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Handling Paradoxes
Chinmoy Pramanick |
Chinmoy Pramanick would like to call himself a conceptual artist who takes interest in sculptural renditions. He has been working on site specific as well as studio based works for the last five years. In 2006 he received Kashi Award. And Chinmoy is the winner of 2007 Art India Magazine-IHC Award for Promising Artists. In an interview with JohnyML, Chinmoy talks about his life and art so far. Excerpts.
JohnyML: Tell me about your decision to become an artist?
Chinmoy Pramanick: Well…the choice hasn’t been easy to become an artist. I had various interests and in fact I had applied to so many places between 1993 and 1997. I have a good height so always dreamt of getting into Defense. It was my first choice then but couldn’t make it and now I am happy when I look back that I didn’t make it for the better of myself! Because I think, art provides the maximum freedom and a person like me probably would have been thrown out very soon. I like to be my own boss. I don’t like being tied up. I am quite open and frank. I like to flow and fly.
It was only during a visit to the annual art exhibition at the Govt. Art College-Kolkatta, which gave birth to my last choice of my dreams- to be an artist. I thank my parents for giving me enough freedom to move away from home and fly. So there I was at Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda in 1998.
JML: In our post modern time’s artist’s travel between mediums and issues. But you have chosen to sculpt. Is there any reason, academic or otherwise to it?
CP: firstly, I love to live without an issue, so there is no question of looking for them...and that’s why I like to travel between subjects . Choosing a particular medium means losing the other and that is why there are so many mediums in my work. I use them as my work demands. So I really don’t bind myself. To me, any medium is only a supportive element for expressing because it’s all a game of visuals. It’s the concept, the idea that matters. And I think for an artist, the concept may be primary or secondary but for the viewer the first visual is the material itself, the work, the space they are in.
Yes, we had a pure sculptural background in our college and the sculptural quality that is visible is due to this. Handling the material was conventional there and all the exploration was limited/confined to these materials only. There weren’t many who were experimenting in those days.
Whatever, I was highly interested by the site specific earth work I did during the last year of my academics called “inherent disease”. I made an ear that was about 25feet in length. My sculptural background aided much to this. it was my first experiment other than conventional studio practice on a large scale, which I continued during my residency at Sandarbh, Partapur, I made a huge earth work called “I came and kept my word/looking for another one”. I enjoyed doing that too. I still have many such projects in by bag where I’ll be exploring other mediums.
But, to be honest I like the sculptural quality, the scale, the size, the medium and the process fascinates me. It gives me a feeling of an impact, kind of existence and the presence of my idea and concept.
JML: You move between conventional sculpting process and technologically aided fabrications. How much influence mediums exert on you in deciding the working process?
CP: As I’ve already said the material chosen is a quite conscious act, after much contemplation and as my work demands. The best thing about sculptures is it allows one to play with many materials and there are so many choices available. In the present situation no one can deny technology. It is so much a part of all of us. I believe in presenting my work finesse.
But the medium actually doesn’t have any sort of influence in deciding my work process. I’m more of a conceptual artist. I choose the material that best suits my idea/concept/s...though every material has its limitations.
JML: Having said that, what is your working process? How do you arrive at your themes and their required articulations?
CP: I have a keen interest in titles (titles of works and how it is done-how one arrives at it). I remember my dissertation “Art and title – the logic behind” (during the M.V.A-II-last year of my academic life) had interviews of many artists and how they title their works.
The titles came first in maximum no. of my works. It sounds strange but it’s true, the titles came first. I then play with the text/subject/theme. Then I sketch, using computer at times to create a virtual image of my sculpture.
It’s with this play that I arrive to what I really want to figure and say and their relation to my immediate environment and others too.
JML: You seem to be obsessed with the imperial war games and it comes as a major motif in your work. Is it so?
CP: No, I don’t think so. I believe a man lays his own trap. One self (individual) is responsible. Living life is a game in itself. There are players all around you-your friends, your relatives...all…and feelings too-affection, hatred, love, ignorance…likewise.
I realize now that since Defense was my first choice, it has played a major role sub-consciously. What you see as objects of war/violence don’t actually stand for imperial war games. the object is scary, for example. the bomb or the gun,….the bomb isn’t a bomb, neither is the bullet nor the gun…….a closer look and you’ll find it’s a composite of daily utility objects that we are so familiar with-so harmless until you see them as I do. It’s only then the object as a composite speaks for the love, hate, ignorance, desires...as deadly, scary in its magnitude and as destructive weapons.
Here, if you see I speak of life as a beautiful gift. There are so many ways to live and die.
My early works had a direct comment to my immediate socio-political environment. Like in “NEW CRACKERS” which were the same daily utility objects which posed a huge threat, capable of destroying and killing many lives. It was a live reference from the Gujarat riots and the Bombay blasts.
