. How they could be brought into the plush houses
of the art collectors. Subodh was successful in getting even his cow dung cake
hut into the dining room of one of the richest collectors in India. How could
one afford to have cow dung cakes in a posh dining room when cow dung cake
cooking is considered to be quite ‘vernie’ and ‘desi’ for the rich and the
sophisticated?
Making the
rich and the sophisticated to buy the rural Biharis’ lota (a metal pot that is
used both for drinking water from and washing bottom after toilet use) and to go gaga over their latest buy of Subodh
Gupta was a critical ploy used by Subodh Gupta in late 1990s. His political
aesthetics became quite handy as he could find not only lathis and cycles and
many other things from his repository of images from the rural life and
imaginations. Bringing the urban middle class and all his vagaries and
cleverness to survive in the big bad world, and also the ultimate survival of
the politicians in this country called India, Subodh meticulously chose the
images like Bajaj Scooter (the pre-globalized Indian’s ultimate dream of
mobility), and the Ambassador car (the arrogance of a nationalized economy
embodied in the body of a car which could masquerade both as a powerful symbol
of political supremacy and an ordinary man’s taxi) for his sculptural
renditions. And it was first time in India that someone casts the whole object
into another medium. A car could be made in a factory but what about a car that
could be casted in a factory and render it completely useless as a car and elevate
into the level of an aesthetic object? Subodh did it and it was quite political
move in art.
(Ambassador- Subodh Gupta)
But this was
that juncture when Subodh slowly turns into a victim of the revenge of the
urban art collectors who strategically makes him into a celebrity of sorts.
Though one, with the increased visibility naturally turn into a celebrity, the
mechanizations behind this image boosting was a result of the investment point
that the rich and powerful had seen in Subodh at that point of time. But Subodh
was a rebel. He shirked off such attributed glamour by turning his attention to
the plights of the NRIs in general and the NRBs in particular (Non resident
Indians and Non Resident Biharis). Ambassador cars that ply as taxis near the
airports, the luggage tied on their carriers, the baggage trolleys and so on
became a part of Subodh’s paintings and sculptures at this point. With this
introduction of image ensemble in his works, Subodh was talking about the labor
export and migration of the Biharis since the time of colonialism. He knew that
poverty, illiteracy, hostile climates, bad governance, feudalism, casteism and
so on had sent the Biharis as indentured labours in foreign farms. Subodh, consciously
or sub-consciously brought all those discourses in his art. I don’t think it
was addressed fiercely by the Indian critics and curators as they were more
interested in Subodh as a celebrity than a politically inclined artist.
From here
Subodh turns his attention to the utensils. It is here that I would like to
underline Subodh’s upbringing in a Bihari Hindu household and in the milieu of
mythologies. In mythologies kitchen utensils play a great role. It is totally
connected with food and satisfaction. Most of my readers must be knowing the
story of Akshaya Patram (the vessel that could bring forth any amount of food.
Krishna eats a grain of rice from it and sends all the visitors full and happy).
If you visit any rural household one could see the way the people give respect
to their utensils. They keep it clean and arranged. They literally do
installation art with their vessels and utensils. A society that lives a hand
to mouth existence, kitchen utensils are very important. Even the pavement
dwellers keep their utensils arranged and clean. In the Indian dowry practice,
especially amongst the middle class and lower middle class sending the bride
away to her bridegroom’s house will not be complete affair if there are not
enough kitchen utensils in her dowry package.
(Painting by Subodh Gupta)
Subodh was
trying to bring all these experiences in his works when he was taking up
utensils as his dominant imagery. He used chimtas, vessel racks, huge eating
plates and so many of their permutations and combinations. Even he could
develop a whole city on the move out of vessels and motor mechanism. It was
fine till then. I have feeling that when you reach some stage of your glory,
you tend to perpetuate the same glory. You become worried about your own
status. Then you need to replicate the same situation again and again. Subodh
seems to have fallen victim to this idea of perpetuation of existing situation,
which he was completely against, when he came to Delhi first time. Now he
realizes that he is Subodh Gupta brand and the brand needs the brand identification
marks. The utensils have become the byword for his brand value.
