Narratives of the Self: Autobiography

Review

Autobiographies need not necessarily be written in words. For an artist it could be a sketchbook; carefully created and categorized. In a group show at the Gallery Espace, New Delhi, autobiography becomes a point of departure for the participating artists. Nisha Aggarwal reviews their self narratives:

'Are Wah yeh to kavita ban gayi...'

Autobiography is known as a book about the life of a person, written by that person. This present sense of the word traces its history around the time of 18th century English writer Robert Southey, where it was closely related to the word 'memoir'. Thus autobiography perhaps is based entirely on the writer's memory. In antiquity it has passed through various names as apologia, oration and confession. But we must assert that all these are essential components of autobiography even with addition of dualities like imagination and reality, movement and stillness and of past and present.

A sense of autobiographical understanding rings in me throughout the visit at Gallery Espace, New Friends Colony, New Delhi; where a group show of 20 artists including Indian modernists and contemporary talents have opened up their personal diaries to the public under the title of 'Narratives of the self: Autobiography'.

The show is on view from January 27, 2012 to February 27, 2012 with works of artists Amit Ambalal, Anju Dodiya, Chintan Upadhyay, J. Swaminathan, Jitish Kallat, Jyoti Bhatt, Kim Kyoungae, M. F. Husain, Madhvi Parekh, Manisha Gera Baswani, Manjunath Kamath, Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur, Mithu Sen, Nilima Sheikh, Paula Sengupta, Rekha Rodwittiya, Samit Das, Sarnath Banerjee, Somnath Banerjee, Somnath Hore and Sutapa Biswas.

All these artists are invited to form personal histories that have remained embedded in their subconscious mind, few of these not among us now; their works have also been included under the same aspect. Personal history is a childhood memory for some, where for others it's a grandmother's tale, for few a repository, a travelogue or a documentary and collection of all these has presented here in the form of exhibition. Each of these artists has drawn out his/her story with selective instances, incidents, emotions and reflections within their visual language and stylistic discourse. A range of ideas, expressions have come to see interwoven with memories and their impression, thus spread out and successfully articulate the journey of each representative artist.

J. Swaminathan's text book 'Is disha se us disha tak' a collection of seventeen Hindi poems written by eminent poets of Hindi literature such as Gajanan Madhav Muktibodh, Bhavani Prasad Mishra, Trilochan, Shamsher Bahadur Singh, Nagarjun, Kedarnath Aggarwal, Naresh Mehta, Vijay Dev Narayan, Raghuveer Sahay, Kedarnath Singh, Shrikant Verma, Malyaj, Dhoomil, Vinod Kumar Shukla and Kamlesh came first to watch. Swaminathan, an artist and being a poet his love towards Hindi poetry had perhaps led him to collect these poems which seem to be singing the victory verses of 'Kavita' and showing their strength in 'Death of Kavita & Hindi'. While all the other artists have contributed their picture books, this lone text based work significantly stands out and makes the viewer 'read' while they 'see' it.

Nilima Sheikh takes us to her past; the time of her stay at home, being a child bathed in a veranda by her mother and sudden visits of monkeys at her home, the days she used to enjoy the flights of blue butterflies and those serene nights. She is enjoying them again by her soft and simple approach of creating brush drawings on handmade paper as she herself asserts, 'I have tried to trail my fingers on the light of the past.' Similarly Amit Ambalal and Madhvi Parekh also trace their childhood memories of being accompanied with grandparents and their stay at villages and other places mostly associated with myths and faith connected to religious and ritualistic practices of their respective places.

Work by M.F.Husain

Our old sketch books and photographs hold the reflections of an intimate world that brings its account of opportunities to live it again, that holds both dreams and realities of someone's existence, sometimes they become a very special site of documentation that holds the essence of poetic energy of the time. This view is applicable to the works of Kim Kyoungae, Somnath Hore, M. F. Husain, Jyoti Bhatt, Sutapa Biswas, Rekha Rodwittiya and also Paula Sengupta.

