“Cultural Influences in the Creative processA tale of two artists and their views on

Inspiration – Identity – Cultural Appropriation”

Sanjeev Shankar, 2006As part of Special project at Industrial Design Centre, IIT Powai, Bombay, India-400076

Abstract

Issues of inspiration, identity and culture are often considered the backbone of any creation. The first part of this paper looks at these issues through the personal tales of two Indians - an artist, Baiju Parthan and a designer, Shilpa Ranade. It is an attempt to understand the creative choices they have made. The research included conversations with the artist and the designer and sought to understand their work and intent in the context of their own cultural backdrops. The second part is devoted to building certain abstractions and generalisations based on precedents in the field of “the art and craft divide in India“.

The third part of this paper presents specific issues of identity and cultural appropriation, and looks at two examples which have gone beyond the norm of appropriation and, in the process, become apt cases for imbibing culture and making genuine contributions in an arguably adequate manner.

Keywords: Culture, Identity, Appropriation, Inspiration, Creativity, Indian craft

1. Introduction

This paper is about a journey, a journey through the mind of a creator and his creations. It is an attempt to understand the forces, which shape a creation, an attempt to bring forth, key elements and attributes of a genuine product. It is meant to be a trigger for us to distinguish between rightful and honest approaches in the field of design and art. It is an opportunity for us to be inspired, to rethink and reflect over the choices we have made; to question the decisions we take and to emerge more responsible and sensitive in our role as designers.

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2. Concerns

We propose to thread this journey through the following points of references, viz.:

_ What are the reference points/ sources for image creation for the selected artist and designer?

_ How may we arrive at an understanding of the relative strengths and shortcomings of the “Problem Solving” vs. the “Concern-centric” approaches to the creation of images/products?

_ What might be some of the issues concerning art and design: personal intent/ client driven/ user centred?

_ What might be the Issues related to identity in visual arts: Appropriation / Cross-Cultural?

3. Methodology

The project began with an attempt to understand cultural cues in visual languages. To arrive at an understanding of some significance, the scope of the project was reduced to a set of conversations with an artist and a designer. The conversations sought to understand the work done by these two creative minds, and trace the influences that could have shaped their work. The artist and designer who participated in this journey were Baiju Parthan and Shilpa Ranade. The choice of the individuals was driven by their willingness to talk, their availability, and the fact that they had done sufficient work to talk about. Both individuals belong to the urban cosmopolitan milieu of Mumbai.

The process began with gaining familiarity with the works of the artist and designer. This helped in formulating certain triggers. Some of these concerns were noted down, and which then shaped the questions that were asked during the conversations. The conversations however were not bound by these questions and additional queries were prompted by the conversation in a fairly spontaneous manner. The entire process was first

simulated with the supervisor to refine the onward plan. The conversations were taped and the transcripts attached as appendices. These were then analysed to understand the ideas that emerged from the conversations.

Other sources and means of furthering this analysis included a formal talk by painter Atul Dodiya at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA), Mumbai, India in which he spoke about his works since 1997; and a visit to the National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA), Mumbai, India to see an exhibition on “Contemporary Art in India”. Focused background reading about the individuals’ works and their backgrounds, and more general reading about the cultural forces that drive and shape the creative process, further supported this. Informal discussions with the guide, of course, substantiated all of this.

4. Creative choices and decisions – through the lenses of an artist and a designer

The artist chosen for this occasion is Baiju Parthan who has trained in botany, fine arts, philosophy, comparative mythology and Java Programming. Parthan concedes to being a new media artist but remains primarily a painter, and is today synonymous with highly interactive installation art devices - the latest being ‘Oracle’. Oracle simulates human intelligence and predicts the future. It refers to the shift of the status of a machine from a dehumanizing, industrializing giant to the personal computer, which we customize and own. It explores the issue of the extent to which you would trust a machine.

When asked about the approach to his work, Baiju laid emphasis on bringing images from two different contexts and relating them (see Figure 1).

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Figure 1: I Hear You (Diptych), oil on Canvas, 48 x 24 inches

Baiju Parthan

Life, for him, continues to be a series of semiotic tensions. He also finds it very difficult to believe in anything or intimately connect up with someone. He doesn’t relate to other artists work, and feels very uncomfortable. His opinion about reality continues to be that of a perception, that which keeps changing. He further calls himself a ‘technician of perception’ and declares this as the most important reason for being an artist. He also firmly declares that art must nudge your conscience else it is of no use and that we all need a metaphysical position within ourselves.

Shilpa Ranade is an animator and teaches design. She has been trained in applied arts, visual communication and

animation, and believes in creating something which is useful, something which stands the test of time, and goes beyond the common attitude of selling a product. Creation for her is a very personal and involved act, one that requires immense amount of energy. She thus takes up issues, which she can definitely identify with. In the case of ‘Harvest’ (see Figure 2), the aspect of a man-woman relationship is explored; while in ‘Mani’s Dying’ (see Figure 3), the shocking plight of the girl child in rural India is brought to the fore.

Figure 2: Harvest, Animation,1995Shilpa Ranade

Figure 3: Mani’s Dying, Animation, 1996 Shilpa Ranade

Further, ‘Naja Goes to School’ (see Figure 4),establishes the caste bias in Maharashtrian communities.

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Figure 4: Naja goes to School, Animation, 2002

Shilpa Ranade

These opinions and points of view are critical for us to reflect on the reasons for the choices we have made. These are not ideal cases. Though highly subjective in many ways, they nevertheless demonstrate the role we as designers can play when it comes to making a difference within our fields and in the society at large.

Making choices and taking decisions is something we do all the time. For our clan of creators, these act like canvases on which we weave our dream. They are akin to doors, which usher in new worlds. During the course of this journey, I have begun to believe that the decisions we take about the purpose and intent behind any ‘act of creation’ is most critical for the final output. Further, the choices we make at the start of a journey have maximum impact on the final output. Having the right reference point and list of priorities is most crucial to do justice to the project. Further, these objectives and constraints in any project constantly work on each other, interchange roles and morph into more constraints and objectives. Keeping this in mind, one of the foremost objectives of this project was to understand the sources for image creation for these two individuals I had conversed with. What this does is, it creates a valid context, a backdrop, a frame of reference for us to base our arguments and judgements about issues, which we will raise later.

4.1. ‘Culture’ and ‘Creativity’ – key words for our research context:

Now, as we move on, two key words, which we will have to define, would be ‘culture’ and ‘creativity’.

4.1.1. Culture

The word culture, from the Latin colere, with its root meaning "to cultivate", may be an individual quality, such as the culture of being courteous to everyone; it may have a collective manifestation- such as the work culture of a multinational; it may be regional- such as the culture of hill people; or national - Indian or American culture.

I would define culture as the sum total of all the experiences, which makes me the person I am. This would be owing to both tangible and intangible influences coming from contexts, which can be strikingly different in both scale and span. I would thus resist from giving definite categories and yet would include everything from local concerns and influences like history, tradition, rituals, legacy; festivals, sounds, smells, colours; icons, patterns, motifs, poverty, food, art, literature and cinema to global concerns like migration, outsourcing, cyberspace, global warming and patenting.

The Merriam Webster online dictionary proposes an apt definition for culture. It says, “culture is the integrated pattern of human knowledge, belief, and behaviour.” that depends upon man's capacity for learning and transmitting knowledge to succeeding generations.” It is thus applicable to a family, a place and a country.

Artist Baiju Parthan’s opinion about culture is informed by his studies in comparative mythology. He advocates the importance and contribution of ‘worldview’ to notions of identity, culture and nationality. Each culture has its own worldview and there is a structure to this worldview making. The components of this worldview are the notions of ethics, behavior, morality, shared attitudes, values and goals. It further

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answers mysteries about where the world began and where it is going? Within all of this, the individual charts his trajectory of life and positions himself or herself.

Shilpa Ranade on the other hand elaborates on notions of culture by abstracting her experiences and impressions of India. She talks about a collective consciousness, the sense of time, the sensitivities and sensibilities you imbibe owing to the basic grass root issues of the people, their lives and problems. This informs all the decisions you take and ground you independent of the background you come from.

What is interesting to note in the above examples is how the components of culture have a direct bearing on what one does in his context. As painter Jehangir Jani, based in Mumbai declares,” The colours, the smells, the traditions, the rituals and all of everything around us act like food for creation.” We thus cannot negate the fact that, culture and all the components which lend to creating culture have a direct bearing on all that we create as artists, designers or craftspersons.

We will later look at other examples and possible ways of allowing culture to act as a repository for our seeds of creation. As in Nandalal Bose’s (1882-1966) works which imbibe and absorb culture with respect and sensitivity to come up with a refreshing response, and may be cited as examples of use of ‘culture’ as key to a beautiful creation.

4.1.2. Creation and Creativity

As designers, creativity is a term we come across with unnerving regularity and precision. In simple terms, it is the ability to create while deviating from the obvious or the norm and yet addressing the core issue. Being creative and innovative doesn’t necessarily entail reinventing the wheel, but it definitely requires breaking out of existing patterns and questioning nomenclature. This could be part of the process and may or may not be reflected in the final outcome. A creative solution often always brings about added benefits. So where does creativity really come in?

Following is an illustration of the design process by designer Charles Eames:

Here he illustrates how effective and convincing design lies in the ability to arrive at an appropriate intersection of all forces governing a design solution –

• Personal intent / aspirations of the designer

• Client needs• Concerns of the society

The way we design today is not necessarily different from this. While we work on a method based on prioritisation, Eames' Diagram focuses on intersection of needs as a governing principle. They both aspire to the same end - to narrow down the scope of a problem, to focus on certain key issues, and help to generate a design solution in a systematic manner.

