(Work by Shine Shivan)
Reverence could
be a way to irreverence and vice versa. Deep seated devotion and observation could
lead to a sense of critical viewing of the given and also scant respect for
something in the long run could change into blind devotion. But there is
something in between, a transient zone where playfulness takes over and erases
both reverence and irreverence. Then it becomes pure play, a sort of innocent
play, a skillful re-enactment of the known and unknown alike without considering
the consequences. In transience happens the flashes of innocence pregnant with
the possibilities of subversion of the dominant narratives, which only trained
eyes could catch.
When the
devotee becomes one with the object of devotion both of them assume the same
bhava, nature, expression and trait, and this oneness is a trope that the
artist has used in building up a set of narratives that is culturally shared
and has become the collective unconscious of the people. Krishna and the characters
around him therefore assume the stylized facial expression of the artist or the
artist adopts the generic facial traits of Krishna as depicted in various traditional
art forms including Nathdwara paintings and Indian miniatures. The cumulative
aesthetical outcome in making these Krishna figures is an unforgettable
ensemble of self portraits involved in a homo-erotic or narcissistic game.
The works
in Nidhivan, for those people who hover around the surficial aesthetical appeal
may not look subversive and critical of anything. However, the mild game of subversion
shows up when the works are seen against heterosexual and permissible dalliance
hailed in the popular mythological and devotional narratives. The emergence of
this surreptitious critique is totally depended on the critical views that one
can afford regarding the allowance of homo erotic interpretations within the
dominant cultural fabric. In a crude political scenario where populist religious
monoliths suppresses all the possible lateral readings and understanding, the
artistic interventions become tricky and dangerous.
Resorting to
allegorical presentations of the popular stories or retelling of the mythologies
in an absolutely non-provocative manner could provide a safe interface for subversive
narratives. In his works Shine Shivan makes these cute and endearing images as
operative tools so that the viewers fall into the set trap of the familiar and
the strange allurement of the presentation to the point of buying them even for
worshipping. Its from this point of identification of the devotee with Shine
Shivan’s works that the flap doors of subversion get activated, may be through
an interpretative literature like this one.
Why do Krishna,
his consorts, friends and other male and female characters resemble one another?
Why do they keep the same facial expression? These questions should find echoes
in the very act of looking and seeing. But they remain unasked because Shine
Shivan through his painterly and graphic skills keeps the images closer to the
traditional renditions of such figures. Their beauty and erotic drive are not
compromised and there is always a constant reminder that they are true to the
traditional narratives. Even the colors that the artist has deliberately chosen,
reds, different shades of saffron and brown, black and blue, are all seen in
the textual detailing of Krishna and his consorts in the popular literature. Even the flora and
fauna are depicted the way they should be.
The
authenticity of these renderings is further accentuated when one sees the
statement that explains how the artist had stayed in the Nidhivan region and
studied the local presentations of the Krishna Katha. This adherence to the
source adds to the allurement of the trapdoor, of tradition and convention.
Each story of Krishna’s games from the local lore is chosen to give his
paintings the desired authenticity. The artistic cleverness, however conveys
the visual intentions when he sheds the textual baggage one by one and brings
the protagonists to a pair in embrace. The multiplicity of the heterosexual
orgy becomes a homoerotic intimacy, love and care for each other that subverts
the normative and affirms the critique in the subtextual level.
The choice
of Kaliya Daman and Govardhanodharan, two popular stories related to Krishna
from the Nidhivan region is important in Shine Shivan’s works. They are two
strong metaphors for homo erotic arousal and its ultimate relieving after a
prolonged play. Krishna lifts the lofty hill on the tip of his small finger. And
Kaliya is a vicious serpent that needs enough thrashing so that it could eject Halahal,
the strongest poison. In both the cases Krishna does the act of lifting and
thrashing; perhaps an extremely suggestive presentation of not only homoeroticism
but also autoeroticism.
There is no
direct provocation but a poetic nudge so that the dreamy viewers who have
fallen for the mischievousness of Krishna could be shaken out of the mythology
to face something crucial to the current socio-cultural discourse regarding
gender relationships in the country. Shine Shivan does not go in the line of
Bhupen Khakkar or Balbir Kishan. Direct touch of Bhupen and the agonized entanglement
of Balbir using male bodies as the trope is not used in Shine Shivan’s works. Like
the veils over the deities before they are revealed for actual worship, tradition
and convention cover Krishnas’ bodies in Shine Shivan’s works. Critical eyes
are needed to pull the veil of this tradition down and see the artist’s
interpretations. Allegory and retelling work quite effectively in Nidhivan. It
becomes more meaningful when we come to know that Nidhivan is a place in Vrindavan
where the people still believe that the erotic of plays of Krishna still take
place therefore people are forbidden to go there at night!
-JohnyML
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