(Spirit Eaters-Performance organized by Subodh Gupta)
I should
explain why and how Subodh has lost his political edge: When he was introducing
the quotidian materials with sufficient cynicism, he was aspiring for the
changes that he could bring forth in the society, at least to his own society
through a cultural discourse. For that he wanted to remain terribly political
but cleverly subtle on the expressions of the same. This strategy worked well
for him. But when he realized at some stage that he could replicate and magnify
the already saturated images not only in his memory but also in the public
memory, he lost his political edge. Now it is like a play. Give him anything he
could replicate them with utensils welded together. It is like someone
practicing juggling. First you start with two balls and then you increase the number.
You get some kind of fun out of doing it. But a juggler muses the public only
up to certain extent because they would move on as other spectacles in a
carnival or mela appear before them.
(Line of Control- Subodh Gupta)
Postscript:
You may ask me then what about Christo who covered objects and cars and then
Reichstag of Germany. I have the answer. Christo idea of packaging came as a
response to the packaging culture of the west. It was sort of reaction against
the commoditiy fetish-ism of the society. But then he wanted to cover the ‘un-coverable’.
German parliament, the seat of power was considered to be beyond all creative
and critical interventions despite the cruel histories involved with it.
Christo fought a legal war with the government and that lasted for almost
twelve years. Finally he could cover it. A work of art transcends itself into a
political dialogue when the artist consciously does it. Of late, Subodh has
started attempting at food and waste as a concept. But orgy of the rich happens
often on the waste of their own richness including food. Subodh’s critique of
the same through the large scale paintings of unwashed vessels and the eating
performance does not turn effective mainly because today Subodh’s personality
is considered to be closely connected to that orgy culture. Subodh needs to
take a sabbatical as even his negation of the very aspect of paintings through
bronze casting the reverse side of canvases seems to be falling only in the
zone of spectacle and juggling in the carnival. Subodh Gupta should sit under a
Bodhi Tree. Perhaps he too wants it. That’s why recently he did a ‘bodhi tree’ of utensils.
5 comments:
great.........................
The idea of an artist "repeating himself" seems complex to me. Artists repeat themselves due to ongoing concerns, a focus on a certain sociological or aesthetic problem that they are trying to resolve, or at least explore to the furthest limits of their capabilities. But the negative side of such repetition is repetition done solely for market reasons, i. e. "this sells, and thus it must be repeated to keep on selling". It is a trap that eventually kills an artist's work and makes it meaningless. And it is hard for artists to resist this form of branding/merchandizing. The galleries and even the curators and critics like the ease of pegging you. I had a small show in Mumbai a few years back and wanted to show a video installation as a part of it. The gallery owner outright refused. He hadn't even seen the video, so it was not based on any judgment of quality or concept. It was just that, as he put it, a video was "not Waswo"....as if he knew better than I what "Waswo" was all about, and how "Waswo" had to be defined. That still amazes me. Artists are not always guilty of the branding that comes to define them. They are up against machinery that can overwhelm them. But the good ones keep fighting, keep exploring, and stay innovative, even if that innovation is within self-prescribed parameters.
You can keep on collecting works in "permanent- material-like stainless steel " and may be difficult to buy a perishable/biodegradable/fragile/organic...material like cow dung work,you may buy it now atleast once only because it is a big name now,you understand "big is automatically good! "
How do you call medium as utensils ? these are cultural objects and he has transformed them into representational commerce which can not be denied at all as far as concerned for copying own work is not a crime and artistic beauty is superior to natual beauty, as the mind that produces it is superior to nature and there is no absolute beginning in art but what about those who has indulged in plagiarism, did not know what is their culture? i think that subodh has given a proper platform to Indian art otherwise you see post indendence and after indepence either art appropriation or plagiriam has been noticed. you know that there is a xenophobia and ethnocentrism against you called them NRB (non resident Bihari)
Where did Suboth Gupta got the idea... check French Artist Arman, http://www.armanstudio.com/arman-artworks-3-1-fr.html
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