(Devidas Agase, artist)
The title ‘Choral Monologues’ or ‘Sing a group song all
alone or all by oneself’ could mean many things and those meanings could
include a wide range of attitudes and mental state of the one who does those
monologues as well as that of the one who reads/listens to it; from existential
pangs to sarcastic critique of the state of affairs around. When there is none
else to sing along, it is the fate of a lonely man to sing it all alone. Also
true is the case when one decides to sing along even if there are many to sing
along. Equally important is the case when one finds oneself amidst a cacophony
of voices it becomes imperative for him or her to sing alone but remember, in
many different voices. That is pleasing at least for the singer if not for the
listener; but eventually the listener or even a passerby is forced to stand and
hark upon the notations that the lonely singer’s choral renditions evoke. That
is the power of the pangs or critique. Even in the darkest of times, like a
lonely window lit in yellow light, seen from afar, gives the hope that there is
someone who is awake for the sake of humanity; either he is committing suicide
after writing his last words or he is plotting for the final overthrow of the
present situation. He may be failure in both the attempts however, what becomes
important for him is that he is awake, he is writing or he is plotting for the
impossible.
‘Choral Monologues’ is a solo exhibition by Devidas Agase, a
young artist based in Mumbai and is curated by Sushma aka Sushma Sabnis. Both
the artist and curator are closer to my heart because I have been keenly watching
their progress in their respective careers and it is a pleasure to see them
working towards the public presentation of the latest body of their works. For
Devidas, like any other young artist working from a metro city like Mumbai, a
curated solo exhibition is something like a dream coming true. It is important on
many counts; first of all, in today’s socio-cultural and political scenario, a
solo exhibition could be seen as just another exhibition displaying beautiful
pictures or works of art, or an exhibition with interesting works that lead to
nowhere in terms of aesthetics or socio-political and cultural critique. While
the former is intended to satisfy the art for art’s sake idea of aesthetics the
latter could also mean the same by pitching neither on aesthetics nor on
politics. In that sense many an exhibition around us goes astray evoking the
Shakespearean saying: ‘full of sound and fury signifying nothing.’
(Sushma Sabnis, curator)
There is definitely a sense of awfulness in the present
living contexts. It is quite Beckett-ian; Nobody comes, Nobody goes, Nothing
happens, it is awful. Samuel Beckett was referring to the waiting for the
ultimate arrival the omnipotent; the God. But nothing happens. We live in a world/context
where we have several Gods and Goddesses both in their ideal and idol form and
in their corporeal forms. New political gods and patriarchs are in place and
they patronizingly pat on the backs of the scientists and artists so that the
weight of the patron/s’ hands is felt intimately and threateningly. But nothing
happens, is the final result of such patronizing. We move from degeneration to
putrefaction, raising a lot of stink and fury, in fact signifying nothing. The
Bard of Stratford upon Avon has never been wrong in his findings.
I do not know whether Devidas and Sushma while working
towards this exhibition were aware of these facts however, as their mentor for
some years I am sure that they have been sufficiently aware of the traps that
the subject of their exhibition would pose along the way. For the artist, within
the dominant Hindu-Hindi-Hindustani discourse it is a challenge to use and
sub-use (let me coin such a word to qualify use of something to subvert and
perhaps use the same in/with a different potential) the images that could
apparently hint at the fractions and portions of such a discourse. He should be
doubly carefully while doing so. It is a tightrope walk; when one does not have
a different ensemble of references to forward a critique and is forced to use
the repertoire of the same linguistic paraphernalia it becomes a search for
exploring the possibilities of the subversive faculties of such a language. It
is seeking a needle in the darkroom. The artist has to accept the primary fact
that it is pitch dark in the room and what has been lost is nothing but a
needle. It is a search of the ultimate kind; having accepted the ignorance
rampantly thickening around us, searching for the needle of knowledge and truth
is a real task. And that is what Devidas is trying to do in this exhibition.
(Invitation card for Devidas' show)
To make my point further clear, let me say that he uses the dominant
Hindu visual parlance mostly with a difference; even if I say with a
difference, I should accept the fact that the only referential frame work is
that of the hegemonic Hindu cultural ethos. Even when the artist tries to deal with
the good-bad-ugly part of life and also to emphasize the aspect of the victory
of the good over evil, ultimately he has to use a language which is immediate
and less exotic. The difference that Devidas creates is a via mode of folk
tradition and the fair-ground entertainments where puppets/pata chithras/bhopa
or kawat ensemble etc are used for depicting the stories in the collective
sub/unconsciousness of the people in general. These kinds of entertainments
function with on the apriori fact that the stories are known and it has to be
retold adding sufficient varieties of rendering. It is poetic because people
willingly suspend their disbelief not in the stories that they already now but
in the ways in which the stories are told with a variety of inflections and
intonations adequately chosen by the narrator. Devidas speaks about a
fragmented society that pretends to be a whole, an anxious face that
masquerades it with affected confidence, a society that hides truth in lies and
projects lies as truth. And possibly Devidas found the best way to express them
through the images of puppets. He has also experimented with them by turning
them to three dimensional assemblages as well as ephemeral shadow based kinetic
apparitions.
For a young artist who lives in our times in a metro city
with less space for a studio and less money for a good life, it is one of the
fiercest of fights that he could ever wage in his life. Perhaps he is a lucky
person because he got the right time to be young and aware in the most
difficult of times in the history of India and when seen against such a
backdrop his personal tribulations and trials may look less severe and easy to
handle. However, with each passing day with choking spaces of articulation and for
words of courage, and compromise is the word through imagery negotiations,
someone still doing his work from a suburban studio is an act of faith in
itself. Devidas, whether he believes in the religious practices or not does not
bother me much because somewhere one could see how as an artist he is doubtful
about the whole thing that is happening in today’s time and that is what making
him to sing his varieties all alone.
(A work by Devidas Agase)
Before concluding my views on the forthcoming exhibition,
let me say a few words about Sushma. She has been under my tutelage for almost
eight years whose transition from an artist who worked in a variety of styles with ample amount of misunderstandings about the very idea of ‘modern art’ and
its visual expressions to a highly perceptive and sophisticated art critic and
curator is phenomenal. It is not the morale booster shot from a mentor; it is
rather a testimony that is to be made public at this juncture as she embarks on
her journey as an independent curator. With an MSc in Marine Biology, Sushma
came to the scene as an artistand when she started communicating with me I
found her views on art much refined (though with her own doubts and confusions
about art’s history) and the language sensitive and expressions highly effective.
Taking her under my wings was an act of faith for me too and she has not
disappointed me in that. Following my instructions and reading well into art
history (perhaps much better than a regular art history student does) and
assisting me in mega curatorial projects, Sushma has gained enough hands on
experience in curating and with Devidas’ solo exhibition she does it all alone,
another Choral Monologue for her. And like a distant tenor of that chorus,
I too am singing my own choral music all alone. Sushma and myself enjoy when we
sing ‘mile sur mera tumhara’, the legendary video of national integration, a
visual and lyrical staple on which we grew up along with the history of Indian
television. This voice has eventually become ours. And who could forget the
song, ‘Tu jo meri sur mein sur mila de sang gaa le to zindagi to ho jaye safal.
(Sing to my voice and blend it, sing it along, let the life be fruitful).
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