Interestingly, in both the systems 'creativity' as a term does not figure in prominence. What needs to be understood is that both systems discussed endorse ‘individuality’ in a major way. In other words, individual discretion and judgement are paramount. It is this that drives the entire process, especially when it comes to understanding and mapping the aspirations of each group, or to put it more realistically, each ‘stake holder’. This decision-making ability is often referred to as the skill of a designer, his intelligence and also his sensitivity.

I would then propose that creativity and the individual are not isolated and influence one another. They can be clubbed as parts of a similar strain, which influence the design mechanism and produce different

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kinds of solutions. As corroborated by Shilpa Ranade creativity is always triggered by something, always sourced. She also advocates the need for independent frameworks and parameters when comparing creative works with different sources, which is true in her own works. (refer appendix)

4.1.3. Creative Works

It is interesting to note that the artist and designer I had conversed with for this study and many others whom I have met in the last seven years, namely, Architect Manit Rastogi, Indian Express Cartoonist Unny, Writer and Historian Geeta Kapur, New Media Artist Ashok Sukumaran to name a few, find it hard to talk about their work before it is done.

Talking and explaining the works becomes a lot easier and lucid post-completion as a ‘flash back’. Painter Atul Dodiya in his address to a select gathering at the National Centre for Performing Arts (NCPA) in Mumbai in which he spoke about his works since 1997 mentions this clearly. This is especially true in cases of works, which are highly layered and have gone through a method, a process of evolution. In other words the process has a unique ability of lending a mystical quality to the work, which one cannot imagine before the journey. Acknowledging this fact gives it a very humble quality and creates an image, which goes beyond the creator. Prof. Shilpa Ranade corroborates this in her three works: Harvest (see Figure 5), Mani’s Dying (see Figure 6) and Naja Goes to School (see Figure 7).

Figure 5: Harvest, Animation, 1995Shilpa Ranade

Figure 6: Mani’s Dying, Animation, 1996 Shilpa Rande

Figure 7: Naja Goes to School, Animation, 2000

Shilpa Rande

Often, the source of image creation comes from a collective consciousness, which we all have. This is often always reflective of the culture we imbibe. This might be clearly felt by many; for others it is deep inside and influences their works in subtle ways. For example in Shilpa Ranade’s case, the choice of topics for her works was a reaction to what people had been seeing and thus expecting from animators for some time. As has been attempted before, she wanted to respond to the popular mindset of animation as a sort of cartoon and make it more meaningful. Now, this collective consciousness is shaped by a series of triggers, which one absorbs through numerous experiences within one’s context. The choice of a particular trigger which informs and influences a work or a

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process could be owing to a combination of influences - personal intent, geographical location, client needs, social demands and target groups.

These influences manifest themselves in works in different ways. However the trick is to allow them to get transformed and to develop a response, which goes beyond what already exists. Good works often make this seamless transition from their original inspiration and become inspiration for others. This is seen in ‘Oracle’ (see Figure 8) by Baiju Parthan; ‘Mani’s Dying’ by Shilpa Ranade and ‘Broken Branches’ (see Figure 9) by Atul Dodiya.

Figure 8: Oracle, New Media InstallationBaiju Parthan

Figure 9: Broken Branches, 2002 Atul Dodiya

5. Two Approaches: Problem solving vs. concern centric

During the course of these conversations, I realised the strengths and shortcomings of having a problem-solving approach - often the ground on which designers base their work.

The origins of problem-solving approach go back to the Bauhaus design school, set up in 1919 at Weimar in Germany. Bauhaus had revolutionised the notion of art education by combining both aspects of problem solving and concern for the subject, to create a process upheld by concern and empathy. It was against the idea of insulating art from real, everyday concerns. However, designers often tend to reduce Bauhaus to a mechanical and sterile idea of problem solving. What was being referred to in a problem-solving approach is to be concerned, seriously concerned about the context and situation one is faced with. A serious concern results in an in-depth understanding of the situation and this, in turn, triggers holistic responses from the subject.

Baiju Parthan’s work, ‘Oracle’ is an interesting case. It grows out of a deep concern about the way in which we accept and trust machines in our midst. He refers to the shift of the machine from a dehumanizing industrializing giant to that of a personal computer, which is so personal that you personalize it, you customize it, and it becomes your own. What is of importance for us here is that the work is borne out of a serious concern. It is far from an aggressive reaction, which could easily have come about if Baiju had treated the issue as a ‘problem’, which needed an immediate solution!

On one hand adopting an aggressive approach to solve ‘problems’ does give definite results, however one always runs the risk of creating highly rigid and limiting solutions. The problem arises when one doesn’t acknowledge the larger structure at work and tries to play GOD. Such approaches should be used only in cases of extreme urgency, but even here a concern centric approach should be preferred. Humble as it may sound it is definitely more flexible and creates an absorbing and layered piece of work, informed by a holistic attitude and a highly sensitized approach. However, this does have the pitfall of lack of urgency, as seen in the case of ‘Gol Gol’, which is an incomplete work by Shilpa Ranade. This, in spite of the fact that Shilpa

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declares her work to be independent of time and the technology of the time.

Let us look at an issue concerning all of us. Drinking water scarcity is of critical concern facing all villages in India. A problem solving approach would possibly result in a series of products, which limit wastage and bring about immediate relief. However, a concern based approach would possibly go deep into the issue and try to understand what created such scarcity in the first place and offer a much more holistic, system based solution. This might take longer in implementation but will be much more effective in the long run. We might also have to face some very shocking answers stemming from our lifestyle patterns. But what is important is that these insights will be authentic and real. They will tell us where we have gone wrong and indicate possible answers.

We as designers/artists are in a great position to positively impact the society, but like in all cases we can create an adverse impact too. After all as Baiju Parthan stresses, we are ‘technicians of change’. It is thus imperative for us to constantly and seamlessly move from one approach to the other. This may be a shift or a combination of both and must be done judiciously, with utmost care. When and where we do this, is where our personal judgment comes into play. It is this that will make us artists or designers we all dream of becoming. It is this that makes our identities.

6. Identity

I would now like to point at certain dangers, which we face in the process of taking decisions and creating identities for individuals, communities or nations.

Figure 10: Nineteen Eighty Four, 1998, Amrit and Rabindra Kaur

The Merriam Webster online dictionary defines identity as “the distinguishing character or personality of an individual.”

Today, the idea of ‘identity’ is becoming more relevant than ever before with sweeping global influences and access to information being easier than ever before. Contemporary India for most of us has a magical, mystical quality to itself. As a place and space, it has absorbed different cultures, languages, religions, sensibilities, and sensitivities over a very long period and given theses aspects a new meaning, a new life, constantly redefining them, and in the end, lending the space with a new identity. This addresses the itinerant, transient nature of identity itself. Which means it is a function of space and time. This is reflected in the work of Singh Twins (Figure 10) the painters from Britain for whom identity is a proposition which moulds itself constantly and seamlessly. Similar traits are also reflected in the works of Nitin Sawhney and a new breed of composers-musicians rooted in the Asian subculture of Great Britain, and who as second or third generation Briton-Asians, have been yearning to carve out an

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identity that truthfully combines the Eastern idea of transience and the western notion of existentialism. For these young musicians, identity is an ever-shifting proposition that may not lend itself adequately to western notions of fixed constructs of identities.

What is interesting to note is that, this realisation becomes vivid as one physically moves out of one’s given place. Shilpa Ranade corroborates this when she clarifies the difference between our needs and realities and those of others. I quote, “And you will know all this when you go to live somewhere else. I lived in London and it’s so odd; like being sanitized and put in a bubble. There is no sense of reality and proportion. Life is just about you, going to work and back and having a great weekend. All this makes you crave to come back home. That perception that there are people who are out there and who have needs is absent. Our realities are very tough.” For Shilpa, identity is being able to say your own thing, independent of how others react. She further states that being in India and responding to this fact, its particular reality is of utmost concern to her.

6.1 Two Extremes in identity

We are today witnessing two extremes. On one hand we have people who are so detached, both physically and psychologically, from the main land that they still retain their identity in a puritanical sense. The ‘Toda’ tribe in Nilgiris, Tamil Nadu, India; local inhabitants of Andaman Nicobar islands, India; ‘Angami’ tribe in Mon village, Nagaland, India and ‘khasi’ tribe in Shillong, Meghalaya are some examples, which demonstrate this. I have had the privilege of visiting these places and interacting with the people myself. Though few in number, this is a significant lot as it gives the much needed scale and dynamism to our reference point both in terms of knowledge levels and time frame. Interestingly it also represents a very different stage in history akin to the period before enlightenment, where mysticism was the background behind all life. Infact some remote areas of North East India still practice some of the most chilling and shocking rituals. Head hunting was very common till about ten years back in

Nagaland. This was used as a method to prove a tribe’s superiority. In South India, the ‘Toda’ tribe still uses age-old marriage rituals as a defining custom for their tribe. Willing grooms have to enter a competition to win their bride by lifting boulders of varying weight. Such unique and fascinating traits are reflected throughout their culture; from language, food habits, weaving styles, marriage rituals to worldviews, social values and attitudes.

On the other extreme, we have a growing spectrum of people who adhere to a much more absorbing and flexible definition of identity; where they get inspired by objects and ideas at will and seamlessly and effortlessly hop from one to the other. We all belong here. For this group the notion of ‘the other’ doesn’t exist and logic and rationale drives every decision. Here we are often confronted with the aspect of appropriation, in this case ‘cultural appropriation’. So what do we mean by this?

