FEATURE

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Staging the Sets

Shubhalakshmi Shukla takes a look at the works of Mumbai based artist Bharti Kapadia and says that in her works she is conscious of her identity as often she weaves in mythical stories in personalized form in her chosen idiom, but at the same time she wants her forms to remain ambiguous and open to interpretations.

The suite of works exhibited under the title ‘Staging the sets’ express artist Bharti Kapadia’s desire to instill a space which has qualities of a stretched ceiling ( like shamiyana) , as well as a backdrop, which is ethereal as well as dense,  an interior as well as a landscape. In the present show most of her works are hung a few inches away from the walls, which create a significant amount of depth    (and movement) through layering shadows. This not only makes her works light weight like a thin film (or a projection on wall) but also give a dimension of growth, where the shadows enhance the uneven peripheries. According to Bharti Kapadia, each work pronounces a space as well as characters within itself, thus on the stage they are an epiphany of performances that alternates vacuum.

In her words- these works deal with the issues related to inner evolution, memory and identity. She works with techniques in which the intervention of light becomes crucial for a complete experience of the art work. Her earlier works where she used rope and handmade paper were placed away from the wall and lit from the back. When light penetrated the work's paper body, its inner landscape lit up and stood revealed to our eyes.

To observe her journey, the light source is no more behind the work to emphasize upon transparency of the medium and yet the work attains an ethereal quality. The method is mixed media-she uses acrylic paint, thread, rope, dry peepul leaf, brocade, paper, fabric etc. Her brush strokes creates a random and endless movement suggesting no beginning or end, there are no halts, they appear like endless walks on the city maps – and the presence of varied materials create ‘feelings’ within the mind of the person who takes the journey. Her brush strokes are poetic, transparent and unpredictable. Even the sketchy pen and ink marks are chaotic and their directions can not be predicted next moment.

Her concern is less for the work as technical exploration than as spiritual discourse. Within this arises a direction through the titles. Like ‘Genie’ - a work on black fabric suggests a cage or and enclosure that holds the ‘spirit’ within it, ‘Jungle Girl’ suggests an upward movement of climbing many hills, and ‘Parasmani’- a jewel that converts base metal into gold when kept next to it suggest a slow transformation.

Narrative interpretations of these titles do not limit the meaning within single frame. Bharti’s idiom is abstract and so is her way to define her journey. The significant presence of embroidered English alphabet-labels in her work like ‘B’, ‘H’, ‘G’,  ‘K’ etc. make a very abstract presence of her own name as well as her grandfather’s. She clarified that she found these labels in a box at home lying closed for years and guessed that they must have been used for labelling as her grandfather had trade relations with China and Japan. In ‘Target Zero’ which was done as a reaction to Gujarat riots, ‘B’ is kept in the centre, which suggests that the target is not just Gujarat but herself. The work has a suggestive map of Gujarat drawn in ink whereas the centre has a swirling skirt like drapery with a knot. Like life itself the work has an expression which is celebrative as well as morbid at the same time.     

When contemporary art takes closer association of objects that identify personal history and memory, they extend its dimension to collective history and memory. The form of ‘Chandarvo’ a traditional art form of Gujarat also takes a prominent presence in her works. There might not be a mythical stories embroidered on these but its form with loops on four sides to stretch it like a ceiling or like a back drop ( as Pichwai) has made a significant link to her identity. Bharati hails form Gujarat, her work is conscious of her identity as often she weaves in mythical stories in personalized form in her chosen idiom, but at the same time she wants her forms to remain ambiguous and open to interpretations.