Autonotes
Untitled 1977 |
My childhood was spent in Shimla. There is a kind of confrontation with the hills there. The sense of space is different in the mountains than in the plains. It was in relation to this space that I had to innovate my figures. My work is not descriptive in nature. It is basically gestural or may be it gives a kind of existential feeling. I should like to say that my figure does not behave like a figure, nor is it some kind of transformation. It is more like an assimilation with nature - the tree, the hillock, the bird, the wind, and so on. I was quite moved by the existentialist philosophy of Sartre and Camus, which might have brought this twist in my work. | ||||
| The element of assimilation with nature perhaps reflects the widely recognized Indian vision, wherein man emerges from the earth and disappears into the earth. It is a notion that brings man and nature to gether, rather than put the two in conflict. This thought also reminds me of Sartre's Being and Nothingness on the one hand, and the Indian stance of reaching Shunya Awastha on the other. During my college days I had also become a kind of student of cinema. I started to see films chronologically from the silent era to the nouvelle vague. | 
Untitled 1977.07
Waterproof Ink, Pastel and Pencil on Handmade Paper 
|
||||
Untitled 1979.09 |
In between, there were films of Italian realism and neorealism, and the films of Satyajit Ray and Ritwick Chatak. The films of Resnais were very different in the sense of the language of cinema. One of his films, Je t'Aime, Je t'Aime, a science fiction wherein he repeats the same frame again and again, at first seemed to be a baffling experience . Later on it started to speak to me a language of its own. Around the same time I had read a short story by Robbe Grillet, in which he has used the same technique of repetition. Robbe Grillet was also very much associated with Resnais in his film-making. | ||||
| It is very difficult to point out the direct sources of my work. I never start my work with a planned notion, nor is it based on Andr'e Breton's surrealistic theory of automatism. A kind of hidden source plays a vital role in the formulation of my work. In our day-to-day life, usually we do not analyze certain natural habits, such as taking bath or having food every day Similarly art has become part of my natural self. I have talked about experience in a work of art. What I mean by it is the presence of the artist in his or her work. For instance, Van Gogh painted the Sunflowers, but I do not see the flowers there; I see Van Gogh's longing for life. This sense of presence also points towards the artist's existential concern or his reflection on time. Throughout the ages, works of art have always carried this stamp of time and presence. | 
Untitled 1993 |
||||