6.2 Cultural Appropriation

Appropriation, popularly also referred to as ‘occupation’ or ‘seizure’ is an act where one picks up from the source without acknowledging it and without giving it its due. To quote my professor, Dr. Ajanta Sen, “It is an act where one takes from something without giving back.” This might come as a surprise to those of us who advocate free will and accept all that exists before us as a legacy, as an entitlement and go ahead to use it in a manner, which they feel, is appropriate! This is becoming increasingly common today. But is this an appropriate method? Is this ethical? Is it honest? Is there a Code of Ethic? Architect Brinda Somaya says, “We have to pay a rent for the land we live on”. New media artist Baiju Parthan declares, “I am a technician of perception… If all the art doesn’t help you to nudge your conscience then of what use is it? ...” This was his response for the reason for being an artist. We are thinkers. We are all expected to be thinkers. We need to reflect on the above concerns with utmost sincerity.

At this point I would like to point out to Shilpa Ranade’s reaction to notions of

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identity where she stresses on ‘saying your own thing’.

Figure 11: Childhood of Krishna, Animation, 2002Shilpa Ranade

She however accepts that in the case of ‘Childhood of Krishna’ (see Figure 11), where she worked in a team, this aspect of ‘saying your own thing’ was very tough. She also mentions that all work is triggered, sourced from somewhere. Now, let us ask ourselves, what do we mean by ‘own thing’ or ‘my thing’? Isn’t all of what we do a tiny part of evolution. In such a case what ought to be our role?

Nancy Adajania builds a convincing case against cultural appropriation; in this case, the appropriation of craft and craftsperson in India in her article “Art and Craft-Bridging the Great divide.” She argues that the hierarchic distinction, where the artist or designer was treated as the sole custodian of creativity, while the craftsperson was considered just a pair of dismembered hands, branded for life with the pejorative term ‘skill’: is based on false premises. She also suggests that the social and cultural asymmetry between artists and craftsperson can be largely attributed to an attitude of patronizing and appropriation on the part of the artists. The article provides a brief history of creative exchanges across the divide and looks at the contributions from Nandalal Bose(1882-1966), Jamini Roy(1882-1972), K.G Subramanyan(1924-), J.Swaminathan(1924- 1994), Pupul Jayakar(1915- ), Kamaladevi Chattopadhyaya(1903-1988), Jyotindra

Jain(1943- ), Chintamani Kar(1914-2005), Dashrath Patel(1928- ) and Navjot Altaf(1949- ). These are examples of few people in their field, who have been able to protest against the conventional pyramid of taste, which demoted the crafts to the bottom. Their contributions were indeed true and holistic. They have been able to go beyond the establishment, beyond the appropriating attitude of the system and give back to the source.

Art critic Geeta Kapur writes in her monograph on K.G. Subramanyan who studied under Nandalal Bose at Santiniketan’s Kala Bhavan in the 1940’s, “students were introduced to craftsmen at work; they were encouraged to rework traditional materials and techniques and the objects produced were exhibited and sold at local fairs with the hope of recycling the taste and skills of craftsmen-artists into the urban middle class milieu with the young artist forming a double link”.

Nancy takes Navjot Altaf’s example (see Figure 12) and explains that it is not a case of an urban artist patronising impoverished craftsperson. If she has made the craftsperson a gift of her own creative space, she has in turn learnt from her the easy, instinctive handling of material and the fluid virtuosity of the craftsperson.

Figure 12: Wood Sculpture, 1997Navjot Altaf and wood carver/painter

Shantibai from Shilpi Gram, Kondagaon, Madhya Pradesh

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She further corroborates that tradition and change are not opposites, but intertwined elements in the same process of growth.

Figure 13: Radha and Krishna, Wood and Bamboo Armature coated with clay and

pigment painted, 1995Sonabai

Curator and cultural historian, Jyotindra Jain’s exhibition ‘Other Masters’ at Crafts Museum, Delhi, India in the 1990’s demonstrates this beautifully through the works of contemporary folk and tribal artists Gangadevi, sonabai (see Figure 13) Jivya Soma Mashe and Jangarh Singh Shyam. Other Masters debunked the illusion that tribal artists work in an ahistorical mode.

Today, several metropolitan artists in India have entered into collaborations with traditional artists, with mixed results. Such cases usually fall into two types of interactions: sometimes, and this is very few, the interaction leads to growth and the sharing of materials, processes and world-views; but more often the artists perform a simple appropriation of the craftsperson’s materials and processes for their own purposes. Nancy Adajania with the case of painter Arpana Caur’s recent collaborations with Godna and Warli artists

further explains this. In the exhibition catalogue titled The Search Within (1998), Caur writes that her art “includes the worlds and lives of craftspeople” she has worked with. Though honourable, Nancy feels that Caur uses a clichéd juxtaposition of urban and rural, modernity and tradition, when she paints construction workers and traffic poles over the floral motifs of Godna artist, Sat Narain Pande. (see Figure 14)

Figure 14: Neon Deity, Collaborative work on paper, stitched in cloth, 1998,

48 inches * 48 inchesArpana Caur and Sat Narain Pande

If true, such clichéd juxtaposition of themes along with the politics of curatorship and viewership could further alienate the traditional artist.

Here, I would like to quote, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay, who has dedicated her life for reviving crafts in India and understanding their rightful place. She says,

(i) that crafts was never an isolated or secluded studio activity or experience, but “arose from a deep hunger of humanity, its functions socialized and its use distributed through the family and entire community.”(ii) that “ handicrafts is not preoccupied with subjective feeling and thought but with objectivity.”(iii) that “ the distinguishing attribute of handicraft is beauty, not merely in physical appearance but in concept.” and finally,

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(iv) “ the craftsman has always combined within his being a tradition that embraces both the producer and the consumer within the social fabric.”

One must realise that cases of

cultural appropriation (or any form of appropriation) underlies the idea of death – of an idea, of a person, of a community and ultimately of the culture. Worse it changes the reference point forever. That body of knowledge, which has come after decades of evolution, is lost forever. I would like to quote Dr. Sen,” By not recognising the contribution made by the authors of such articulations, we are effectively killing them.” This also reminds me of what Virginia Woolfe says,” The reason why it is easy to kill another person must be that one’s imagination is too sluggish to conceive what his life means to him.” If one takes this as an axiom and arrays it against the names mentioned before, one sees why their contribution was so special and so awe inspiring. Why do they stand apart? This is because; they had rejected this idea of death and constantly fought to strike a balance, to find a method to give back. They all found a way to pay their rent on the land they lived. They were all iconoclasts who refused to be subverted by the establishment. Their commitment was sacred and unparalleled; their honesty, unquestionable. They were all grounded with an inbuilt equaliser. They were true modernists. Their idea of a development paradigm was most holistic and democratic.

Such traits are echoed across the world in fields as varying as architecture to theatre. For example, in architecture we have Falling Waters and Guggenheim Museum by Frank Lloyd Wright; Pompidou Center by Richard Rogers and Renzo Piano and Kanchenjunga Apartments by Charles Correa. In dance we have the work done by Martha Graham (‘Cave of the Heart’), Isadora Duncan, Protima Bedi and Kitsou Dubois. In music we have Schoenberg, Stravinsky (‘The Rite of Spring’) and Philip Glass (Einstein on the Beach (1976). In Literature we have James Joyce (‘Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man’) and Knut Hamsun (‘Hunger’). In poetry we have Arthur Rimbaud (‘Motion’), Walt Whitman (‘Leaves of Grass’) and Jules Laforgue

(‘Complaints’). In theatre we have Antonin Artaud (‘Theatre of the Absurd’), Samuel Beckett (‘Waiting for Godot’) and Jerzy Grotowski(‘Poor Theatre’).

Each of these works, use culture as a repository and respond to their context in highly creative and appropriate manner. In each case there is a profound sense of humility and acknowledgement of the source behind the idea.

7. Conclusion

We thus realise that, in the process of building identities, we could either give a new life to a concept or an idea, or on the other hand we might appropriate and in turn kill other identities. Appropriating is a sacrilege act and there can be no greater sin than this for a designer. During the course of my exchanges I discovered that every person has a set of beliefs, a set of constructs, which makes something sacred for him or her; something, which cannot be tampered with. This puts everything else, into a category that could be altered, marginalized and accepted in varying degrees of dilution.We, as designers, have to go beyond all of this, beyond our hierarchical set ups, we have to go beyond the insecurities we all have, go beyond the power equations, go beyond the patronising attitudes and dig deep within ourselves to respect and have humility for all mankind. We have to give back in whichever way we feel is appropriate. Only then and only then will we create stories, build homes, nurture dreams and cherish true freedom. Only then will we evolve into a higher and responsible being. The secret to a beautiful and genuine creation lies as much in our hearts and minds as much in the spaces and places we inhabit and evolve in. We have to be technicians of change and not allow the system or establishment to subvert our choices and opinions.

I would finally like to quote my professor, Architect Anil Laul here,” We have not inherited the earth from our forefathers, we have borrowed it from our children “

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11. Appendices

Transcript of conversation between Prof. Shilpa Ranade and Sanjeev Shankar

Mr. Sanjeev Shankar (SS): Madam something about yourself as a person, in terms of how did you go about your education, your childhood …

Prof. Shilpa Ranade (SR): Childhood was like all over India really because my dad was in the army and we moved around a lot; every... I think every two years or three years we had to get up and leave and you know go to all kinds of cities and it was fun and kind of you know we were uprooted every time and we were you know kind of grow roots each time, but it was good fun enjoyed that. And lot of the times we were not living with my dad because you know again army is like that…(u keep moving places) yeah yeah but my mom was always with us and we are three sisters and we are like very you know all bonded and close and (laughs) that kind of thing…. And after that I went to college in Bombay (ok) schooling was all over but college was JJ(ok)… that was my basic graduation, I did an applied art (ok) … … post that I did IDC, two years and post that I worked in animation for six months(in Bombay).. in Bombay … after that I have been in Bombay actually… and… … then I went to TISS… I worked in TISS (ok)... I was making films there for two years, then I decided to go to the RCA and I spent three years in London… studying and working for a bit, then I came back (pause) set up a studio here (clears her throat) worked till 2001 in my studio from 97 and then I have been here… ever since actually... end of 2001 actually

SS: So you are basically from Maharashtra!

