(Ashwani Kumar Prithviwasi: The Founder Director of Delhi Collage of Art. It is a portrait painted by Piyush Aswal, a first year student at the DCA)
Delhi Collage
of Art. The misspelling is conspicuous. Auto-correct soon changes it into ‘College’.
You force it back to ‘Collage’. In 2011, I had curated a show at Gallery Ragini,
New Delhi with a ‘wrong’ title; A4 Arple. Auto-correct made it ‘Apple’ again,
and again. I changed it back into ‘Arple’. My argument was simple; A4 size,
which was created for the manual typewriter, later got adopted into the
computer parlance, became a standard format not only for the paper but for the
writing itself. Such perpetuation of technological jargons is often accepted
without questioning. If there is a wrong spelling, our brains auto-correct it. Through
the project, I was expecting the viewers to make visual corrections, if there
were any, while looking at the works of art.
When Delhi
Collage of Art was started by Ashwani Kumar Prithviwasi, a young artist in his early
thirties at that time, people noticed two things; the spelling ‘mistake’ in the
name of his institution and his unusual surname. Later Ashwani revealed that
his choices were deliberate. He wanted to start an institution that helped young
talents to become professional artists. The name of the institution was to be
Delhi College of Art with the right spelling. But he knew he cannot use the
name of another institution which was also in the same city. Delhi College of
Art is a public sector art institution from where Ashwani himself had graduated.
The tribute that he had in mind for his alma mater was ridden with legalities.
So, he settled for ‘Collage’ and as the word suggested the institution catered
to a variety of people from different social layers, genders and ages. Today,
it is a successful institution that gives diplomas and advanced diplomas, officially
recognized by international art establishments.
Ashwani’s surname
too evokes curiosity. Prithviwasi means an earthling. Every being on this earth
has equal rights, Ashwani believes. He thinks that he shouldn’t be vain by his
religion, caste or social status. Transcending himself beyond all kinds of
limitations, a positive thinker and an intelligent entrepreneur, Ashwani started
preparing students for gaining admission in the fine art colleges. Soon he
could gain acceptance both as a humanist and art educator. Today, students join
Delhi Collage of Art not just to prepare themselves for art colleges but to
become fulltime art professionals armed with diplomas obtained from Delhi
Collage of Art. Ashwani says that in the first year he focuses on skill development
and in the following years he lets the students to pursue creating art in the
traditional mediums as well as using unconventional and cutting-edge mediums
and materials.
The success
story of Delhi Collage of Art is now indisputably etched in the minds of Delhi’s
art people. Every year Ashwani conducts an Art Carnival, a sort of annual
exhibition of the Delhi Collage of Art Students. In 2024, he has expanded the
scope of this annual carnival by sending open invitations to the established
artists in Delhi and elsewhere. The recently concluded DAC Art Carnival saw the
participation of DAC students, diploma holders, professional artists and
international invitees. The carnival presented a medley of visual practices
that expressed the ideas, ideologies, affinities, skillsets and directions of
the participants. An overemphasis on naturalistic skills seems to be ‘a thing’
that gives the carnival a predominantly amateurish look. In the naturalistic
visual din, the works of the professional artists seemed to have lost their aesthetics
and purpose. It calls for two things; one, inclusion of art history in the
syllabus of the Delhi Collage of Art. Two, a curatorial intervention in the
whole setting up of the show.
The salon
type display, a sort of visual cacophony, seen from a different perspective
looked attractive on the walls of the Lalit Kala Akademi Galleries. Conventionalists
among the art lovers may not have liked the jumble of visuals. But getting the
viewers overwhelmed by the ‘DAC Aesthetics’ could be one of the aims of the
organizers. If so, they have not failed in their attempt. The carnival
atmosphere that Ashwani and team had created supplemented the display of art. He
also opened the platforms for intellectuals, art critics, poets, designers,
educators and professionals from different fields to make formal presentations before
an enthusiastic audience. During my presentation on Delhi’s art criticism scene
from 1990s to now, upon my suggestion, Ashwani expressed his willingness to create
a database of India’s art historians, critics and curators, as an open source
for the benefit of the art professionals.
Delhi
Collage of Art, through its carnival platform has proven its capacity to grow
further and become an art fair of a different kind. What the government run agencies
have failed to do could be materialized by the efficient team work led by
Ashwani. One could only wish him all the best.
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