Kim's and Somnath Hore's sketchbooks opens up like a metaphor that alludes to the overlaps of time whereas Jyoti Bhatt reviews and redraws his drawings which he did during his mischief travel to Italy; the memory he brings within the title of his work written in French as 'Disegni Nostalgichi Di L'italia'. Sutapa Biswas's presented work relates to a period in her life, shortly after the birth of her son in 2000. Rekha Rodwittiya shares her old images clicked by herself when she was given a camera as a child and Paula Sengupta opens up her diary which she started in 2009 and began to turn its pages again in 2011 which hold the key to much of her works done between 2008-11. She invites the viewer to get a comfortable stay with her memories and to get attached to them as she offers a chair to sit and a table lamp put centered to diary reveals her intention, similarly Samit Das presenting his work, 'Fragments from emotional memory' didn't forget to put a note on the display table saying 'Please feel free to touch.' And Sarnath Banerjee puts a video of the making of his drawings of 'School of physical culture', so the viewer may easily connect to them.

Paula Sengupta, 'Mulling the Intimate'

Samit Das, 'Fragments from emotional memory'

But opposed to it Mithu Sen left her sketch book not made known or revealed, it is left alone to live with privacy and dignity entitled 'Shut up'. Anju Dodiya feels an autobiography as a travelogue where one notes micro-changes of skin, self and location as she portrays the self with stained images which themselves tell of her own suffering of skin stains. Manisha Gera Baswani cuts images waving in her mind through a maze like overgrown forest, which are jumping from one frame to another crossing the boundaries, liquid orbs are moving onto the whole space creating a rhythm of poetry. Similarly linear drawing of Mir Mohammad Ali Talpur made with pen on paper give a stance of the artist's psyche while he created this spontaneous continuous line filling the whole space. It gives a poetic feel of floating on the waves of an ocean or of a flying bird in an open sky without any control.

Mithu Sen, 'Shut up'

Jitish Kallat, Manjunath Kamath and Chintan Upadhyay leave the strongest impact on the mind where the impression of their personal memory is not as washy as it enters inside through the senses. Jitish Kallat's 'Afterword' presents versions of a disappearing act through his paper drawings. Manjunath Kamath with his inherent innocent approach entertains the viewers as usual. One can discover humor, satire and the logic of juxtaposing objects/dualities in his 'Customized Autobiography.' Chintan Upadhyay spreads out the pages of his diary framed within his mental conflicts in 'Chintu aHead of time' where a 'Head' of chintu tells its story of 'Ahead'. Each page of the diary having a different color seems a metaphor of some different emotion raised in the artist's heart and eagerness to tell the story of Chintan's own where his baby 'Chintu' also seems a metaphor in himself. The daily struggles of the mind born out of changing values of time and relationships but still showcasing the strength over situations has given 'flying tears' to Chintan's babies and another small diary entitled 'Shit happens' which narrates the movements/conflicts of a stone and its shadow also a touching story which says all inherent emotions within a single line, 'Yes I am a stone, you too are stone.'

Jitish Kallat, 'Afterword'

Manjunath Kamath, 'Customized Autobiography'

Chintan Upadhyay, 'Chintu aHead of time'

As to say as a overall impact, each of these artists has contributed their story books either in form of 'picture' or 'text' which takes the viewers into their personal lives. And the collection of these in form of this show not less than a museum, as Walter Benjamin's words here echo in memory that 'Personal collections create history and cultural museums create discourse.' But we can perhaps understand this show both as history and discourse as it is compiled of diversities of culture, experience and emotion. Each artist has played out like the verse of a poem where they create a rhythm like that of poetry in a compiled form and I would love to give them together words of Chintan Upadhyay, as he writes in one of his diary page, 'Are wah yeh to kavita ban gayi...'...

Image Courtesy: Gallery Espace

Originally published in Art&Deal Magazine, Issue45/Vol.8 No.15/Jan-Feb,2012