SR: I am from Poona; (ok) I am from Poona (ok) (so you just moved on and on.. ok) we just moved yeah.. my ancestral home and all was in Poona (so now you guys have settled down in Bombay or )… ehhhhh yeah we have settled down in Bombay, my parents keep still moving. They are in Indore and Bombay, both places.

SS: So throughout this journey, when you did IDC and went into animation … what was driving you to get into animation and then back to IDC?

SR: Well... no when I was in JJ… actually I was in JJ post school, there wasn’t much of a … I didn’t spend that much time doing things that were general you know… I got into a special… it’s pretty specialized in that sense, so straight after school you are into that and I found that the course wasn’t giving me absolutely any theory… that pace was just not there. And it was very practical and it was very skill oriented, there was no analysis, there was hardly any history and I enjoyed all that … I enjoyed whatever little history we had; we didn’t have any design theory to fall back on. So I found that a big problem. Which is why I decided to come to IDC because I knew there was lot of structure here and you would go back to design theory to understand what you actually did in all those five years. So, that made me come here. But when I came here I infact told them that I wanted to do animation during my interview, and I was told that I was in the wrong place because they did not have any at that point. But I already wanted to do animation while I was in JJ, because I was into illustrations and I had been seeing films and that medium attracted me and I was trying to find a way to do it. And things were very tough then you know. Because now you know, now you have the net and you have lot of access to information and technology is very... its available to you ... Its easy and its around you, you can do things. We

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didn’t have all that then. Animation was a film medium, tough to make, you needed to know the process, see a lot of work. I saw only three film societies of which I was an active member. And I came here thinking I would do animation. But this exposed me to a completely different aspect of design and theory and all that. So I enjoyed doing this also and I tried to do projects, which were film related. So I did film, I did an audiovisual. We used to do audiovisuals then; and also all the research that I wanted to do, I was able to do here. The project that I did was on art history so there was a lot of reading involved and a lot of interpretation and things like that. Also for the second video project that I did there was a lot of research to be done, a lot of reading to be done. So I think, this course really fulfilled those needs.

SS: About your experience at RCA… post

SR: No. I still wanted to do animation. I hadn’t done animation. Which is why I thought the best way to do it would be to join an animation set up and learn on the job and I joined Ram Mohan studio, because that really was the only place then... in the ... when did I pass out (!)… 89… 89 from IDC… 87 I joined here 89 I passed out … and immediately after, I joined Ram Mohan and I was there for six months. Again it was a place where they did only commercials so you know and that was just not the work I liked doing. I found out immediately that this was not what I wanted to do. But I understood the process very clearly. I knew how animation was made and all those insights came in then. And also I found out that I could not function in a very unstructured setting. It was completely unstructured and you had to have your skills in place and I did not have that…I had to learn animation on the job. I had a bit of interesting work there and whatever I liked I did and he was open to that luckily. I thought that it was still not fulfilling what I wanted to do. I still wanted to make my own thing, say my own thing and not, doing commercials and being given a storyboard and do as per that. So I went to TISS and that was a wonderful learning ground for me again and there you had this set-up where you had to make films on social science and you know other social issues. And there you were given a complete… you know which meant that you had to make the film yourself. Which meant to do your research, you shoot yourself, you carry your camera, you go all over, you do recky’s, you travel and you come back with the footage, you edit it, you put sound and you make the product yourself and you know which is a meaningful product in the end. Would be useful to other people to understand certain issues. And the issues I dealt with then were really interesting for me. Because those were things I had never really been in contact… I did one on mental health; I saw all the facilities available and actually lived with the people: really interesting experience. Another film I made was on parenting_ unsighted parents bringing up sighted children, so all the issues to do with that. I had like two solid projects, which came out of it while I was there. (And that was work!) That was work, and that was my work you know, it was very interesting.

SS: So how did you decide to join TISS because that was a very…

SR: Yeah… I wanted to do film and animation. So that was one way of doing films, which were, you know not commercial. Yeah and also I didn’t want to do fiction and all that. I wanted to do documentary and information and education and all that.(pause) And after that yeah I still wanted to do animation (laughs) ... I started an animation film there at TISS and I got a lot of the drawings ready and it was a good… and the film is still… is in the making (laughs) and then I got a scholarship to RCA and I decided to go to RCA and worked all that out and went for two years.

SS: So what was that film about, which is still in the making?

SR: That’s called the ‘Adventures of Gol Gol’ and talks about all the rights of the child from the point of view of this little character called Gol Gol and she comes from outer space and sees this … you know what’s going on in the world here and it goes on and it’s all told in the form of a song and it is still being made (laughs)

SS: What is the reason for the choice of such strong thought provoking topics?

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SR: I think there is so much of energy that goes into the making of animation I think at the end of it, it better be very useful, stands the test of time, something that has a life which goes beyond that whatever... like selling a product or (and is this as practical as this or there is something more) and these are the issues that attract me definitely and yeah one should identify with what one is doing … you can’t … I mean I just can’t identify with making an ad about something that I don’t care about... it doesn’t excite me..

SS: And something like … adventures of Gol Gol which has been on for so long... like ten years... so what happens to the subject and the story? As now things are changing so fast… so does your story change?

SR: Yeah… no ... I think all my work is sort of independent of time… independent of the technology of the time… you know like it doesn’t really matter whether I am making on the platforms available today or made it on the platforms then. I think the content is really independent of that and I think which is why one can make it even today. And I think all those issues are pertinent even now. Rights of the child are still important. I mean things haven’t changed that drastically over the last ten years. Things aren’t that positive or anything. Change is still important. Awareness is still needed. And I think that story ... and the way that story is told is not one of those, do this and don’t do that… it is very (lyrical) lyrical, and its implicit and you know it is not overstating what it ‘s trying to say… it’s not trying to sell you an idea or trying to convert you in that sense. It’s trying to sensitize you in a nice way I think; which is why it can still be made today.

SS: So the content obviously is more important than the medium!

SR: Yeah... yeah … though for me animation as a medium is also equally important, very important.

SS: Madam something about the works I saw. Something about the way the works have moved from Harvest to Mani’s dying to Naja goes to school and finally the Childhood of Krishna. Correct me if I am wrong. When I saw Harvest, this is what I felt the story was about in a few sentences. Talks about a rural setting, its harvest time set in a happy and lively setting, couple is working, after first produce husband gets drunk and there is friction in the household. The animation ends on a note of friction. Is this the story line?

SR: (Nods) The basic story line is about a situation where the man and woman agree on something… ok we need to till the land near our hut and we’ll work equally hard. They do work equally hard, get the harvest and then the man tries to short-change the woman. He says we will share everything half and half. I will take the top half of the produce and you take the bottom half. She knows what he is doing, that he’s trying to short-change her. She takes the root and he takes the grain and he goes sells it off and gets drunk as he gets money. What she does is replants the root and then what she gets in the next half is all hers. So he has nothing at the end of it. So the whole story is all about this man-woman relationship. So that’s what the story is about.

SS: So this was done at RCA! This was done at RCA. Something about what inspired you and basic triggers.

SR: The thing was I was doing MPhil there and the MPhil was by basic research, by a project… called research by project. So you were supposed to produce something, which supports what you were saying. Yeah and my ... the topic of my thesis was ‘indigenous images and narratives for socially relevant animation’. Sort of a reaction to what I had been seeing here for many years. You know I knew that what people were seeing here was sort of those Disney animations… all the mainstream stuff and I was kind of reacting to that. You know there’s a mindset here that animation is sort of a cartoon, is funny, is for children and that’s it, period. And I was trying to change that perception through kind of meaningful work really and this was something, which I

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had actually gone and seen in these warli villages. I had gone and met the painters, seen their lives, saw what they were doing and they told me these stories. What struck me was that you know that the language is prescribed. What is to be drawn, how is it to be drawn, what materials to be used. Everything is there and prescribed but the stories they tell you‘re very contemporary. This was the story, which came out of their own set up. You know they knew how people behave and act and react and within that also there‘re lot of little elements which come from a visual language which is, which is involved. They know what is what. They know what the tree stands for, what the monkey stands for. There everything has a meaning, which is implicit and understood by them. So it’s a visual language, which they would understand, and they would be able to decipher and there is a way in which to see the painting. So I was trying to bring all that into the animation, you know you were supposed to... I want a wall… huts are not lit, so once you go in, you actually don’t see any thing and once your eyes get used to the low light, you start seeing these little things that shimmer on the wall. You start from one point and it grows and becomes something else and something else and something else. And it’s always cyclic and circular…. the painting. So it’s not like a linear format. So I thought that was very interesting, the fact that we don’t have such linear storylines which was a very western concept… once upon a time…. beginning middle end kind of thing… here its all circular cyclic. You can start anywhere and then you can come back to that point… you know. So I thought that storytelling was extremely interesting, that form of storytelling and the fact that it was understood by a group without saying anything you know. It was all there. It was always sung and told. And also the kind of music that you hear. It was the kind of instruments they have. They are very, very … (basic) seem primitive and the sound that comes out

SS: but this ends on a very negative, frictional note. Was that a conscious attempt or …

SR: It’s the story. It’s the story. They have laid it out in that manner. And you know, why there was a pull out towards the end is because you see a little, little, little, little… you know the story and then at the end of it you see the entire painting, because you don’t see it right at the beginning. So those were some of the devices that we used to show the story.

