The meaning of art

Over many moons of watching the whimsical world of art from a distance and at comfortably not-too-close quarters, of meeting and speaking with artists, of wandering about museums and galleries, of writing about shows and gazing with great puzzlement at some works, there is one clear-headed and much-amused conclusion that I have come to. Art is a lot like fashion. Or history. Or even the seasons. What goes around invariably, inevitably, comes around again before long. And if there is something that arouses argument, debate or, best of all, protest with a degree of violence, it is considered to be not just successful art, but path-breaking, significant and, perhaps most importantly, saleable. Along the way, there have been many occasions where I have had to call some artist or the other and ask about the ‘latest trends’ in art, a question that is surpassed in banality only by that masterpiece of mundane mumbling: ‘Who do you think will be the artist to watch?’

Today, art and its makers have changed. There is indeed a trend, one that veers towards alternate professions and adventuring. A recent show in Mumbai that I saw had a number of women artists who were better known – or perhaps more visible – as illustrators, architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, photographers, or other fields that are indeed art-related, though not from the obvious, conventional perspective. This is in keeping with the trend to more experimentation in art. From the maverick MF Husain’s Shwetambari many years ago, where pieces of white cloth and shreds of newspaper scattered the floor of a large gallery space all covered in white, to the more recent model of a water tanker (Aquasaurus) made of bones crafted from resin by Jitish Kallat to an esoteric display of experimentation in fashion by Shilpa Chavan (aka Little Shilpa) at a current show, art has slid off the canvas and into spaces that are still being explored. At each stage, of course, there has been a degree of shock greeting the display – Husain’s work was reviled by many, but lauded by ‘those-who-should-know’, of the ilk of Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta, whom you would think would be a better judge than the average Joe. Kallat’s bones aroused curiosity and a certain morbid fascination that his eloquence did much to dissipate. And Little Shilpa’s hats have taken the fashionista audience by such a great storm that the arterati have got carried, perforce, along with it.

In all this artistic adventuring, even the averagely-talented creative expressionist has gone global. Many claim fame with local self-sponsored shows and citations from ‘foreign’ names decorating invitations, along with a resume that includes exhibitions in various parts of the world that they may have traveled to. Some of these exhibitionists – in the literal sense of the word - of course, are genuinely talented and gradually find inclusion in reputed collections and support from enviable fund-pundits. A few become international celebrities, trotting frenetically around the globe from show to show, working hectically to keep pace with demand and, somehow, pulling off the coup of always remaining creative, inspirational, lauded and coveted - again, Kallat is a case in point. And one or two think beyond their own careers as artists to become support systems for others and curators of the kinds of shows they themselves want to see, like Krishnamachari Bose, for instance. 

Along the way, the medium has become, in a strange way, the message. The use of video and audio clips is more popular now. Often, painting melds with photography and can become part of an installation that includes sculpture, with a few bytes of sound and moving pictures thrown in to complete the sentence. That sentence is meaningful at various levels – to the artist as an individual, to the viewer as an unconnected passer-by and to society at large as an audience that needs to be made aware of something, from child abuse to contemporary forms of suffrage to political rot. A work by Sonia Jose that impressed me recently had a white rag rug lettered in black reading ‘so much to say’ – the message could be anything, the directions of thought countless and the mood an entire spectrum from dark and deadly black to a clear, joyous white. It left the viewer to decide, even as it hinted of a deeper mental process for that same viewer to decode and debate. 

Perhaps the best part of art today is that it gives the person looking at it, feeling it, experiencing it, something to do. It is not interactive in that you need to get hands-on and fiddle with buttons and knobs and listen to beeps and whistles like with a video game, but it provides a sense of freedom of interpretation. There is something serious going on, but it’s all left up to you to decide what that something could be. And that, methinks, is really what art should be about!

