FEATURE

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A Place for Artists and their Dreams

2008 February will see the inauguration of Uttarayan Art Centre, Baroda. Uttarayan is designed to house all kinds of arts, from Sculpture to Multimedia art. JohnyML visits the first sculpture camp held here as a preamble to the formal inauguration and reports.

‘Far from the madding and maddening crowd of the urban centers, but with all the state of the art facilities’, this is how noted sculptor K.S.Radhakrishnan describes the newly established Uttarayan Art Center, Baroda. Located at the Jaspura village, around twenty five kilometers away from the main city of Baroda, Uttarayan is the brainchild of the industrialist Rakesh Aggarwal. He along with Radhakrishnan, P.D.Dhumal, Baiju Parthan and architect Karan Grover devised this centre for arts two years ago. In December 2007, an international sculpture camp was organized here by K.S.Radhakrishnan with twenty artists from India, France and Britain. Uttarayan will be formally inaugurated in February 2008.

The sprawling sculpture studios are already functional with state of the art machineries for melting metals, moulding, pouring, sand casting, de-waxing, grinding, welding etc. Trolleys, cranes and other moving facilities are already in place. “I have been traveling all over the world and visiting the studios of international sculptors who worked mainly in and with metals. Every time I realized how in our country there are no state of the art facilities for sculptors. Perhaps, that is the reason why many of the Indian sculptors do not attempt on ambitious sculptural projects,” says Radhakrishnan who planned and managed the establishment of the sculpture studios in Uttaryan. Sitting on a wrought iron designer chair at the lawns on the banks of Mahi river that girdles the Uttarayan art centre Radhakrishnan remembers how he worked relentlessly with the architect and the planners. “Now, any artist who would like to do metal sculptures of any scale can make use of these facilities here,” says Radhakrishnan.

With architectures that blend the aesthetical and functional elements of the South and North Indian architectural traditions, Uttarayan has huge studios for painters and these facilities are planned by the noted artist P.D.Dhumal. Keeping pace with the changing nature of Indian contemporary art, Uttarayan provides infrastructural facilities for video and multimedia artists. New media artist Baiju Parthan worked as a consultant for establishing this part of Uttarayan. Come February 2008, there would be a full fledged reference library for the resident artists. There are six cottages with river face that could accommodate twenty four artists at a time. A huge structure that reminds the onlooker of the Koothambalam (House of Performance) of Kerala provides space for dining and relaxing. Just behind the multi-media centre and painting studios, there is an amphitheatre where there would be regular performances, screenings, discussions and debate.

“Uttarayan has a futuristic vision,” says Radhakrishnan. Out of the eighty acres of land available for developing, only a few acres are used now. “The aim is to establish a contemporary museum of international standards to house the works produced in these workshops,” points out Radhakrishnan. He feels that the new found interest in sculpture amongst the corporate houses and individual entrepreneurs is a heartening thing. “This would ultimately help the artists in India, who would like to do ambitious works of international quality.”

Apart from providing infrastructural facilities to the artists, according to Radhakrishnan, Uttarayan aims at developing an organic relationship between the works of art produced here and the environment in which the centre is located. “As anyone can notice, this is an unpolluted area. People in this village live with nature. They do not exploit the natural resources. Hence, the works of art produced could be site specific, corresponding with the peculiarities of the location. This would be a new experience even for the artists who uses modern facilities to create something entirely different from the normal gallery oriented works,’ observes Radhakrishnan.

Peter Briggs, a Paris based sculptor and conceptual artist participating in the Uttarayan Sculpture Camp says that this place has inspired him to redo some of his earlier sculptures. Almost three decades back Briggs had done a small work for a site, where he wanted to play with light and bronze. “Some how that project did not work out. Now with this pristine environment in hand, I can execute it again,” says Briggs while grinding at his small bronze piece, which looks an abstracted form of a leaf or an emblematic heart. For the Chennai based artist, Rajasekharan Nair, Uttarayan has given a new experience. “I have been working only in granite for the last twenty five years. Now I am working in clay for casting it in bronze. I feel I am really reinventing myself,” says Rajasekharan.

The works produced in Uttarayan will have some kind of exclusivity. There will be only two editions of the sculptures produced here. While one edition will be in a permanent display of the Uttarayan Museum, the other will go to the artist’s collection. “I am not going to take any sculpture from here,” says Jayant Naik, a veteran sculptor based in Baroda. “My work is devised as a site specific installation in bronze and white cement. It will show the sprouting of seeds according to the movement of sun from east to west. I am quite excited about this work,” says Naik. He says that Uttarayan sculpture workshop has given him a new space to experiment.

Goa based Subodh Kerkar who is already famous for his site specific installations and impermanent art feels that his work should correspond to the feel of the place. “I am making two sculptures. One shows a man celebrating the victory of a sporting event. He is, like in a Bernini sculpture, ecstatic. He could be celebrating a goal. I would call it ‘Chak De’. The other work is a larger than life size human figure floating just above the ground, looking at the sky and being with the nature.” Kerkar’s works will be displayed in the sylvan environment of Uttarayan center.

Senior artists like Mahendra Pandya, Raghav Kaneria and Madan Lal, it is another opportunity to flaunt their skills. For the younger lot including Nagendra, Ganesh Gohain, Karl Antao, Pankaj Panwar, Bhupen Burman, Mayur Kailash, Uttarayan is a double blessing. “It gives me an opportunity to be away from the daily grind of life in the city at the same time I am not away from my art,” says Ganesh Gohain. Karl Antao who has participated in several sculpture camps recently says that any new facility coming up for sculpture should be appreciated as our country does not have full fledged sculpture studios. Pankaj Panwar too shares the excitement of Antao.

Radhakrishnan has been working with Uttarayan for a long time now and he has devised a few site specific works for the center even before it was formally established. His works mingle with the surrounding woods and thickets in their vertical horizontal formations. The palm-tree like bronze columns with imp like figures playing at the top not only resonate with the local myths of benevolent spirits but also re-establishes his self made sculpture pantheon in a new environment.

“Uttarayan is a facility and opportunity at the same time; a facility for the artists and an opportunity for the young apprentices to learn the techniques of metal casting. I have invited many young artists who want to learn the techniques and they work here as assistants,” says Radhakrishnan. When Uttarayan becomes fully operational in February 2008, it would be the time for celebration not only for the sculptors but also for the painters and the new media artists. As the illustrious artist K.G.Subramanyan rightly put it after visiting Uttarayan during the workshop, ‘One day, people will come to Baroda mainly to see what is happening in Uttarayan. Now people come to fine arts faculty to see the new things. Tomorrow the tables could be turned.”