MFA Final Year Display at Kala Bhavana; Negotiating Theory and Practice

- Vishal Tondon

This report was published in Art Etc magazine, Vol 3, No. 1, 2011

The final display, commonly known as submission, of the Masters Degree students at Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan, this year was held between the 20^th and 22^nd May. The diverse art works on show were in keeping with the proposal of a holistic structure to the practice of art as put forward by Nandalal Bose – the man who shaped the institution of Kala Bhavan. It was heartening to see attempts at experimentation and thinking out of the box; a very positive attitude that art students have begun to demonstrate at a young age, thanks to the internet and the culture of hopping into other art institutions and galleries for checking out art trends. 

 A display of Paintings by Sudipta Das

Kala Bhavan is a unique place to learn art; apart from the usual majors like painting, sculpture, printmaking, ceramics and mural making, Kala Bhavan also provides a course in textile design. We at Kala Bhavan are proud of the fact that some of our students form the design department went on to join higher courses at NID and other premier design institutes after graduating from here. 

The final year submissions in art colleges have become an acid test. Students compete with each other to make the best presentation. With the occasional buyer walking in to take a look at the exhibits, it is natural that the students would put their best foot forward, especially as a preparation to face the world outside. 

The original and inspired efforts of some of the students were well received in their display. Distinctive were the works of Rameez Waheed Bhat from the Department of Painting who refuses to subscribe to trends. Through his art, Rameez tackles issues of alienation felt by the common Kashmiri and his attempts at self-determination. Also unique were the works of Josmartin LX. His art refuses to be slotted into categories. His search is phenomenological and his work introspective. “I am not searching for an answer,” he says. “I am the answer.” For him, the process of making the art work is everything. As for Sudhir Kamal of the Sculpture Department, one can only applaud his refined sensibility and his sense of aesthetics. Sudhir begins conceptualizing his work using elements from memories of objects from back home in Kashmir, like the shikara (a lake boat), and then transforming these completely by fusing them with objects of everyday use; what we finally get is a dialectic between memories and the objective world we inhabit in our present.   

  'I Am Not That' by Rameez Waheed Bhat

One exhilarating observation this year was about how some of the young and budding artists were able to negotiate theory and practice. An accusation has often made against the current art making scenario in colleges – not only at Kala Bhavan but also at other colleges outside of Santiniketan – of the deepening schism between theory and practice. With the culture of reading on the wane, art students are content with training themselves by looking at a spate of visuals, without going into the background or the logic of the formalistic or conceptual frameworks behind the art they see in books or in the art market. The result is a direct appropriation of form, on to which a weak concept is superfluously grafted, usually as an afterthought. 

But some of the students were able to successfully counter such an accusation. One would have to give credit to them; their very interesting display works were able to bridge the yawning gap between theory and practice. Engaging were the very private and introspective drawings of Caroline Dietzi. Her works are intimate. She says, “My practice of drawing can be seen as a meditative approach, whereas my photography is a compulsive act.” Suppayaluk Kongpech from the Department of Design also had strong conceptual frameworks in mind for her constructions out of appliqué. Kamlesh Pradhan of the Sculpture Department has consistently been working on the theme of human trafficking, and while one might say that his work is still in process, there was evident in his display a strong conceptual bent of mind. Shaik Azghar Ali’s work, evocative and macabre at the same time, was a strong comment on social anarchy and communalism. He introspects into the language of violence, and the vocabulary of this language extends into his work.   

  A work by Suppayaluk Kongpech of the Design Department

While assiduousness with technical finesse is expected and desirable, one soon realizes that the involvement in art making often begins and ends with an obsession with technical details, while content and comment are at times neglected. The choice of themes also sometimes becomes predictable; capitalism, globalization, demerits of the education system, industrial pollution, ecological destruction, and as one of the concept notes says, ‘rotten politics’. To save the viewer from disinterest, some of the young artists like Amal, Pankaj Borkar and Kumiko Tanaka came up with remarkable and challenging works. The humorous works of Amal from the Department of Art History came as a respite; his work was political without being judgmental or trite. Amal has done his dissertation on the history of cartooning in India; he is interested in the art of caricature and cartoons. We know the affiliation cartooning has with politics, and Amal’s approach to political comment is fresh and witty. Pankaj’s very futuristic-looking graphics were the result of his obsession with the structures and dynamics of cities. He is currently toying around with the theme of ‘the necropolis’ (an overworked, overcrowded, and decaying city). One very captivating observation he made in his concept note is, “I always wonder that these concrete, man made objects stay in the world long after the people who made them are gone.” Kumiko Tanaka, on her part, came up with a suite of sculptures called ‘The Iron Line’; the delicate, sinewy sculptures made out of long iron rods that stood out against a pristine, white background were a visual delight.      