The brown affair

At 85, Akbar Padamsee is still vigorously at work conjuring up the many moods of the sun and moon.
He may be 85 years old but the wicked glint in his eye and his obvious appreciation of female beauty has not faded. He may need a supporting hand and a cane to help him walk, but his mind is as agile as ever, his grasp even more so. 

In Past Forward, Akbar Padamsee's new show at Priyasri Art Gallery, there are 40 new oils. Some of them are large (Sun and Moon series), others smaller 'heads' that include Prophet, Christ and Couple, and a collation of faces, some in the colours of the earth, others muted in shades of grey. The Mirror Image diptych glows across one wall, while Metascapes of various configurations reflect its colours, bringing swatches of light into the gallery. And the smile on the artist's face as he sits in his chair sipping a cup of chai adds another shade of warmth. Conversation flows easily from a Wisconsin village store stocking cheese to the philosophy of the colour brown. When Padamsee talks, it is not about any particular work, but a way of working, which is, for him, a way of living. 

"Sometimes, I get up at two o' clock in the morning to go to the bathroom, and I look at my work and think that there is something missing, something that has to be done, " he says. On another trip out of bed, it could happen again. "So an artist", he explains, "is always working". There is always something going on, a new work to be conceived, given birth to, pondered over. And that work is the inspiration for the next, in a way. As Padamsee says, his radiant smile making it all perfectly logical, when he looks at a 'finished' piece, there is always a way that he believes it could be improved or maybe even painted differently. That is his 'inspiration'. "From that is born the next painting, " which could include the thoughts he had about the previous one, in a kind of evolution through stages of creation, each not too radically different from the one before. As gallerist Priyasri Patodia has said, "One cannot categorise Akbar Padamsee or confine him to a period or category;he occupies a very experimental space of his own. " 

But the stories are great fun and Padamsee a good raconteur. His eyes twinkle and his fluff of white hair seems to glow like an impish halo when he talks about his stint as an artist-in-residence at an art college (University of Wisconsin-Stout ) in a small Wisconsin town. "There was a small store in the village, " he remembers, "where there was cheese...and more cheese, but no art. " He chortles as he tells the story, remembering how he persuaded - conned? - the store owner into giving him mural space and his students into creating art there, pushing, coaxing, rejecting, praising...all finally resulting in a work that attracted viewers from everywhere and led to real commissions for both teacher and his pupils. 

Padamsee's body of work is large and varied. As one of the 'pioneers' of modern Indian painting, he is grouped with the other great Progressives like Souza, Husain and Raza. And like so many who did so much, he has also worked on print making, sculpture, photography - aha, there is that wicked glint again, when he suggests a photography session, talking about the nudes he has captured on camera. "They are like art forms, not naked women;you see the curve of the back... sometimes you cannot tell it is a woman!" he protests. He made films long before most artists did, Patodia says. 

His work sells excellently at auction. Reclining Nude, for instance, sold last year for an astounding $1. 4 million. Among his many awards is the French magazine Journal d'Arte prize that he shared with Jean Carzou, who was twice his age. It's a long way from his roots as the son of a businessman from Vaghnagar, a village in Kathiawar, Gujarat, who would draw in his father's account books. "My father had to buy new books, " he laughs. "And then he told me I could draw in them, in the margins!" But he is quick to add, "I did not choose to be an artist. I was chosen. It is who I am. Art is me, I am art. " 

His Metascapes are rooted in the concept of the two comptrollers of time, the sun and the moon, as described in Kalidasa's Abhigyanam Shakuntalam in the original Sanskrit. "The metascapes represent the sun, moon and the water needed for the seeds to grow. They also speak of the eight basic elements of life. " The verse made him want to paint it, to grasp it, to understand it, but since that was not possible, he depicted "all the elements in red to show their natural synergy". Acting as a kind of foundation to emphasise the reds and the blues is brown, the importance of which the artist serendipitously discovered a few years ago and now uses in all his works. "Brown is a tertiary colour, " he explains, "made up of red, yellow and blue. And I could use more red to bring out the redness and blue to bring out the blueness. "

Abu Jani - Sandeep Khosla interview

They are often referred to as The Boys. Known for the exquisite, elaborate and over-the top creations, each a piece of rococo art rather than a garment that could be worn with the same casual flair as a pair of jeans – at one end of the sartorial spectrum - or an heirloom sari, at the other.