SS: But, your experience of warli happened way back when you were (yeah when I was here)… and out of all the experiences which you would have had right through the army background… traveling to different parts… you choose this…. There could have been any other choice. The choice of a darker theme … does that lend to a more serious attempt from you?

SR: Well… it just happens to be dark... the themes. I didn’t sit down and (because the other two are also extremely dark) that’s right, that’s right. It’s just that these stories attracted me. May be its to do with how you are as a person and what appeals to you and what doesn’t you know.

SS: So how are you as a person?

SR: I mean… I mean… Well I’m certainly not such a dark person at all… (laughs)

SS: Exactly, Because I was wondering when you have a dark theme like this, where the story is set, the plot is set, the characters are set... and so your role gets limited right… as a person or as a designer. What’s your role?

SR: Yeah…no … but in this case you know it was all very deliberate an attempt… in the two films… Mani’s Dying and this one… which were part of my thesis and I was trying to kind of articulate all these ideas through these films… the idea of narrative, the kind of personal narrative that we have, and how language is shared… you know how a visual language could be shared. So these were things that I was doing more like a… they were… very sort of… informed by the study. So it wasn’t just like that also. A lot of research went into making of these films. And it’s just that I chose… I needed to do one visual narrative and I needed to do one literary narrative. So those were the only choices that I actually made. And I knew I wanted to draw upon something that already exists as the starting point for the film. ‘Mani’s Dying’ I happened to have read in

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translation though It was a marathi novel… but I thought it really fitted into my idea of what a contemporary … it’s a watershed in marathi literature, this particular story and the way its written; because it again breaks all the linearity and it goes back and forth in time… within even one sentence you know. I thought that was a very Indian way of telling stories. Or our whole sense of time is like that … we are always living in the past and the future. We are never like only in the present. We are always with something else also. I thought that sort of captures this whole sense of time, which is completely alien to what happens in the west. They are very very rooted in what happens right now; right there with whatever is around them.

SS: Madam so the second attempt ( mani’s dying ) was an absolute translation of the novel or there were… inputs from your side too!

SR: Oh yeah definitely... I mean it wasn’t in a form that could be taken directly. Because there was a lot of writing that was visual which you have to remove then… because you are anyways putting that into the film. And it is an interpretation… out and out… there is nothing… when I showed it to the author… the author teaches in Mumbai university, Dr. Nimade, and he was quite shocked by the (laughs) … I mean he didn’t see it like that… it was completely different from how he saw it.

SS: So how did he see it!

SR: The characters are very... you have seen it right... that again... people are not used to seeing that kind of thing in animation. It’s tough for them to relate to that. And also the kind of pace, the sense of movement is not very comfortable. The palette is not very comfortable in terms of the way it looked. But I had certain ideas in terms of the way I drew upon and I made that film like that for certain reasons… from all my study and research and this and that you know. Because actually the story talks about… it goes on… it’s a very complex story and at the end of this incident he says… it says in the film also that the college plans a trip to Ajanta… so he went to Ajanta. So when he goes to Ajanta is this huge part of this book because he comes face to face with these images of Buddha and when he stands there he understand what suffering and death is all about. So he comes to terms with the dying of his sister. Whereas before that he was raging against it you know… and he was fighting and hitting everybody and he was blaming everybody for it. And whereas everybody’s reaction is different because in India... people are dispensable in a sense… you know because that’s the attitude from where it’s set. Because they have so many children and they don’t have that kind of economics… state is quite bad… rural setting rural people... they have three daughters; again the girl child is not valued you know. The boys are always of great value and importance. If he had died of course there would have been great upheaval but he’s like… he says in the letter also you know… you don’t worry too much because you have three more sisters. Yeah… with one gone its alright… but though... its not like they don’t love her… everyone loves her... is attached to her… like the grandma and the mother relate to her and she relates to them. There is a very strong bond and relationship. But I think we live in this kind of a mental state that you come to terms with things… with very (pause) difficult things… because you know you’re living a very hard life… living in tough conditions. So you do tend to come to terms with all that.

SS: Madam the choice of words... like ‘diabolic business’, ‘quiet in her work’, ‘don’t take it too much to heart’, ‘they buried everything that had touched her’. Is that a reflection of your own personal experience or…!

SR: No this is from the book ... from the writing; this was the kind of language that was used. And I think this tells you about the attitudes… like everything that touched her bed… because she suffers from smallpox… and they didn’t want to spread to the other people… those constraints were also there because they didn’t have that kind of medical help and …

SS: but in the end does the author hold her mom more responsible than the grandmother… because she doesn’t speak to her mom in the end…

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SR: Mani holds her mother more responsible because the mother doesn’t come to her... she is holding that other little girl… Nalli ... so obviously you want your mother naa... you want your mother to be with you and ... but mani is five years old and she wouldn’t understand and how will she understand and mother understands that she has a responsibility towards the other children, so she is more…

SS: When you have such a complex novel and when as an animator, you’re interpreting a novel... which has so much more to it…. you highlight certain things. You’re playing GOD. How do u decide this and play a good GOD? How do you go about it!

SR: Yeah, I think it finally boils down to the person making it. I am sure another person will make a completely different film out of the same material. If this is available to you, you will make a different story. So I think you’re always interpreting everything. It’s always a point of view… definitely and you can’t run away from that. Because anyway you’re informing your work from a stance, your point of view, your background, where you come from and you know how you look at a certain thing. Because you can’t be so clinical and so removed from things you know…

SS: And the kind of work you do it’s better to have a subjective opinion, an extreme point of view!!

SR: Is it extreme? I don’t think so (laughs)…

SS: Ok not extreme but take a stand, which is strong and thought provoking.

SR: Yeah… there were other little things also that I did in the film like I studied Ajanta films as a cue for the visual quality of the film because you know he spends a lot of time at Ajanta as soon as this gets over… so I looked at the painting and I looked at the way the characters were suspended on the wall… how did you go from one cave to another… what took you from one story to another… because there were stories within that also because they telescope one into the other and another… and that’s what really makes me travel through the caves and that’s really what I tried to do… I mean its not anything like that painting... but that sense of what happened there informs the way this film was made… you know… very 2d, on kind of surfaces which have nothing behind them… how when one thing goes to the other. SS: Tell me one thing; you compared the western way and the eastern way. Your choice of choosing an eastern theme… is it owing to an emotional appeal or something else!

SR: No, it’s just that I identify with the story, I love the story, I find it very powerful… only then would I spend a year and a half to make films like that. I pick it up simply because I could relate to it and it appeals to me. Many times you’re accused of taking themes to appeal to someone. Infact it was so well received there, people just loved it there, absolutely loved it whereas here it was absolutely rejected… the animation fraternity that is. So I saw both the reactions. People over there would be crying, tissues in their hands and stuff like that ... seeing an animation film and that too a short one… tough to tell a story again in a short time span. And they were very attracted to the kind of colours that were used, but that wasn’t made so that it would appeal to them. It appealed to meYou know and I think if it appeals to you as an artist I am sure it would reach somebody somewhere. They found that interesting, the story… interesting, the characters interesting, the look interesting, the narrative interesting. Infact they said they had never seen an animation like this.

SS: Do you think the audience there is more mature than here!

SR: They see a lot of stuff like this… so in that sense they are more tuned to accepting different things. So they value different things, they value somebody’s point of view. Here they’re very

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straight jacketed. In animation terms, the animation fraternity thought, oh my God what have you done you know, it doesn’t look like animation. Unfortunately here you cannot show to the public. There are no platforms apart from festivals.

SS: I find this a very paradoxical situation... though people here are faced with such hardships, and live in different layers and time zones; they do not want to see this reflected in films or animations….

SR: Yeah they don’t want this to be an extension of real life... they see it more for fun and pastime.

SS: Ok, something about the third animation- ‘Naja goes to school’… now it’s getting more into team efforts. How do you handle teams?

SR: See, I’m not very good at working with many people. I prefer it alone and being able to relate to whoever can relate to my work (laughs) Big set ups are not my choice. I am not good at working with them.

SS: Ok, about the music… do you give inputs?

SR: Most definitely…yeah… infact all of it… ‘Mani’s Dying’ and ‘Harvest’ are done by the same person. And I just say what I am looking for… i.e to say the quality of music I’m looking for, after the person has seen the animation. Like it’s more raw, not orchestrated, or its sparse … lot of interesting instruments were used. It’s a back and forth process and we work together on it. It’s very collaborative and we both have to agree. I was also very happy with ‘Naja goes to school’. That was done by somebody else.

SS: ‘Naja goes to school’ is your story!

SR: No it’s an autobiography of a dalit writer called Shanta Bai Kamble. She is very old, extremely old now. It’s her story, a true story.

SS: I was a bit puzzled with the ending in ‘Naja Goes to School’! I wasn’t able to relate to it. It ends with ‘so I stayed at home’.

SR: Yeah, she had to give up school you know. Only because of the circumstances. So that was how she stopped going to school. (It leaves a very big gap). Yeah. But I think it should be seen in the context of history. And you know the whole dalit movement has been very strong in Maharashtra now, because they have all rebelled against what has happened to them and socially how they were treated. And being a dalit women was even harder… much much worse than being a dalit man. So she had, like a dual problem really. And how she got out of it , became this huge writer and everyone knows who she is in the maharashtrian community. So in that context people would be able to relate and understand what is being said. One off may be, if you don’t know the context you may not be able to relate too much to it. Most people know about this story.

SS: Because I felt that the link to caste bias was limited to that one off incident when she goes to her friend’s house, which happens to be a Brahmin’s house. Other than that I felt it is more about girl education!

