“I have never been an ‘art teacher’”:
Chhatrapati Dutta
Chhatrapati Dutta, one of the prominent young artists based in Kolkata speaks to Oindrilla Maity about his works and says how he derived his artistic outlook from extensive journeys that he has undertaken as a student.
Chhatrapati Dutta |
Chhatrapati Dutta (b. 1966) after passing out from the St. Joseph’s College, Bangalore, joined the Government College of Art and Crafts,Kolkata , from where he had graduated and went to Greece do to a post-graduation in Visual Arts with a scholarship from the Greek government. Later he joined Kalabhavan at Shantiniketan and took his Masters Degree there. He has traveled abroad extensively and attended several residencies and countless workshops. Chhatrapati works in a wide range of media including video, performances and installations. His particular fascination for the colonial elements is well-known, so is his interest in ‘space’. He joined the Rabindra Bharati University, Kolkata as a lecturer in the Department of Paintaing but gave up his career as an art teacher only recently. At present he lives and works in Kolkata. His solo show Iconoclash in the year 2005 was curated by Amit Mukherjee in Kolkata. He had attended the KHOJ Kolkata bonding workshop in 2006 where he had produced two site-specific installations and is a member of the same organization. This interview is taken before his upcoming solo show at the Kolkata based gallery Aakar Prakaar , about to take place around September, 2007.)
It was still drizzling in the dark and gloomy afternoon, when I stood in front of the artist’s studio and rang the bell. Clad in a pair of old jeans that was speckled with dots of colors of the weirdest kind, Chhatrada (as he is popularly known) opened the door , managing between his interviewer and a caller over the cellular phone. Inside it felt like bedlam broke out as half a dozen carpenters were busy doing his newly bought studio. Sipping coffee, he lighted up a cigarette and plunged in his chair to patiently answer my questions.
Oindrilla Maity: You have always carried an aura, a myth about yourself. A degree of fanfare has always been around you…
Chhatrapati Dutta: (a mysterious, promiscuous smile covers his face) I don’t carry one …that’s propagated in a way…well it matters. I have always been interested and associated with a lot of things – theatre, films - the television, too, makes a public figure out of you. I have always loved acting. Even at the university I have tried to associate the students in these. There were performances…
OM: You have always been very unconventional as a teacher…
CD: I have never been an ‘art teacher’. You cannot be a teacher. I have never tried to teach them and never have believed in it. I told them that experientially I knew a little more than them and tried to share that experience. That way we could develop a dialogue.
OM: Pedagogical teaching, therefore, is something you have never believed in?
CD: Pedagogy can be looked at differently…there are ways of initiating things…you see. With the changing times the basics of seeing differ.
OM: You have spent almost all of your childhood at Bangalore. How was life there?
CD: Students at the St. Joseph’s College were allowed to choose between the National School of Drama and the art college. I opted for the latter. My father was an artist. But he diversified later and associated himself to a greater degree with the science museums. He did a lot of things. My lessons in carpentry, cobblery and a lot of other things were attained from him. Baba was very good at making clay idols and we bought sheets and hand-printed them. I learnt sculpture, using fibre-glass, emulsion; I used to make models at the science exhibits when in school. That’s how life had been until I was sixteen and joined the art college.
OM: Even before you had got admission at Shantiniketan for doing Masters Degree, you went to Greece with a scholarship. Being one from the Orient world were you not looked down upon?
CD: Greece, even in the late 80’s was very different from what we understand about Europe or the West. It was as the world understood it – almost fossilized…people forgot its ancient heritage. Of course Europe is not America. However, the countries around the Mediterranean look at life very differently. By the time I was there the locus of art had shifted to the latter, Europe was probably not that phenomenal to the rest of the world. The Athens University had five different institutes under it which sprawled all over the country. They differed largely in the process of teaching as well as in the curricular. What you did before actually joining the academy was more important. Despite it being a rigorous process, you had had the freedom to choose your stream. And by the time you had done so, you were already conditioned.
OM: Had it not affected you later when you joined Shantiniketan for your Masters degree?
CD: From Greece I went to Germany. Therefore I was exposed to a lot of things when I had joined Kalabhavan. I could understand a lot of things … I could see beyond things. We had great teachers like K.G. (Subramanyan) and Jogenda (Chowdhury)… but you see – learning and unlearning take their course. You need to have your personal journey. You need to push yourself.
OM: With so much of exposure were you not quite disappointed when you joined the Faculty of Visual Arts in the Rabindra Bharati University? I mean it was the youngest art institution in Calcutta then…
CD: At that time Rabindra Bharati was not even looked at as an art institution. It had been plagued by the idea that the dominant political party had got the better of it. There were hardly the distinctive departments. But Dharmada (Dharma Narayan Dashgupta) was activating the academic atmosphere. There was no one I was answerable to and I had taken to it quite heartily.
OM: You are an artist-citizen settled in the city and tend to manifest likewise…
CD: My works certainly have an urban context in them. The materials I use are urban indeed. But of course it’s a question of how you want to relate them. For instance in Jogenda’s works the body becomes crucial. His figures are the carriers of issues and messages… but it differs largely from how I relate to them.
OM: The body is another crucial thing to the artist-citizen…
CD: (promptly) that’s only when you are addressing the body. I haven’t really dealt with the body. I find it’s more interesting to find connects with an object, a piece, a tool …even a safety-pin… I was metaphorically dealing with those contexts – the distance and closeness… I used origami
OM: I can recall how you have appropriated them in Iconoclash…
CD: I was metaphorically dealing with those contexts – the distance and closeness… I used origami, the twin towers were used as chocolate bars and the remote control …the toy element in them. I wanted to address a lot of connectivity. Iconoclash was a question of a great human crisis.
OM: What are your anxieties and apprehensions as an urban artist?
CD: For an urban artist the greatest anxiety is probably this – that without choice he becomes part of the crowd where in actuality he is alone. You’re playing that solitary game in a crowd. Your inside and outside are two different spaces. They’re challenging. The public space always infringes the private space.
OM: Space and encroachment upon space has always been your prime interest.
CD: Space is crucial to every artist…great art has directly to do with space. But things became very isolated with the growth of individual wealth. The advent of capitalism has been the greatest threat to space. The same role has been played by imperialism.
OM: Talking about imperialism…the colonial times, 19th century Kolkata have recurred in your works often.
CD: These are elements that I choose because I believe they speak for themselves. They are a product of imperialism. The city (Kolkata) would perhaps never have come to exist had there been no imperialism.
.
OM: A few words about your upcoming exhibition?
CD: (chuckles) I haven’t yet found a title for it. It’s about urban existence. There’s going to be about five or six assemblages contextually different from each other but indicate how an individual in an urban space subscribes and even accepts it.
******************************************************** |
