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Paintings for the Time to Come

Shubhalakshmi Shukla speaks to Babu Eshwar Prasad at the Bodhi Art Gallery, Mumbai, where the artist is having his solo show titled ‘Time Past Time Present Time to Come’. Shubhalakshmi tries to gather the ideas behind his paintings and makes a chink at the Zen master like reluctance of the artist.

Babu Eshwar Prasad’s paintings suggest spaces which are experiential and yet unreal. The Hyperreal imagery rooted in the philosophy of Jean Baudrillard, “the simulation of something which never really existed”, perhaps could best explain this sensibility.
I started with an intention to discuss four questions (may be on four of his paintings), a precision that emerged from his works, thinking that he would like the idea of exchanging minimum words! An irony was felt as the conversation continued to sound a bit absurd. My attempt was to unfold the meaning/s, while Babu began with referencing Zen stories where the end of the story would result into an experience of nothingness; even though the story was a content in itself. Hence, the questions had to become longer observations to get the minimum words expressed by him. An edited version of how he conceives his visual-imagery could be read as follows.

Shubhalakshmi Shukla: As the title of the exhibition goes- ‘Time Past Time Present Time to Come’ most of the paintings here engages the viewer with subliminal experience of Time, immersed in the silence of gentle breeze and a soft light. This gets manifested through seemingly stylish, urbane interiors, which transcend the real spaces. The title-specific painting shows the clinically clean corners of the room, walls constructed with (‘contemporary’) colors and yet the door hinges take you much back in time?

Babu Eshwar Prasad: The painting ‘Time Past Time Present Time to Come has’ is created from observing Sabarmati Ashram, freed in a sense from the identifiable clichéd objects like Charkha and indication to Gandhi’s absent-presence. I did not want to see it as a past which is buried in historical time but something that exists now. And yet the image should bring into play.. a memory.. which I felt was possible through the unusual characters of the seats, its arrangements along with the door hinges ... which I painted as it exists now..

SS: The spaces within the paintings many a times resemble a Gallery space, of the present-day significance, immersed in an absolute meditative silence, without a hint of the chaos and disorder that may exist just outside. These spaces bring together at times, diverse objects and images (like the historical quotations in your paintings, from Brughel and Luis Bunuel) from different time-periods creating an insulated and yet a critical surrounding around what seems to be real. Do you consciously create such absurdity where the sound of destruction could not be heard, but felt? Do you aspire to live in a space like this?

BEP: I derive my imagery from all kinds of visual sources, like books, films, photographs and even visits to historical sites….when I visit a historical monument and I am alone I try to experience the connection between the Time that once made the space alive and the Present.. within myself..! No, that painting (‘The Room is Empty and the Window is Open’) is not my room… I have a very small studio wherein creating paintings of this scale was a bit difficult task…. but the new space is going to be much spacious.. and yes,.. as you said I am thinking about shaping it up on similar lines.   

SS: Against the chaotic sounds and disorder as immediate exterior you make possible a journey inward with visually constructed forms. These junk gardens, planes and gliders, just outside your interiors suggest their visual presence and yet do not allow its sound to distract the visitor who has entered your space. Is it possible for you to identify any of the objects which have become junk?

BEP: In this room there seems to be no sound but if you listen carefully you can hear the breeze from this AC, there is no place without sound...even on the peak of a mountain there is sound! Once I visited a junk- garden much bigger than this room and its massive ness was captivating … I decided to place this experience along with a laughing Buddha and the burning monk, opposite each other. As you know these are really ‘old’ imageries .. you can see in this work ( ‘Laughing Buddha, Burning Monk and Junk Garden’)..you can see the burning monk is placed opposite to laughing Buddha on the two TV monitors..  

SS: Your spaces seem to be devoid of human presence, and yet suggest the same through sculpture of Buddha ( ‘What I see, What I Hear’). You seem to make this serenity experiential to the visitors who stand between two similarly silent spaces and as if can see one’s reflection in Buddha. An empty chair awaits this participation, when the place will get activated on its own, and a video projection detailing the sculpture of Buddha’s half-closed eyes may start by itself (‘Spatial Sound’).

BEP: Yes, it can be interpreted so.. I try to paint a space within space...in a film the movement is created by running 24 still-frames within a second, before the eye….I try to concentrate upon a single frame at a time.. 

SS: The egg and the ant hill, perhaps suggest a metaphysical connection about the transmutation process happening inside these.... really large scale objects in the gallery- space(‘Egg and the Anthill’) would you like to make these objects and display in the imagined way some time? What could be there within this tied up white cloth (‘The Wrapping’)…?

BEP: I had made a large anthill in fiber glass... like the one here in the painting, but it is not exhibited.... I decided to discard it ..I have made other objects too in this show like you mentioned.. but its surrounding differ in scale from the way imagined in the painting, so the effect gets altered….you may say the white tied up cloth carries some of my works!
          
SS: I remember your earlier landscapes which evoked a sublime quality, your colors have changed, but in a way play a similar role here. Can you say something about journey from landscapes to these interiors, along with a glimpse of chaos which was not there earlier?

BEP: During my MFA in printmaking in Baroda, my visual imagery pertained to human figures… these were landscapes. Gradually I tried eliminating the figure, and tried to focus the black and white aspect of the print…seeing light as a substance to create mood ….slowly light started taking the shape of color .. now at times there is light…but may not cast shadows! The series of interiors started two years back while I was working on a small drawing which was an interior of a room….my working method is very slow…I take a lot of time to build up an imagery.