SR: It’s just that this other girl is a Brahmin’s daughter so she is so privileged, you know, it doesn’t matter if she goes to school. She has the opportunity and you know and she is not interested in her studies. She is not dumb but it is not important for her to be good at her work and she is not quite interested in her studies. And then there is this little girl who is very interested

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in her studies but she can’t go. So it is just the contrast owing to the social circumstances. And they are friends!

SS: Even the choice of our themes is at a very basic, grass roots, and existential level. Whereas outside they have gone beyond and explored many other themes. Much more exploratory!

SR: Yeah, that’s right.

SS: Now, how would you define culture especially with the kind of background you have?

SR: For us, though we moved around… and my parents in that sense were not very maharashtrian … our first language was hindi... more of a survival thing… because you were in a situation where not many people spoke marathi so there is really no point knowing only marathi. So we learnt Hindi for communication. That’s how we started out.However in our case we had very strong links in Poona where rest of our family was. We kept coming back during vacations in the summer and that was the only link. But we are seen like aliens in our family… bad marathi and we are not like the rest of them and u know all that is there and all my sisters are not married to maharashtrians… so all that mess is there (laughs)

SS: So how would you define culture!

SR: I think the fact that u live in India and can’t run away from these little basic grass root issues, the people, the issues and life and problems and the sense of time… you know that is the kind of values, the culture you imbibe... you see around you… wherever you go you see Indian people with local issues and problems and you derive from that all the time. Though it is some kind of potpourri…. Despite the surface differences we are very similar deep within... no matter how privileged you are… one can’t… you know… you are very much in touch with reality…

SS: So how is it different from other countries in the developing world?

SR: I don’t know what it’s like there … there too you can’t run away from reality… it’s too stark and in the face… ……….. And you’ll know all this when you go to live somewhere else. I lived in London and it’s so odd… it’s like being sanitized and put in a bubble. There is no sense of reality and proportion. Life is just about you… going to work and back and having a great weekend. All this makes you crave to come back home. That perception that there are people who are wanting and have needs is just not there. Our realities are very very tough.

SS: How do you get this in your work apart from the choice of the theme?

SR: Lot of things Infact… for every film the ingredients have a link, a source that’s rooted and informed by something, somewhere... everything has a reason… some little reference from which it grows.

SS: Now, you talk about our realities being tough and we are very in the face, but the fourth work… ‘Childhood of Krishna’ seems very commercialized… which is certainly not you!

SR: Yeah, absolutely. I got a call from there and It‘s a proper collaborative film... had lot of money involved… it’s for the British kids. Infact initially it was very alien... the script was theirs, not mine in that sense. Krishna would call his father dad, and you know then Vasudev would kiss after the wedding (laughs) (So did you influence these changes?) I was part of the team and all the discussions. However they do give you a lot of space.

SS: What does it do to you as a person when you‘re involved in such a commission?

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SR: When this film was made (1998), there was no animation happening here… outsourcing had just about started. No trained people, we had very few people who could do any animation work on this. There was limited time period and I could do it here or there. So we set up the studio here, we could buy the softwares. The money was big, here it is very tough. Lot of postproduction was done there. So it was fun to see the process.

SS: So where is you heart!

SR: I am pretty embarrassed about it (laughs), I would still talk about ‘Harvest’ and ‘Mani’s dying’ and ‘Naja goes to school’.

SS: Madam how would you define creativity.

SR: For me it’s always triggered by something… always sourced... maybe it could be a story… always preserve all that I do… and keep going back.

SS: And how do you compare works? Your works!

SR: Well my own works… the seed and source are so different... I wouldn’t really compare it. I would define independent frameworks and parameters. The visual and literary narrative has its own logic. SS: For students works!

SR: What I normally tend to do, apart from picking technical loopholes, I ask people to do their own thing and say it in their own way. It’s easy for me to react to the films. I don’t say that this is good or this is bad. It’s their work and I tell them to say it their way. Don’t go to certain prescribed norms or rules.

SS: Is this “say your own thing” or “do it your way” possible in other fields…apart from animation?

SR: It’s very tricky… as more and more you go towards applied art... there‘re many other forces at play. Though personally though I have done applied art I always feel like a fine art person. And it is very important to stretch the medium by saying your own thing. Else you would just be following laid down rules and patterns.

SS: Madam how would you define identity?

SR: Identity is being able to say your own thing and not care about what others say or how they react. Even if they say… O gosh, this is not a good film or this is not animation. Somewhere you shouldn’t care about that. Infact I have been told that I have been very brave to make such films.

SS: But is there a notion of Indian Identity anywhere!

SR: I don’t think there’s any running away or escaping this reality… we are all so steeped in that… you’re grounded even if you’re on the highest flat on Peddar road. This reality comes into your work. The experiences are so many, so constant. If you don’t respond to it... I think you’re strange.

SS: And how do you see this happening in the future!

SR: I think it’s quite a powerful onslaught that we have right now. The imagery, everything that you see here, even though the media seems very westernized…we still have our own sense of proportion… And in the future too… we would have our own sense of style and time despite the

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onslaught from the west. There are enough people who are reading and writing and are serious. There will be those too who might think otherwise but I am sure they will grow out of it.

SS: Madam, some of these films, there is a level that the animator animates…. Is that the end… does it come back to the people?

SR: Not in this case… I haven’t been able to take it back to them.

SS: Pardon me saying this but sometime I feel that it is like I have used this dark theme, I have been appreciated by another set of people totally detached from this theme and I have been like this intermediary who is getting everything out of this.

SR: Hmm… no I don’t think I would look at it like that, because I have very much identified with these issues and problems and things that are there in these films. I think I have been very much a part of it. I don’t see myself being very privileged. It’s like a collective consciousness, which is there in us and you can’t run away from it. It’s very much part of us and part of me. I mean I haven’t gone through the experiences of the protagonist or in an extreme situation like the harvest but I think subtly also they are affecting you.

SS: Most of these are negative things about India right. If we leave them out, does it then make India less rich…! If we do not have a repository of negatives... dark themes here in India... does it make us less rich?

SR: No not at all… infact every place has its own kind of darker, serious issues- it’s human, these won’t go away. The manifestations are different. This whole politics between the sexes, haves and have-nots, power play, privileged and under privileged. There is no utopian situation anywhere in the world... there can’t be.

SS: Can you make a movie like this without getting emotionally attached to it?

SR: You know in these cases from the time that you get emotionally charged and to the time that it actually transforms into a movie, there is a huge, huge time thing you know. That lapse is very big. It’s not that you stop identifying with it, but just that the entire mechanics of making that happen and still bringing that emotion to the film does happen in some way. It’s quite a painful process. Identifying with the movie is one thing, bringing it to your work is another and finally actually making the movie is yet another painful process.

SS: Over the years, how have your works changed!

SR: Somehow circumstances in India are such that I can’t make such films constantly. So I came to teach and here I can actually make some kind of contribution to animation. Plus there is lot of research and growth, which can happen. Now there are lot of things- animations, music video, children books and films, folk stories. Lot of things happening, but yeah nothing like the films that I would like to make. But yeah I hope as soon as that is over I would like to get back to the stuff I love.

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Transcript of conversation between Artist Baiju Parthan andProf. Raja Mohanty

Prof. Raja Mohanty (RM): …about things like java and html?

Artist Baiju Parthan (BP): yeah, yeah I am a level one-java programmer, so I did all that. Maybe because I have a science back ground that helps me to sort of not have much problems that way…But I am not a programmer as such I wouldn’t be able to.. But I can steal code and reshape it and you know.. I can do code!! So I’m good at that, (laughs) so that’s what I do, I pick up a lot of fragments from here and there, reshape it and then re write the code and fit it into my needs, so that way I’m good at that So.. This was all done that way.

RM: So what does the “oracle” do?

BP: Uhh…it’s based on this Chinese I-Ching, if you’re familiar with it? So I have created this whole database with a randomizer which picks up the reading and gives you a coding with the time and you know the date of the day, its is like that. So most of the time… Ummm. I mean I can’t say it is exactly right because that accuracy is what you read in into it. When the answer comes you reflect and you try to fit it in… you know… (Laughs) that what you do! Actually, the truth is that. But it can be uncannily accurate for many people so. Most of the time it’s the reaction. The work was projected as a kind of question as such: would you… how much would you trust a machine you know that’s the question. If it tells you to do some thing would you do it or not? I was sort of referring to the shift from the machine/modernist era where it’s a dehumanizing, industrializing giant thing to the personal computer which is so personal that you have to, you know you personalize it, you customize it, its your own. So how far you would trust a machine that was the whole issue. So this work was quite successful because you could see the actual code and then sort of you know see it work as a sort of intelligence, it simulates a kind of intelligence so, some people would get frightened, some people would get hooked onto it so it was fantastic! It was interesting. Oh, people used to go and used to come back every five minutes to ask questions... all sorts of questions. So that level of interactivity… so that became an issue.

RM: And this was… so this was displayed as a separate piece of work by itself?

BP: ah, Yes it was, it was inside.. Because there are many festivals, new media art festivals that happen. So this work was exhibited in Glasgow, London, Japan, Austria, Lisbon... so many places. somehow this has… I mean it has always become a representation of my work. I have done other works also of the same kind, which uses this … simulates intelligence kind. But this has been most popular; predicts future .. so of course!! (laughs) though not exactly future.. But apparently, kind of.

RM: so, do you seamlessly move across medias? (Without any problem) Would you talk a little bit about that?

