interview

Being Sane in an Insane World

Prabhavati

The sounds of light hammers tapping on soft gold and silver fill in Prabhavati Meppayil’s works as she finds her technique and inspiration from a village of goldsmiths. Her works carry the essence of local and global cultures, myths and news. Prabhavati opens her mind to Shubhalakshmi Shukla, about her art, technique and philosophy.

Shubhalakshmi Shukla: How would you like to recall the most initial days or beginning with the kind of visual language which you have arrived at now? Would you like to speak about your inspirations, accidents and practice to arrive at this form of visual expression?

Prabhavati Meppayil: I would say the most initial days were at the Kanoria Centre for Arts-Ahmedabad where I was working during 1993-95. I had applied for a Masters in painting at the M.S.University Baroda which denied me admission and hence I decided to be at the Kanoria centre.

The kind of work environment there, due to the presence of  two artists Sarabjit and Mark, from London, Anandjit Ray, Manisha Parekh also the artists from Santiniketan and Baroda, I found very inspiring. I got to see the experiments with new mediums and work-processes closely; found a method for myself as well.

SS: Were you doing similar kinds of works then? How did Mark and Sarabhjit influence your process?

PM: Mark and Sarabjit’s works were very inspiring. They were engaged in a kind of work which was related to one’s own identity. Sarabjit worked with family photographs projected on cloth and I found it extremely motivating. Being from Ken School my exposure to other artists was limited.
 
At that time I was not doing this kind of work, but got introduced to a certain kind of freedom of experimenting with materials. I started my engagement with materials like brick dust and ash and paper mache’ and whatever was available there and my interest got the space to develop.

SS: At that time were you painting on the prepared surface too?

PM: It was not exactly painting, but I did some very large and some very small works keeping the feel of the material in mind. Then I once noticed a wall painting at Sheela Gowda’s house and the idea of using natural materials in painting interested me. She introduced me to a person who did commissioned work of wall paintings in Bangalore and I learned from them the technique of dry wall painting.  

I was also teaching in an architecture college at the time and familiarity with materials like plaster-of-Paris etc helped me greatly.

SS: Your paintings are episodic and bring about a pattern of story-telling. Would you like to speak about the narrative structure of your paintings?

PM: Panel painting allows you to imagine a space in terms of a story or a narration so that is there. But, for me the whole idea of ‘panel’ came to appear like making meaning of an object in itself. One could play with the ambiguity between an object and a surface to paint .Today very many different kinds of art is happening so I explored this ambiguity-by making scratches- or various kinds of possibilities on gesso panels.  

It was during my stay in Switzerland that I got the opportunity to observe the process (gesso) of making panels very closely which has helped me to bring it about with perfection here.

SS: What kind of tools you choose to use while painting?

PM: My father is a goldsmith so I am very close to the tradition of this craft of making gold jewellery and I use my father’s tools. The tool is used for making marks or designs in the form of impressions on bangles. 
   
There is soft gold or silver which works like a pencil and (silver) gets oxidized over time. There is also gold foil along with natural pigments. For instance, green pigment is malachite or copper carbonate and azurite which is blue but turns green over a period of time.

SS: Do you also use wash technique? 

PM: No, these are cross-hatchings with dry brush which looks like wash.   

SS: How do you solve the problem of your works being seen in fragments due to its subtlety while on display in a gallery space?

PM: It would be interesting to see the works in natural light as it would lend a different visual quality to them due to the gesso surface.

Like wise you may say it’s also very difficult to photograph my works due to their subtlety.

SS: Considering the feminist art of last decade in India the context of body that contains violence or sensuality is subdued in your works. Would you like to comment on this?

PM: These concerns are present in my work but in a subtle manner. If you look carefully at the  image of the woman with barbed wires in her stretched hands, the inverted body where the centre of gravity is focused for its upside down placement, or  the winged female figures you will find these ideas.

If I am celebrating anything it is this meditative quality involved in act of say stitching or the kind of concentration required in repetitive act of making.

I love to engage in a process which makes me feel sane in the midst of whole lot of insane things that one faces in the world around.

SS: Could you speak about the narrative sensibility in a particular painting -like the one with the sleeping Buddha figure?    

PM: I was part of a residency program in Sri Lanka and wanted to imagine the outline of the figure of Buddha as a landscape which is present in everywhere. For me the sleeping figure also connotes death but I was told that since the feet of the Buddha were not in an even line, he was only sleeping. This symbolism fascinated me and I chose to show it in my work.  

In Tamil Nadu there is a ritual of walking around a sacred hill. For me walking around the sacred is like the journey of life itself. It also made me wonder about what we hold sacred in life, and this is what you see in the work

She seems to be a personification –may be a consort of Buddha or a symbolic figure suggesting yourself? There is also a cow and a bull and a cemetery.
I would not like to make any such spiritualistic association. More than oneself, it is the experience of life’s journey itself and experiences we meet along the way.

SS: Do these gold leaf dots symbolize an endless walk, or something kitsch as gold coins? Or do they symbolize some kind of time measuring element? How long did you take to build up the works for this show?

PM: There is a sound of constant tapping in the place I live which houses an entire community of goldsmiths. I have subconsciously carried the sound with me. Yes, these may symbolize an endless meandering in a familiar or unfamiliar landscape.

I took a year and a half to build the body of works displayed here.