It really does not matter who answers, Abu Jani or Sandeep Khosla, because the two minds think so alike and the two sensibilities are so finely co-tuned. One speaks, the other voicelessly echoes.

It has been 25 years since your partnership began. Has it been a smooth ride right through?

We were fortunate to receive instant accolades and sell out with our debut collection but of course it hasn't been smooth. Blood, Sweat and Tears are the ingredients when you choose to dream big. And our dream was no different. Financial constraints, setbacks like the Fire which destroyed everything, refusing to change or compromise or downsize, none of these things is easy. But the disappointments and struggle have been the most valuable teachers. And when things have seemed impossible, the belief of others in us has enabled us to always believe in ourselves. Along with the hard graft there has been much magic and many miracles.

From Jashan to Abu-Sandeep – what has changed, evolved, developed in your design sensibilities?

An artist is evolving in a continuum. You finish something and are compelled to create again. We have always been maximalists. Our couture has always been Classical rather than Trendy. What is merely Fashion will always be transient. We aim to transcend the limitations of now and create something which will always be current. You hone, you evolve, you set new standards and then break them but ultimately you retain your original sensibilities because they ARE your core.

How has the market for your kind of couture changed in the 25 years since you started working together?

Its become bigger. We are blessed that we have always found an appreciative audience. One that continues to grow. At the end of the day if you have the goods there will always be a buyer. We believe in allowing our work to speak. And it seems to reach the 'ears' or rather the wardrobes of a diverse audience.

Why did you choose chikankari and zardosi to concentrate on?

Because Chikankari had disintegrated into its crudest form as had Zardozi. And it irked us to see the down gradation of a such regal and impossibly beautiful techniques. It was painful to see what these crafts had ben reduced to. And so we made it our mission to bring them back to their rightful state. We have dedicated ourselves over the years to revival and reinvention. India has an unsurpassed legacy when it comes to textiles and craft. We incorporate that history and fashion it for the future. Apart from chikan and zardozi we have refined mirror work, resham, tharad and rabadi. Taking things to new heights is one of our passions.

Is there an abiding clientele and use for couture? Or is prêt slowly taking over, with easy-to-wear rather than ready-to wear being the bon mot?

Couture will always have a market in India. We are not only au fait with Luxury but accustomed to it, we are inclined towards made to measure, addicted to living large. Of course Fashion must extend to the masses and pret will be the way forward for that.

Has fashion in India come of age today? Is there original work being done, or are we still aping the West?

There is a lot of talent out there. But there is also too much derivative or borrowed design. The ones who last beyond flash in the pan success will be those who are Original.

You have a lot of big name celebrity clients, many from Bollywood. Are their demands/needs any different from anyone else’s?

Every client is important. A Celebrity Client is merely much more visible so any mistakes/accomplishments make news beyond cocktail party chatter. Every man and woman we dress deserves to look and feel their best.

You said two years or so ago that you would like to design a whole Bollywood film. Is that going to happen?

It will. When the right project comes along.

Your goal was cited as being ‘to build a worldwide brand with shops all over the world - to put India on the creative fashion map of the world’. Do you think you have done that with all your work and the clients you dress – internationally and at home in India?

That is the Dream for sure. One we have begun to live. We do want to put India on the global map. And whenever we have created it has been without compromising our sensibilities or ourselves. When Judi Dench or Sarah Brown or Princess Michael or any of our many international clients have worn us it has been US they have worn. We want global success but it must come without diluting or warping who we are. There is a long way to go. And it is something which requires big bucks or funding. We need corporate India to believe in Brand India. Only then can we or any other Indian Fashion House hope to make it on the global front.