BP: Yeah, I do I do… Without any problem. I think you know it’s about like I said its sort of the magic of art making which is something which keeps me continuing painting. It’s something, which is inexplicable. Sounds very mysterious and all this, and always one is accused of mystifying thing but it is true I would say that. Because I was recently listening to this very famous American painter Philip Kristen, he was an abstract painter, well known. So at one point he stopped it completely and became a figurative painter he started doing paintings almost like cartoons like you know… he said,” I am sick of all that purity, I want to start telling stories”. That was the reason he gave. But I think he became much more larger a figure than when he was an abstractionist. But he is dead and gone. But one important thing, which he spoke about, was this

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inexplicable aspect of art where the painting takes over you, when the work takes over you. That I think is a moment of transcendence. I’m sure one can many times as Benson would say, what is known as “élan bittal” its this vital force of the universe which creates everything. At times you feel that, that maybe you know you’re synchronizing yourself with that. One has to forget oneself completely. It’s a minor trance like state I would say. Not a claim as such but one feels something of that kind. So that magic of painting has always kept me coming back to painting again and again and again. So when people ask me what am I, I say okay I’m a new media artist but primarily I’m a painter, but I do this other thing also. That one is more contemporary I feel, it relates to existential issues of how to accommodate something which is inanimate but appears to be something that’s essential... At one point machine intelligence. I am interested in how we relate to it because we construct ourselves in relation to the other all the time. So I am interested in how we are going to see ourselves after some time. That’s personal but as a painter when I paint I go into a bit of metaphysical aspect, a painting for me is always like a mirror for a viewer. I can encode certain energies and significance into the painting but I feel the painting is ultimately brought alive by the viewer who invests so much into it. Everybody doesn’t relate to a painting in the same way because it depends on each one of us to relate, we have to invest such an amount of our energies and thought process into it. So, my job would be to extract as much as possible from my viewer. I see it that way. My paintings are relatively dense; they are not very simple in many ways. Maybe they are like a miniature in certain ways because there are so many things happening in it… there are many minute details and each detail has a functional relationship with the other items happening out there. So it becomes a way of finding out these relationships. You sort of look at them and try to wonder why it is so. So I enjoy creating that sort of an interaction instead of an instant look and saying whether its good or bad. So it’s a sort of a dense work that I do. Though the images are photographic in many ways but my space is not a space that is made up of linear perspective, European style of work, some how I have stuck to the Indian or the eastern notion of space which is space more as a construct… its not liner depth oriented one point, but it is spread across, diffused, it goes laterally, rather than deep into the work. So space is I think in that sense very eastern… almost miniature like, I mean in India we have miniatures, which is the foremost example of that kind of space. So that way it has remained. So that’s the mix which I do… it is a very… pictorially space is eastern but the content is sort of

Have your tea

RM: How often… as in what is your work Schedule like?

BP: I have a studio in Nalasopara actually, this is an apartment with one room here and…

RM: Nalasopara is after Vasai?

BP: Yes, its after Vasai

RM: So you go there everyday …? And straight come back?

BP: Yeah

..break…

… A very unusual time... this was the late seventies... Early eighties so you know the hippies were there in Goa. So that’s where I went… I rebelled to study art and came to Goa and there was this absolute anti establishment people, very happily moving around. So I was quite fascinated by them the hippies.. at that time there was no term like hippie… we didn’t call them that…. But I was quite fascinated by them. I read a lot of the parallel literature, which was associated with the 60’s movement. So I had always this antiestablishment streak in me. After meeting the hippies in Goa and reading all this literature like Leary and Kiruwa one realizes that well one need not always conform to be happy. I think it was a good revelation. …. Because you know coming from Kerala you are instantly expected to conform to certain rules of society, you

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know... its instilled in you… you have to conform to certain rules of road… there’s a tremendous sense of social surveillance… you are being watched all the time. I mean it is a good thing, a wonderful thing. But for an artist it can be really difficult to face it day in and day out. So for me Goa was a place…it’s a formative space in that sense…

But then those attitudes came into my art also. What happened was we were again following the academic way of doing things. I mean our college and course was based on the bauhausian, german you know approach to art. Which is very goodno question about it, wonderful... but that was again an establishment for me I didn’t want to do that….

RM: So when you say Bauhausian what do you mean

BP: this was a curriculum that was followed. I mean we were the guinea pigs in that sense. Before JJ introduced this BFA course it was implemented in Goa, so that’s where I joined. My degree is from Bombay University surprisingly, as Goa didn’t have a university. So it was tested out on us. This course was designed by Bauhaus school. It was being successfully used there. So that was imported directly here. I mean we had to study aesthetics and this many hours of art history …. There is a two years foundation on colour theory. It was about materials, pigments which was very good I thought and then three years you do specialization and then again it is structured .You get the rudiments of murals and portraiture and in the last year of course print making was taught, thoroughly… but then the final specialization you choose. For me anyway the curriculum was establishment. And I wanted to do something different. So that’s why I went into philosophy. Maybe bring in something which is my own and very different. Which I think It wasn’t a success in that sense. Because what happened is that I lost faith in painting. (Laughs) Because the art history we were studying was completely western. I mean there were a few lines of Indian art history. But as you practice more and more Bauhausian art you realize that to be an artist you have to be a European that is a white man, a caucasian. That’s the hidden meaning, which used to come to us. Art history is European art history. Eastern things are, as you know insignificant. That was the message that used to filter down. So it was very difficult to experience that sort of loss because I had, for me this was a, I had left so many things to become an artist, and then you realize that you cannot have anything. And at that time there was no art scene as we see today it was very different picture. If you’re a painter you have to starve or become a schoolteacher and teach drawing at the most... and everyone became a school teacher... there used to be this poster (Laughs) Or starve or sit in a shop and sell there… I have seen so many students doing that after spending five years doing this entire Bauhausian thing and they go they become real estate agents. So many times it happens its pathetic to see that. So for me it was very painful. So at once I lost my faith in the whole process and I thought I would not continue... And that’s the time I came to Bombay and I joined times of India and I was going through this phase of trying to reason out why I should continue being an artist. So, I had skills, I could draw and I could handle material. So illustrations were a good opportunity for me to make a living. It was very tough for many years but then things settled and became all right. But by that time I rekindled my passion for art and basically some sort of deep guilt started forming. (Laughs) So after two years of guilt I said I have to paint. If I don’t paint now I’ll die. That’s where I realized it’s much deeper, it’s an existential issue so, and then I started in the end. This is me I have to paint else I cannot be me.

RM: So this times job… (Something to the effect of did you plan to join Times Of India? … An advertisement you responded to…)

BP: I am not a person who can plan and execute things. Not that I cannot, I never try it. And then whenever I have tried it has never worked so i have given up. I had come to Bombay for a one week holiday and I was coming through Goa and one of my teachers had told another friend in Goa, who was becoming a cinematographer… who told me to go to the art director at the times of India in case I had any trouble and to just mention his name. So I myself went and talked to him (Laughs) and he said he could not give me work that way but he could give me freelance work. I used to earn around three hundred to four hundred rupees a month. Fortunately times had a very good canteen where you got lunch for one rupee so I survived on that (smiles) and then since I

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could do the science stuff very well, science today gradually took me in as a staff. So I was thinking maybe I would be here for a year or so, I had no clue how it happened. Then things happened… someone saw my work and offered a show. Then it gradually happened. At some point I realized that I was as doing more painting than work. The work became a problem for me at some point then I left after that. Lot of uncertainty was there… but still okay… then things settled… but after working at Times I realized I had to paint…

RM: you mentioned at some point that you were driven to philosophy... Could you tell about what that meant?

BP: initially I was very much into the eastern philosophy, of course that so called Zen philosophy, Taoism, Indian philosophy of course. Studied by myself. But later on when I came to Bombay I joined for masters in philosophy in the university of Bombay. I studied there…! Then I studied western philosophy… I was quite interested in that aspect of it. That helped me later on when I went to study programming. The symbolic logic and all those things, I knew what was happening; it wasn’t frightening. So I did that. I was very much interested in philosophy because lets say…uh... (long pause) I had maybe the need to dig into the things. I had to justify why I am so, why I am alive and what I am doing; that is the problem that I am interested in, and the quest, which is always there. So art for me also, I came to art because I had to find my self and in a way that turned out to be true because I wonder if I would be as complete as I am if I do any other job. It makes difference that way. Philosophy in that sense clarified a lot of things, there is no ambiguity.

RM: are there any particular people whose writings have influenced you?

BP: The most were all the writers of the hippie era who have influenced me the most. Like Carlos Castaneda... Have you heard of him? (yeah yeah) He was a major influence I would say because.. But later on I found all those in Wittgenstein, when I studied later on… the world is a description, in a very different way Carlos Castaneda had spoken about it because what was most attractive about his work was that he was an anthropologist, who went to study medicinal plants, esp. hallucinogenic plants. Ok it’s a biography that’s about 6 or 7 books. He speaks about the most outlandish things. But there is a core of very appealing truth in that is ultimately reality is a perception, its not hardness its perception and perception changes. You know for me that was big finding to get to know that. That’s why I could justify you known why I am an artist. I am a technician of perception and that became very interesting to me. That with practice I can shift perception I can mould them... Practically nobody else only an artist can do that, writer or artist, people who are actually reshaping the experience of real. So that was highly influential.Then of course, I read a lot of a lot of Aurobindo, Sri Aurobindo, I even went off to Pondicherry to join the ashram. …They drove me away though! Fortunately! (Laughs) I was also briefly associated, I was with my parents.

RM: … why did they drive you away?