In my recent solo show these objects of daily use pose a threat again. But it’s altogether different. The objects are a kind of obsession, an obsessed desire that eats one up, a kind of a disease, quite comprehensive in my figure that looked so healthy and yet decaying.
JML: Your sculptures with human figures have strong art historical reference like the man evokes the feeling of Rodin's Balzac. Do you do it consciously?
CP: I believe The Balzac is the most expressive human figure sculpted in the history of art. I thank you for your comparison/comment but I wouldn’t be able to accept it now, not now at least. I just wanted to make an oversize, stout (healthy) middle aged figure that would portray proud ness. This is my first human sculpture. It wasn’t consciously done keeping Balzac in mind. I modeled it the way to suit my theme.
JML: Also I can find a lot of immediate visual references in your works like the shutter, the capsule etc. How do you conjure up the images and motifs?
CP: Yes it is. I like to play with the immediate references. I like to play them fresh as I belong to this time only. And that is why you will find my subjects change over a period. We all have to move ahead, but the prime concern remains i.e. me and my surroundings, the existence, the life. Life is full of surprises-it’s so satirical at times.
JML: Your works are interpreted to be the critique of commercial culture. What is wrong with commercial culture?
CP: Firstly, I didn’t and don’t want to criticize. If you see my recent works, they portray human’s objective desire. There is nothing wrong with commercial culture. Even I live in this culture and I am happy to be here.
The works can be seen in two different ways-speaking in favor of the commercial culture and the second as a critical observant .I chose to be the later as I perceive the present culture as a remix kind of culture where objectives becomes noun. Here the “germs” were desires and not the objects. My prime concern was to present human’s desire as unending, self destructive at times, the pleasure and the agony accompanied. I have tried to incorporate these products.
I don’t blame the commercial products but its “you” –who uses them. It’s your need and then your greed to have these sophisticated objects. Its how one cannot resist and cease to somehow overcome desires.
JML: Is it necessary that an artist should be only critical of things? Can't he be celebrating commercialization?
CP: Of course one should. I don’t see anything wrong in it. I celebrate.
JML: Do you think that the critical practice of the artist and the real life of the artist are different?
CP: At times yes. We all have many roles and faces. I am not speaking about multiple personality. So, you got to live. There is no other choice. There is so much around. It is just one’s ability to adapt to things. But yes, I do see a connection here between the two. It’s always a choice to present either ‘for’ or ‘against’ it, consciously or subconsciously.
JML: What do you think about awards? Do they boost the artist in some way?
CP: Yes, it does. But receiving or bestowed with an award isn’t the real/final judging. An awardee means “you’ were the best at a given time, by the jury but it doesn’t mean I am the best. There may be so many good artists who don’t be there. But an award always supports in promoting an artist and provides an opportunity to present to the people his/hers work on a good platform (at a quick pace). In the end it’s all about how one continues and keeps contributing. There are so many forgotten awardees who just disappear and still there are so many excellent artists working who haven’t won the accolades.
JML: If commercial culture is a problem for you, how do you perceive art market and the market success of individual artists?
CP: See, everything is a product. The moment an art work leaves the studio and is in the other hands-it becomes a product. I feel it that way. Commercial culture is not a problem. My work is probably seen as a presentation of this so called culture as very superficial, but its not. But then life is fast now and that’s how people have adapted to it-a fast life-a so called pick-up, ready made objects, food, products to save time.
The scale is important sometimes and at time s it’s the material(as in my case).the presentation matters a lot, so of course a good amount fetched will always boost an artist to work more freely. He/she won’t have to be so concerned over a restricted expense and may experiment too. I couldn’t have worked on a larger scale or even present many of my recent works, if I hadn’t got the price.
It is also such a much awaited welcome move that people have developed interest in art and artists. One finds many young artists emerging these days. We owe to this market. A larger market sustains greater diversity of Art. An artist can more and more easily sustain himself pitching to a niche rather than being slave to the patron / mass market. I would like to mention what the British "punk violinist" Nigel Kennedy has written: "I think if you're playing music or doing art you can in some way measure the amount of communication you are achieving by how much money it is bringing in for you and for those around you".
JML: How do you handle contradictions and paradoxes in your visual language?
CP: It’s an art… Many things can’t be said flat (straight and sharp) from a larger platform. Truth, they say tastes bitter and also the same for lies. So you tell me what is sweet!!
There are so many situations when one can’t be true self. Even if wish to tell you something I’ll have to do the “do to a person as if you were in his place” act. I like to narrate. That is why my works are narrative. In my earlier works one sees a lot of this, along with amalgamation of images .In my recent works “the capsule” is not a capsule. Those are objects….and yet those are not objects, but one’s desires and in the end its not even desires…It’s a pill you are taking to kill yourself.
JML: Tell me more about your future projects.
CP: It’s difficult for me to answer this question now. I have projects to do in near future though. I work with the live environment and my subject may change with time. But yes all I know is that I want to produce good works.
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