You won a lot of female hearts (mine included!) when you said that “We are a culture and a body type that is made for curves. It's Ajanta Ellora [ancient caves containing paintings depicting voluptuous goddesses] not Twiggy that floats our boat and our fashion. The sari is made to be draped against rounded hips and the swell of a bosom. It sits better.” Do you still believe that?

Of course we do. One doesn't change one's beliefs according to what is fashionable. And nothing is more beautiful than a woman comfortable in her own skin. Sexiness isn't a shape or a dress size. But if it were we would like to think it was voluptuous with a capital V!

This fabulous book – why a book? Why not a film or a multimedia presentation? How did it happen? What did you not use when you put it together over the last two years? There must be so much more….!

Because a book is forever. It combines both language and visuals. This moment, our journey couldn't be encapsulated in a presentation. A movie is again didactic. It dictates what the audience sees. There is a certain beauty to a still image. It allows you to dream, to read between the lines. To create your own relationship with the content.

And yes there is plenty that didn't make it into the book. Like curation one chooses that which best represents one's vision. We do have a lot of beautiful excess  which will be incorporated in other media and also serve as a catalogue of our work.

You design for yourselves, you have said. What gives you the most pleasure – creating the garment or seeing the smile on the face of the person who wears it?

For any artist, to create is their life force. It isn't something one controls but rather that which takes you hostage. It is both pleasure and pain, beauty and torture. So of course it is the prime mover. To see that creativity bring Joy to the recipient is a source of immense pleasure and Joy to the artist, but it is not what they create for. Our work isn't merely a product to us. That would make it a business. And as you know, business has always been a by product of our work never its raison d'être.

Garments, interiors, a television show, international exhibitions, now a book. What next?

More. More. More. More Taking it Global in a much bigger way. Creating bigger and better. Expanding our field of vision to include other lifestyle verticals. There is no rest and no limits for the Inspired Mind.

What makes Abu-Sandeep truly happy?

To create without constraints. To live life on our own terms. To be there for those we love. To make a difference,

Abraham Thomas interview

Curator of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum’s design drawings collection and lead curator for architecture, Abraham Thomas is a key speaker at the India Design Forum, 2013, to be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, a two day event (March 16-17) that features experts talking about how design transforms the world and impacts lives. Thomas, who is in charge of a vast collection of drawings that ranges in scope from the 15^th century to the present and covers topics that include architecture, furniture, product design, fashion, textiles, metalwork and graphic design, also is responsible for the museum’s Architecture Gallery, organised in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects and their collection of drawings and archives now held at the V&A. He has curated exhibits such as On the Threshold: The Changing Face of Housing, World Expo 2010 Shanghai: Designs for the British Pavilion and Paper Movies: Graphic Design and Photography at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, 1934 to 1963. He is also lauded for his work on the V&A Tunnel Entrance commission by architect CJ Lim, Seasons Through The Looking Glass and the V&A's bicentenary retrospective on Victorian designer and architect Owen Jones. Thomas is working on a book on fashion illustration and photography, expected to be released next year. He joined the museum in September 2005 on the Assistant Curator Development Programme and has spent time in the Word & Image Department (the Prints, Drawings, Paintings and Photographs collection), the National Art Library and the Archive of Art and Design, as well as the Designs section of Word & Image, which covers objects that show the working process of design, from architectural drawings to fashion designs and textile patterns. A stint in the Asia Department had him cataloguing and researching nineteenth-century Indian photography.

Q: What does your role as Curator to the V&A’s design drawings collection and the Architecture Gallery involve?
A: The V&A design drawings collection ranges in period from the late 14^th century through to the present day, and across disciplines as wide-ranging as architecture, furniture, product design, fashion, textiles, metalwork, sculpture and ceramics/glass. The V&A's architectural drawings collection is an area of particular focus for us, and forms a joint collection with the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) renowned collection of architectural drawings. Organised together with the RIBA, the V&A's Architecture Gallery is the
UK's only permanent gallery dedicated to architecture.