 Sculptures by Sudhir Kamal

Kala Bhavan has often been accused of carrying the “baggage of heritage”. One can safely say that this opinion is not really valid anymore. The ‘baggage of heritage’, even when often evident in the artworks, may not be due to pedagogical imposition, or due to a lack of imagination. It might manifest itself as vestiges of the past, but only as a caricature of sentimentality for the bygone era. In fact, in the work of young artists like Nandita Karmakar, the past and the present collide to give amusing and entertaining results. Her installation was a little museum which, with wit and humour, reflected on how Rabindranath Tagore is represented by the Santiniketan tourist guides, souvenir shops and the Rabindrabhavan Museum. “Santiniketan is still Rabindranath Tagore,” she muses. “He is ever-present in the surroundings. The personality of Rabindranath Tagore becomes, through the auction of his image, larger than his ideology. But also of interest to me are the amusing stories related by tourist guides; they merge truth with fiction to heighten the aura of Santiniketan. That ensures good business. The memento figurines of Tagore have become a popular object. On the other hand, as you can see in the replica of ‘Udichi’ (the residence of Tagore) that I have created, Tagore is projected ideologically by the Visva Bharati authorities. This installation might be considered to be my homage to the two very good years I spent at Santiniketan.”      

To the credit of Kala Bhavan, interdisciplinarity in art practice is encouraged. There were some shining examples where some successful works were a result of throwing caution to the wind. Josmartin LX from the Department of Painting has made one permanent installation on the campus this year. Suppayaluk Kongpech too, with her strong concepts, was able to bridge the gap between art and design. In fact, her work proves that a strong foundation in a technical field can come to the aid of executing well what the artist has conceived and visualized. Also, this kind of work heralds a blurring of the line between ‘art’ and ‘design.’ 

Saroda Sagar’s suite of sculpture-installations, titled ‘Global Circus’, was impressive and his efforts were commendable. He says, “Each and every movement that the circus performers make is accompanied with a terrible risk. A minor failure may bring an obvious disaster. And every person in society is a performer in the global circus.” Sagar’s work is a comment on the flipside of globalization. Again, as is the case with Kamlesh Pradhan’s work, Sagar’s work is in the process of evolution, and it is hoped that very soon there will be a breakthrough in his vocabulary. Promising young students like Sagar, Kamlesh and Sudipta Das, who comment on themes like anti-globalization, anti-capitalism and anti-development, would do well to instill in their work the bite very young artists in Europe and US, whose work is derived from the tendencies of the Situationist International, infuse in their works . Young European artists like Ivan Argote and the ‘Be Yourself Movement’, with wit, dare and impeccable skill, work on similar political themes, although with a more well rounded understanding of the affairs they are addressing. 

While some of the works languished within the limitations of their medium, there were a few thrilling exceptions. Somnath Raha of the Department of Ceramics came up with some strong concepts and his works were imaginative and very political. So also Purna Chandra Sekhar Rao Reddy of the Department of Printmaking, whose large woodcuts are particularly inspiring. He often uses his self portrait in these images, and portrays the existential angst of man lost in a concretized and dehumanized world. Also, there is the pleasurable aspect of coming face to face with these larger than life woodcuts. The artist says, “The various textures and colors in my woodcuts reflect different moods and situations.”   

Kala Bhavan is unique in the setup it provides in terms of ample working space and some veteran educators from the field. With a few modifications in its pedagogical system, and by bridging the gap between theory and practice, one can make the most out of this set-up. The submissions by the students are a testimony to the fact that they are trying to achieve a professional quality in their works. It is hoped that while they align themselves with commercial galleries, they will also take academics seriously and try and make their works, under the guidance of their instructors, conceptually more strong.    

The final displays of the Masters Degree art students are getting to be a bigger affair by the year. A positive development is the exchange between art colleges, with students making it a point to visit other colleges to check out the works on display. 

Presentation has become the keyword. Swanky galleries propagate the idea of what art should and shouldn’t be, and how it should be presented. It is amusing to see that young and gullible art students sometimes come up with clones of work floating around in the art market; an observation also commented upon by the student Sudipto Mandal, through his very incisive and self-introspective neon-light installation work called ‘Imitation Dement; Sealed’. The students want to learn and hone their skills, but they are also eager to do well in the market. Glamour beckons in the form of gallery openings with glasses of wine tinkling and hors-d’oeuvre making the rounds. Some of the art students have been overheard murmuring to each other at such openings in Kolkata, “This is the kind of life I want to have!” We wish them the best; may all their aspirations come true!