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Tales of our Times

Delhi based young painter Varunika Saraf is currently having her solo show titled ‘Tales of Our Times’ at the Kashi Gallery, Kochi. Art writer Renu Ramanath speaks to the artist about her formative days and the current phase of works. Excerpts from the interview:

Renu Ramanath: Varunika, your works have already been noted for the re-processing of the Miniature painting tradition that you are applying. This is decidedly significant as the prevalent trend in Indian contemporary art is to use media images or photographs as reference points. On the other hand, you are taking references from the classical tradition to narrate the tales of the present.

Varunika Saraf: I think the citation of images or past works is not a trend limited to art, but can be seen in other disciplines as well. When I use a pre-existing imagery or draw upon a genre in terms of inspiration and materiality, at times it works at the level of an image quote, but at times I also rework an image in order to have a dialogue with it. In a sense re-contextualise it, playing with it, inserting new elements and also with it newer connotations. But yet letting it remain obvious as to where the image might have come from.

RR: That is interesting, Varunika. It is true that this trend is not limited to art, but valid regarding other disciplines too. However, this has become a strong prevailing character of Indian contemporary visual art. As you are aware, many important contemporary artists have been appropriating the technologically generated images culled from mass media to make social commentary. You, at the same time, are re-working the images from miniatures, or re-contextualising the ‘image quotes’ from miniatures, especially in quite large formats.

VS: Absolutely right. Perhaps it comes because of my engagement with the miniature paintings. I was exposed to the Indian miniature paintings from childhood, the technique was made familiar to me in the course of my academic training and I think my research interests too intersect with my paintings. I, however, would not completely restrict myself to the realm of miniatures, though I have a natural affinity towards the whole technique of miniature painting; like the application of colour and process of building up the painting slowly layer by layer. I think they work for me in two ways; the first being the way that I paint is derived from my grounding in the technique and the second as mentioned earlier is in some way a dialogue with some of them.

The two works, ‘After Brecht’s You Can’t Write Poems About Trees When the Woods Are Full of Policemen -I,’ and ‘II,’ originated from a  painting depicting Maharana Fateh Singh hunting a leopard at Kamlod ka Magra by Sivalal painted in 1889. In the process of a dialogue the Maharana and his retinue got replaced by a band of policemen overrunning the forest. The Brechtian quote got mixed in my head with this painting, along with the contemporary reality of the state becoming an allegory of state repression.

RR:That explains the presence of these armed figures in your new works. So, it is not a direct impact of Delhi, as you are currently pursuing M.Phil at the Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi.

VS: Delhi did affect me, but in a totally different way. It is true that I’m living away from home for the first time. JNU is also a sort of a protected space, yet the confrontation with the realities of the world, for me, has become clearer. Things, I suppose, are more evident and surrounds you and stares at you directly.

RR: Varunika, this is your first solo exhibition. Even before this first solo, you had participated in a number of group exhibitions and produced a considerable body of work, especially for a fresh graduate. The body of works you have included in this show reveals a marked shift in content. For example, the presence of the armed policemen, which you were explaining. Also, I find that the hordes of armed personnel have almost replaced the single, central figure found in many of your earlier works. Still I find your basic approach and treatment more or less the same. I was wondering how this shift came about.

VS: Though there are military like figures in my present works, what I wanted to narrate is not strictly confined to army men or policemen, but rather to repressive structures and the domination of the hegemonic, and the conflicts that come into play. Even earlier, I was working on the lines of the dominant groups and the mechanisms put in place to ensure their domination. But in my earlier approach, conflict was underwritten in relation to the self or a single figure. For example, the works in the Kashi show (KAVA-2006), like the one of a woman under an umbrella, and another one in yellow, titled ‘Black Moon,’ - all had a central figure or the self occupying the central space. So, I started trying to remove the central figure and still talk about the things I wanted to narrate, and the removal of this controlling figure seems liberating for me as it opens up a number of newer possibilities.  

I guess, what I was able to achieve is, to put a certain distance from a predominantly central focus of a person as the protagonist. I don’t think I can conclude how successful I am in this; but in my current position in terms of my work it makes sense to me.

RR: Still, there is a continuation of your earlier work.

VS: The present series of works are not that separate from my earlier ones.  I had not started these works by fixing a certain theme and working towards it. It was the process of working that finally got my ideas together; and along the way the theme emerged.

RR: When talking of your works, you continuously mention ‘wanting to narrate,’ or ‘tell’ or ‘the story.’ Is there a specific narration in your works, a particular story or stories or even incidents ?

VS: I do not think my works narrate a particular story or an incident. I leave it completely up to the viewer to form impressions, but still I think there is narration in the sense that it conveys something both individually at the level of each work and also together, as a body of work. As I was working on the present series, I found the works, by themselves, start narrating a story, each bit representing the larger story that is the ‘tale of our times.’

RR: That brings us to the ‘larger story’ or the vital concerns of your work.  Your show is titled ‘Tales of Our Times.’  It also reminds me of another aspect of your work that I find quite interesting – the presence of nature. In most of your works, a lush, verdant and luxurious nature makes its presence felt. This is a classical nature, not a contemporary one. At the same time, there are works in which this lushness can be found waning. In the most recent works, like the one depicting the drying up lake in which the forms of various forms of life are seen floating, you are seen moving towards your own immediate environs.

VS: Yes, I think I am moving towards the environment around me.  The work you have mentioned is made directly from my experience of Hyderabad where I grew up. But at the same time, I think it is not just about environmental degradation. Just like I feel that there is not only a presence of nature, but its absence as well, in my works.  It is this conflict between the presence and absence of nature that I want to bring out as my major concern, or the larger narration.

At the same time, I do not suggest that it is a man vs nature situation. But, I would like to believe that is about the dominance of a certain hegemonic apparatus that seeks to regulate everything.  About the price we all pay for accepting certain misnomers about ‘development.’ I have never been able to understand this concept of ‘larger good,’ in the name of which you can get away with any kind of human and environmental damage.  What is termed as ‘development,’ turns out to be actual regression for many. And the marginalisation of the many for the sake of ‘larger good,’ in this stupid obsession with progress which is not at all progress, but rather a regression.

RR: So, this is how you want to connect yourself, as an artist, with your surrounding society.

VS: Yes. What I want to do, or what I have been attempting to do, is to question the general or the given notion of development.  Not only in the works included in this show, but also as a lifelong project.