What do they do when they do not do art?

Fortune and fame have not benumbed the soul and spirit of our artists. India not being a welfare state, the successful Indian artists believe that they need to contribute towards the welfare of the society. What do they do for achieving higher goals in life? JohnyML catches up with ten artists to find answers.

Recently in an Easter party thrown by an artist friend at his residence in New Delhi a few important guests/artists turned up very late. All of them were sporting saffron tilaks on their foreheads. What happened to them? I wondered. Had they become right wing followers overnight? Had the material success made them ardent temple goers? I looked deep into their trousers. I could not spot any trace of khaki knickers. Good heavens, they have not gone that far. But they were coming from a far away place, Vrindavan in Mathura, 300 odd kilometers away from the city of Delhi. A weekend excursion? Soon I got answers for all my queries. They were in Mathura for a noble cause. They have together set up a dispensary for the old widows of Vrindavan and the visit was to check out the progress of its functioning.

Fame and fortune have not benumbed the soul and spirit of our artists, it proves. “I have been visiting Vrindavan for several years and the plight of the widows who are left at the mercy of temple authorities and the charity of worshippers started pricking my soul since the very first visit,” says the noted artist Kishore Shinde who convinced a few of his fellow artists to initiate a dispensary in Vrindavan exclusively for the service of the widows. However, Shinde does not want to speak more about it for he believes that what the right hand does should not be known to the left hand.

Prodded by my enthusiasm, G.R.Iranna spoke on behalf of the artists’ collective behind the Vrindavan project. “When (Kishore) Shinde told us about starting a dispensary in Vrindavan, we readily agreed to collaborate. We made several visits to the place, got a place to start with, appointed doctors and nurses and made the required infrastructure.” Now more than hundred widows are treated everyday there. Free medicine is supplied and the artists are trying to develop in-patient facility also. “We need a lot of money to carry on with this project. Soon we will be doing an exhibition in order to collect a corpus fund for this initiative,” says Iranna. Titled ‘Artists Sewa Trust’, it has got Shinde, Iranna, Manjunath Kamath and Manish Pushkale as the active members.

Call it social responsibility or collective guilt, such initiatives from the young artists should be welcomed with open heart. Those who made their artistic dreams a reality in the urban centers feel that they owe a lot to their native lands and it is a time to pay back. “There are so many artists who are not able to come out of their rural circumstances,” says Jagannath Panda who hails from rural Orissa. “I feel that it is my responsibility to function as a connecting link between them and the urban artists.” To establish this link, Panda has decided to set up a ‘centre’ in Bhuvaneswar. “Nothing is concrete so far. I am discussing it with my friends and supporters. But I am sure that it is going to be a ‘sharing space’ for those artists who have decided to stay back in Orissa,” hopes Panda.

After embarking on a sculptural journey Manjunath Kamath has realized how difficult it is for sculptors (especially those who work with clay) to find adequate infrastructure and facilities. “In cities you can avail any kind of facilities but in rural Mangalore, from where I come, it is very difficult. So I have found a place in Mannugodu (land of clay) and established a studio-cum-residence there. It is located near a tiles factory so that indigenous technology for baking clay could be borrowed from them.” Manjunath offers this studio-cum-residency to the young and aspiring sculptors from local art colleges as well as to his friends spread all over the country.” Artists like Shibu Natesan and Sumedh Rajendran also have planned to set up studios in their native places, Attingal and Vilappilsala respectively so that the traveling artists can down their backpacks and work.

Meanwhile the noted artist Chintan Upadhyaya thinks in a very different way. “Art has become too much city oriented and money has become filthy so the art should be going wherever the artist goes,” says Chintan. In his characteristic flamboyant style he says that he can make art anywhere and everywhere. Besides, he believes that art should be happening where people witness it without historical baggage. Sandarbh, the successful site specific art project at Parthapur in Rajasthan originated from this philosophy. “When I initiated Sandarbh couple of years back, no artist was ready to participate. So I asked my family members to do something. They all did one or the other thing and for the villagers it was a new experience,” recounts Chintan.

Sandarbh now has become a part of the Indian contemporary art history. Many young artists participate in Sandarbh workshops mainly held in Rajasthan Villages. “I do not intend to initiate the village folk to post-modern art, instead I want them to realize their potential within the rubric of post-modern art practice,” says Chintan. Now Sandarbh has crossed the seas along with him. Chintan has initiated Sandarbh in Denmark, London and Romania. “Sandarbh is a concept of location,” asserts Chintan and adds that whoever does something in public spaces becomes a part of Sandarbh. The artist does not want to limit himself in studios and galleries. “Art should be traveling along with me. I can make art in a restaurant by arranging spoons and plates, and if someone wants I can sign it too,” says Chintan.

Underlining the participatory aspect of his projects Chintan recounts how one of the art works produced in Parthapur Sandarbh undertook a journey. “A dinosaur was made out of left out plastic bags and was kept on a platform. One day it disappeared from there. Later I found it near a pan shop. The panwallah was keeping it like a ‘pet’. It remained there for a few months. Then I found it near the highway. I could see how people participated with a piece of work in a very different way.” Also he remembers how the local guys who did not like the Sandarbh project made a parallel site specific art project and became overnight heroes in local Television networks.

Mysore based N.S.Harsha has chosen an unbeaten path to contribute towards the social causes. Harsha initiates community projects where local youths and students can participate and make huge murals or whatever kind of art they want. “I am happy to work with a single gallery and money has ceased to be a problem for me. But I feel that studio-gallery based practice is not the only thing an artist can and should do. An artist needs to work towards the fulfillment of certain ideas,” says Harsha. He works with children from the rural schools. He goes to the village interiors and convinces the school authorities and initiates projects for the kids. “So far these projects are going well and I would like to work with children outside Karnataka state also.”

Bangalore based Murali Cheeroth is on his way to create an art ‘resource centre’ for the public use. “Our art scene is going through a euphoric phase. However, we do not have enough resource materials to do research on the contemporary art production in India and elsewhere,” says Cheeroth. Practical problems do not bog him down. “I feel that the artist-friends and well wishers would contribute and collaborate in this attempt. If I could collect books and catalogues and open them up for the public use, I am sure other friends also would come forward,” asserts Cheeroth. He feels that this dream would be fulfilled by the end of 2007.

Mumbai based Bose Krishnamachari has magnificent plans for setting up a museum of contemporary art in his native Kerala. “I have prepared a blueprint for the museum and once I am free from my immediate commitments I would be working on it,” says Krishnamachari. The latest show by him, ‘LaVa’ (Laboratory of Visual Arts) is purely knowledge based and he creates a fantastic library within the gallery space. “These books are going to be a part of my museum. They would at a time function as a work of art and resource materials.”

Indian contemporary artists who have become more popular and valuable than Bollywood stars, however, do not emulate the stereotype rich from the Bollywood sagas. They do not light their cigars with currency notes. Instead, they burn them out for achieving greater social targets. They all seem to believe that being humane is a higher achievement than what all they have earned from the ‘sales proceedings’.