Q: You are writing a book on the fashion drawings and photography – when do we
get to see it? And is there any Indian connection? Some of the work in the
Fashion Gallery have Indian embroideries and embellishment, don’t they?
A: The book will be published in Autumn 2014, and it will look at the role of the fashion image in the context of design process, editorial and commentary - from illustrations to design drawings, photography, look books and magazine spreads - mainly focussed on the 20th century to the present day. There isn't a particular Indian focus in the book, but you
may be interested to know that the V&A has a large collection of 19th/20th century design drawings for British Paisley textiles, which originally developed and gained popularity through the import of Indian textiles by the East India Company in the 18th century.

Q: Have you followed the evolution of design in India – fashion, architecture, even movies?
A: I'm not an expert myself, but this is an area the V&A is really interested in. My colleague Divia Patel is currently working on a future exhibition for the V&A on modern and contemporary Indian design, which looks fascinating. She also curated a V&A exhibition on Bollywood Posters in 2002, "Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood".

Sex talk

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
EL James

There are erotic novels and there are the more blatant versions, the straight-out porn books. And then there is smut. Walking a fine line between the two is the Fifty Shades Trilogy, of which the second and third parts – Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, the latter making little sense as a title, if ‘meaning’ is what is relevant – are expected to feature in bestseller lists, though they may not climb as high as this one, Fifty Shades of Grey. Nicely gender indiscernible in the writer’s name, the book has done phenomenally well already, hitting top of the mass market fiction charts and fourth in the official top 50 list across all genres in the UK. And it has managed to be first on the e-book downloads roster determined by the New York Times Bestseller list. So there must be something special about it, right?

Well, maybe not. The books tell the steamy story of the ‘romance’ – for lack of any other suitable word – between Christian Grey, a successful young entrepreneur with a taste for S&M (BDSM, really), and a literature student, still a virgin, Anastasia Steele. It all begins when the girl takes her friend’s place to interview Grey. And things develop fairly fast, escalating from a formal interview in an office to a rather less than formal exploration of possibilities in Grey’s bedroom, his bathtub and elsewhere, with the dominant-subservient relationship established early on. After a point the action, if one may call it that, gets repetitive and predictable, with the heroine breathing heavily and calling upon the Divine in various ways (“Holy crap”, “Holy s***” and “Holy F***” being some) to save her…from what? Herself? Her newly discovered sexual synapses? Or the man who shows her the way to carnal bliss? Or perhaps that devilish contract she wonders why she signed, even as she learns to enjoy all the minor clauses and fine print it covers.

Of course, this is not literature, far from it. The tone wavers from being modern and street-smart-ish to outright juvenile and inane, with instances like “Our fingers brush very briefly, and the current is there again, zapping through me” our heroine gasps. “I feel it all the way down to somewhere dark and unexplored, deep in my belly.” She “desperately” does the expected, “scrabble around for my equilibrium”. And even as Anastasia is doing her scrabble thing, Christian is saying “Please”, his tongue caressing her name just before he “strides with renewed purpose” out of the store, leaving her a “quivering mass of raging female hormones”. Through the book, things progress and that same tongue does a lot more than just caress her name, while those raging hormones…err…rage on through endless chapters of graphically and anatomically descriptive prose.

This one does not have any of the class of the erotica or Anais Nin, or even Henry Miller, and what is perhaps the most sensual writing ever in the Song of Songs from Genesis is like a top quality diamond next to a pebble from under a road repairman’s boots. The author admits to being inspired by the lead characters from the Twilight series, sexed up and served with a huge helping of fantasy. And even as Anastasia exclaims, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle” an uncountable number of times in the first few pages of the book, you, as reader, start wondering how she will manage to keep monkeying around for another two volumes in the series. And, honestly, why you would bother to read them to find out!