Lost Location in Celebration
‘Kanchan the story so far’ is another addition to the new trend of publishing books, which catalogue the biographical journey of an artist. This book comprises of the visual documentation of the major phases in the artistic development of Kanchan Chander along with the articles by Roobina Karode (who conceptualized the project), Michael Ludgrove, Mary-Ann Milford Lutzker and Geeti Sen. It also contains the reviews of her works and views of her friends.
‘Kanchan the story so far’ is a well researched book. Roobina Karode’s article ‘Strategies of Self Resurrection’ is a well phrased and fluidly written essay, in which the author rightly finds out the fighting spirit of Kanchan that helped her in moulding her artistic language at different stages of life. Karode establishes the role of memories and personal narratives of the artist that she has employed in the process of creation. She points out the two major aspects of Kanchan’s works; one ‘autobiographical element’ and two, ‘Monumentality’, thereby establishing the art of Kanchan as a counterpart of her life. Karode writes, ‘for Kanchan, much of her art is extrapolated from her lived experiences’. The author has narrated Kanchan’s choice of concepts, images and visual language in relation to the trials and triumphs in three decades of her life, where she grew up from a girl to wife, mother as well as from a fine arts student to a professional artist.
In ‘Echoes of the Scream’ Michael Ludgrove establishes the angst and the explosive energy in the works of Kanchan Chander. He pitches his argument on an early print titled ‘Expression II’ by the artist. This print is her take on Edward Munch’s famous painting ‘Scream’. Michael observes that how Kanchan transforms the male, detached angst of Munch into a feminine, passionate angst of a woman, from which there is no escape. He revolves around this idea of angst in order to vivify the creative qualities of the artist.
‘Immersed in Surface Tensions’, an article written by Mary-Ann Milford Lutzker traces the ‘sense of discovery’ and an ‘awareness of ‘growing complexity’ as a part of Kanchan’s maturing sensibilities. Kanchan is able to transcend her very personal experiences into the shared experiences of many women. These expressions are layered with her artistic experiences, with the tribal art forms like ‘Bhuta’ images and their stark monumentality. As Lutzker writes, ‘It is through her understanding of the complexities of women’s lives that Kanchan is able to bring a sense of strength and beauty to her works…..’
Unlike these three authors, Geeti Sen in her article titled ‘Reclaiming the body of desire’ concentrates only on the works of Kanchan done during the last decade. In these works Kanchan celebrates women’s body in their strength of beauty, desire and monumentality. Geeti Sen points out that the desire creates an urge for life and its celebration is expressed through ‘Torso’ series. Geeti Sen documents the journey of Kanchan’s torsos from ‘fetishized abstract icon’ to ‘human endowed with attributes and desire’.
As aforementioned, these scholarly articles give a detailed insight into the artistic process of Kanchan Chander during the last three decades. However, they fail to contextualize her works in contemporary Indian art history. As we all know that Kanchan developed her professional career at that time when women artists came out of their closets and showed their willingness to express what they wanted despite severe criticisms. Kanchan reached her artistic maturity along with the maturation of Indian feminist aesthetics. Curiously, these articles, even while celebrating the physical and intellectual freedom of the artist, fail to locate her within the history of our feminist discourse.
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