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The Abode of Eternal Radicals
Fine Arts Faculty, M.S.University, Baroda, on a Sunday morning looks as if it were heavily partying throughout Saturday night. Summer is already there but clad in the clothes of mourning; it mourns the premature death of winter. The students who are fallen in love and in ideological crisis are seen scattered here and there doing the same thing; arguing. They are all arguing. They argue like cats and dogs. Baroda has this fantastic charm. It settles marriages and leaves the couple to argue forever.
There is an official film club in the Faculty of Fine Arts, which has a working capital of Rs.7 lakhs. But the real film buffs in the faculty say that the Film Club is taken over by a group of people who are not interested in experiments. So the buffs go out and make films of their own. They call for entries from other artists and teachers. Quite a democratic practice. They call it ‘White Wash’. Abhiram and Jithu, two art history graduate students make quite a team. They make it possible with their friends like Sabih, the young art history student and guitarist and the Mauritian friend who brought back the spirit of Bob Marley back to the premises of faculty.
White Wash is done. Abhiram and Jithu say that it was a huge success. Friends and teachers agree with them. . The posters are all out there, a three day film appreciation course is planned. It is time for the Film club to retaliate. They don’t white wash it, instead they scroll it down. The pastiche copy of a Board of Film Certifications stands there erect right in the entrance of the faculty. It says White Wash is ‘approved’. The Faculty is thriving with energy. A few days back there were more lights and white paper boats there in the garba ground of the faculty. M.Sasidharan had done there a site specific installation as a part of the Sandarbh Workshop conceptualized by the painting final year student, Lochan Upadhyaya.
Out there, over the gate hangs a flex board saying, ‘Peers’. Peers is a show by the noted artist Jehangir Jani. He is in town. An artist works with the gay ideology, Jehangir Jani is right on time, as there is a three day long seminar that articulates the voices of the ‘minor’. Hosted by the department of art history and aesthetics ‘Minor’ seminar would be a major one as the list of participants looks quite convincing. Surprisingly, in Modi’s land Jehangir Jani’s representation of nude saints are not banned. Parzania, the film and beer bars are still looking out for an opening. Youngsters and oldies enjoy military quota liquor and contribute to the parallel economy.
The studios are live. There are no red letter days for the students. In the print making department, Sajeev struggles with his etching plates and his uncontrollably curly hairs. His hair is famous in the faculty. They call it ‘noodles’. You need chopsticks to understand his hair. Inside, Pratap Mode from Hyderabad works on his huge wood panels. Seven by three pieces. Six panels make eighteen feet long prints. He scoops out waffles of wood from the panels. Figures emerge. He applies color painstakingly. Then places huge sheets of paper on them and spoons each inch applying identical pressure. He needs to do this as there is no press available in the department that suits to his purpose. His efforts are acknowledged. Anupam Poddar, the famous collector of alternative art has collected his works.
The painting department has Anil Kumar, Mahesh Baliga, Lochan Updhyaya, B.V.Shweta and Krupa Makhija actively working. There are many more students but they are not seen anywhere today. Anil is already a star. Collectors have started investing on Baliga’s works. Lochan is a painter and conceptualist. People want his works. But he reserves them for some future use. Aparna Roy of the Art History department looks like tortured by her own demons. She has done a show of 23 Bengali artists for the Red Earth Gallery. She wants to do more. She wants to be a full fledged curator.
When evening comes Jehangir Jani’s ‘Peers’ are lit up. Then come friends and foes. Gaps are bridged, still everyone seems to say ‘Mind the Gap’. Artists Anjum Sasidharan, Vijay Bagodi, Nikhileswar Baruah, Om Prakash, Kishore, Sushma and many more have come to see the show. Art historians Jayaram and Monal Jayaram, gallerist Shalini Sawhney are there to show solidarity with the artist. It is not an opening in a metropolitan city. Hence, it is a homely affair; quite intimate and humane. No wine flows and no tongues wag. Chai and wafers. Smooth affair.
Out there in ABS Red Earth Gallery LaVA flows. Students and book lovers are there like bees on sugar candy. They relish it. At their two storied apartment Arunanshu Chowdhury and Heeral Trivedi keep working. There are shows, more and more shows for them. In Patodia Studios Alok Bal is all set for his solo in Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi in April 2007. His studio gives an over view of the city and he has got many images from this panoramic view. Ajay Sharma works on his canvases and papers in one of the studios.
Nikhileswar Baruah is calm and cool when he takes out the paintings from the neatly arranged stacks. They are faces; faces submerged in blue colour. There are multiple images of the same person walking towards different directions. There is a broken plate neatly arranged on a piece of red clothe. It is going to be an installation. Nikhileshwar has seen the bad days and now he enjoys the attention that he is commanding from all over. His cheery personality calms the visitors who are tired after a long day’s work. Young artists Satyanand Mohan and Lavanya Mani make a good couple. They engage themselves in intellectual pursuit without repudiating the space that the popular culture has claimed within their lives. Piyali Ghosh and Rupal Dawe are the two artists who are readying themselves for their forthcoming solos in India and abroad.
It is marriage time in Baroda. K.P.Reji is getting married to an art history researcher, Chitra. The ceremony would be done in Kerala and Bangalore. Happy married life Reji!
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