BP: I was in my last year of college I had decided enough of art and painting and I went there. They were very nice but they said you have to do these things; they were very nice told me to think about it. They were very nice. And in a way I was very relieved they drove me away because it was a very strange decision and I don’t know what would have happened … I don’t think I would have been happy at all... It was a desperate attempt to get some meaning to life. So good they drove me away and I had to come back. Couldn’t get back to art even then, I was still lost … stumped. During my final dissertation I had quoted Aurobindo and all and my jury was very angry, because Aurobindo had said you should burn away all this because if it is of no use then what’s the point of producing art? He had said it in one place... he didn’t say it directly rather obliquely. He is a wonderful poet… At one place he said that….I remember…some how quoted that and they got very angry. I think it’s about that if all the art doesn’t help you to nudge your conscience then of what use is it. I mean I was quite against the historically defined meaning of painting, which was not doing that. I think that’s what he was saying. I felt that that was sort of amplifying the grossness. That was what I felt at that point. Most of the work that was happening

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was re-emphasizing what was negative. That was the way I saw it. So for me it made a lot of sense that if it doesn’t lift your conscience it, it dumps it down. So I said okay…I have attempted to get life defined... I don’t think I have completed it but I have got most of it... in between in between So I think Aurobindo influenced me a lot. Mostly because of my science degree, which is in natural science, I am a botanist, so I could identify with the evolution of a model of consciousness, which is self evident, truth. Which later, of course when I read Castaneda I found it more attractive, I felt he had taken it a little further. Because “super mind” was too vague I felt, when Aurobindo speaks of the super concept of mind. Almost the same thing in Castaneda, which he calls as the third attention, different kinds of attention which human awareness, has. The attention of the everyday world is what he calls the first attention. There is a higher degree of attention, which you develop, which is the second attention, metaphors, dreams and other things like that. And then there is the third attention, which encompasses all these things onto one. Which I felt was a certain amount of parlance, which I was attracted to. This too I think was most influential. Then later on there were other influences. But during my formative years these were the major influences. Anyway I think Carlos Castaneda’s books brought me back into art, it saved me in many ways, because after coming to that point where I thought there was no point in doing art, I went into art later on because of Carlos Castaneda. I think that was the point I was interested in the root of how art came into being, shamanism, which I think is still valid, relevant. How art came into being, how to arrive at a practice which is outside the institutionalized system of producing art. These books created an interest in anthropology, Castaneda’s books, so I went and then did a course in comparative mythology in Bombay University. This philosophy masters I never got a chance to complete it. I did the first and the second year and I a never mention in my bio... Comparative mythology I did as an attempt to get into cultural anthropological studies. It was a major help.

RM: what did you study?

BP: It was a study of global mythological motifs of parallels between cultures and comparisons of motifs, differences. So you come to know there is a particular structure to worldview making. Each culture has its own worldview. You come to know there is a structure to worldview making. The components of the worldview are the notions of ethics; behaviors, morality and you know so many things. Where the world began and where it is going to, and within that the individual charts his trajectory of life. That’s a very important knowledge for me. So studying this I came to know why an Indian is an Indian and a Japanese a Japanese. Their worldviews are different. Their cultures are different because their worldviews are different. That’s where I came across shamanism. Because shamanism belongs to the pre-agricultural society... specially the hunter-gatherer society. Before the hunter-gatherer settled down and became an agricultural society where you have a key figure… proper religious figure… before religion comes as a religion as in the agricultural society. So before that, this shaman who is also called the seer or the medicine man in the American language, he is the one who describes the world to his people. He is the one who creates a worldview. He is the worldview maker. That the world started this way, these are the things we have to do, this is the way it turns and this is what happens when we die and so on. One individual creates all this. And the tools of creating this worldview are one by trance, second by visioning and third is by painting. Because shamans were wonderful artists they all could draw. And because this was before written languages all was recorded through drawings. All great rock paintings, which we see, are shamanistic paintings. So the shaman is the first artist. Then when religion starts and the people settle down, these tools that people used to express this worldview get separated from the shaman and exist by themselves. Initially they exist as ritual objects like, like Warli paintings, from then on they separate off and become entities by themselves, as art. I was very interested to find this connection between shamanism and art making. So a lot of my earlier paintings when I started again, after this gap or break from the institutionalized historically defined painting, when I started I called a lot of my work shamanistic. Because I was trying to connect to that core of an individual trying to face the cosmos alone. How would I see the world and how would I define it? So a lot of the paintings that time are all about the elements, a lot of them are about the earth and the wind and the fire. They were personalized and anthropomorphized as beings and things so I was literally trying to recreate that shamanistic

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reality and live that experience and paint it. So I did that for many years. But gradually of course, it grew into other things. This comparative mythology helped me a lot to define it. Its very interesting experience because it’s a combination of all the studies in philosophy and this when it came together it gave this total world view. I mean, I knew as an artist I could define a total worldview.

RM: did you for instance say study the South American people?

BP: Haan, I did yes, I did a lot of study. …… (smiles) especially for me it was more fascinating because I live in an urban setting, to have this layer of magic and metaphysics, which is you know stripped away when you become a urban person. So how to recapture it became an issue for me. Still be here and still connect back to that. So, then later when I moved around I saw a lot of underground activity in Bombay. Bombay on the surface is a very rational, a very ambitious, driven place. But there are so many strange religions.. strange pockets. So many people who worship strange crystals. So once in a while I bump into… I have some sources here and there. And its very interesting, that need, that tremendous necessity to have another dimension to life. It’s essential and without it people go crazy. So you keep finding these tantrics and so many things. And of late I find that the ‘rave ‘ scene, that is the religion of today for many people. Most of them experience a very deep and profound sense of connectivity only when you’re in a rave party. Especially also the drug also helps. Ecstasy helps greatly, definitely. But there are some of my friends who don’t take drugs but still go because they say they can connect to something much larger than life. So it’s a sub-culture for me that is very interesting. These pockets that try to recapture the thread of that something, which is invisible. However you may rationalize it, it is necessary I mean. Without it one cannot go on.

RM: so how, if I may ask you, that some people feel this need and some people don’t.

BP: I think everybody needs that. I think it appears in each ones life in different stages that’s all. I may say that I don’t need it, which simply means that at a later point I’m going to need it (smiles).

RM: so it is universal!

BP: Haan yes I definitely feel so. I definitely feel so. Otherwise from an extremely rational point of view, human existence can be defined as an organism that lives and dies. I mean there is no meaning to it. Its this core that I think generates everything. Makes life more worthwhile in many ways. Directly or indirectly, one may not be even aware of it. A lot of people I know are rational people. I mean science has almost become a religion, I mean they believe in science. I am very much fascinated by science. I don’t believe in anything. I don’t believe in science also, I don’t believe in anything. We need metaphysical positions within ourselves; science for many people has become a substitute for that. That happens all the time. It’s there… Or like that movie ‘matrix’ you know it has fascinated so many people. The suggestion that okay…. (Trails off)

…. Walks into the studio… looking at works from a distance…“ That’s my usual approach… I bring in images from two different contexts and tend to relate them…

… Life is nothing but a series of semiotic tensions…”

…Turns the computer on… discussing his works …

“… That’s F N Souza’s work... usually I find it difficult to connect up intimately with anybody… but he’s different, very different than me but somehow we connected up

… I don’t relate to other artists work, I feel uncomfortable… I am anti-history in that sense (Laughs) “

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11. References

[1] Nancy Adjania, “Art and Craft – Bridging the Great Divide” in: The Art India (Jan 1999 – Mar 1999) pp. 34-41

Internet References

http://www.littlemag.com/faith/atuldodiya.html

http://www.cimaartindia.com/NewCima/Artists/ATULDODIYA.htm

http://www.indiantelevision.com/anex/y2k4/headlines/anex123.htm

http://www.paletteartgallery.com/artistbiography.asp?artistid=30

http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/masters/mahatma-gandhi/dodiya.asp

http://www.telegraphindia.com/1050108/asp/weekend/story_4226003.asp

http://www.lifepositive.com/Spirit/Brush-with-spirituality.asp

http://www.paletteartgallery.com/artistbiography.asp?artistid=27

12. Acknowledgements

I am grateful to my guide Prof. Raja Mohanty for his guidance and encouragement throughout this project. His guidance through this journey was indispensable.

I am also thankful to Prof. Shilpa Ranade and Artist Baiju Parthan for their candid views on various issues raised in the project.

I want to also thank my professor, Dr. Ajanta Sen for sharing her opinion about all the connected issues in this topic.

I am also grateful to IDC (the place, the space and the people) for giving me the freedom to express myself.

Finally, I would like to thank my parents, my computer, my camera, my dictaphone and the national power grid for being there when I needed them most.

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13. Bibliography

[1] The Art India, Art India Publishing Co Pvt Ltd, Jan 1999-Mar 1999

[2] K G Subramanyan, The Living Tradition Perspectives on Modern Indian Art, Seagull Books Calcutta, 1987

[3] Ranjit Haskote, Atul Dodiya Oil Paintings 19th January to 11th February 1995 Interim report, Gallery Chemould Mumbai, 1994

[4] Bhupen Khakkar, The ring of truth- Atul Dodiya New Paintings, Gallery Chemould Mumbai, 1997

[5] Raja Mohanty, Three Stones, Three Shildren and A Pillow, Handmade Book 1996

[6] Raja Mohanty, The Parable of a Rain Tree, Handmade Book 1997

[7] Raja Mohanty, 1 2 3 4 For All Those Who Weave Flowers, Handmade Book 1998

[8] Antonin Chekhov drawings by Raja Mohanty, The Student, Handmade Book 1999

[9] Raja Mohanty, An Old Hat - A silly Tale, Handmade Book 1999

[10] Ajanta Sen, Craft - Art – Design, Progress Report November 2003

[11] Sanjeev Shankar, Rethinking Modernism, Seminar Report November 2003

[12] Sanjeev Shankar and Uttiya Bhattacharya, Creativity, SPA College Magazine, 2002-03

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