 |
I love following time. Around
4 years back the bug of art history hit me so hard that I began to reside in
the abyss of art world. It started with some mere curiosity and within a few
days I got to know that each territory of art history was so vast that whatever
idea I could gather about a part of an period was not enough, in every part of
ART History there is a hint that the question in mind will be answered in another
ART period.
I was in the middle of a
creative crisis of my own. I felt being hunted by character I have created over
the years for my fictions. I was writing a series of
parallel stories with shades of darkness.
It was not intentional though but due to nature of those story most of the
characters were in deep physiological trouble. Much later after writing those
stories I felt being hunted by those characters. Somehow I felt may be I will
find solutions to their problems in Art History. It was not about solving my
problems but of the characters.
It was a creative challenge and I like challenges in
my creative expression. I got the idea full of impudence –how about fictionalization
of those ART HISTORY theme THROUGH MY CHARECTERS? I stared exploring the
gullies of those ART period to find some thematic correlation, In cabaret
Voltaire ,Van Gogh , Dali ,………
I took up those periods of
European art history (Impressionism, Dadaism and
Surrealism to be precise) as theme for my forthcoming story. I
had to blend art history theme to my story.
I felt creating something
that is dark is painful, time consuming (one story in one year) and the
darkness of my character disturbed me to the extend that I was on the verse of
nervous breakdown.
One of the themes I took for fictionalization was of Dadaism.
ABOUT DADAISM: Dadaism or DADA ART was the
creative by product of social depression created out of 1st world
war, 1914-. Intellectuals, thinkers moving out of homeland started revolting
against normal social structure and started creating art under protest. Initially
their art were criticized as anti art (!) as many of their works were mere juxtaposition
of painting, photograph making less and less sense. But they become
extremely popular as art lover could relate them to the depressive stage the society
was under at that time.
The success of those arts started the idea of collage,
montage, ready-mades in art. And soon the revolution was passed on to cinema,
advertising world, literature and many of the work remained classic till toady.
The STORY ON DADAISM : The sense of social darkness that was around in
west during World War I had some stark similarity to the darkness of my
birthplace Assam, in the sad decade of 80’s.
I took the clue from here and tried to create a
montage (A form of DADA expression, where we put together two three things to create
something new, as in collage) out of the situation .That is a montage of
- pain of my characters and my feeling as a writer
- Assam in 80s
- And of course hallucination of my characters
About the painting used:
I remember interviewing one of the very reputed
Painter Mr.Jiten Hazarika confessing with a sloka. “Eksweasya padarthai
nanrupe prkapalm” ( ‘একশেচছছ পদার্থই নানাৰুপে প্রক্লপনম.. মানে একেটাবস্তুকে নানাজনে ভিনভিন ভাবে চাব পাৰ.)Meaning
it is up to the viewer (reader) to interpret the meaning of a creative form.
Most of the artist believes that way and hates explaining their work of art.
Still I thought it will be
better to explain the painting depicting the story. As many people are curious
and enquiring….
The painting is also a montage –created by
Dr.Uddip Talukdar,on request. Montage is a form developed (montage:French for "putting together" a product of Dada
revolution where a creative structure is made putting together many items like
photograph ,painting etc .Montage later on became a integral part of cinematic
narrative also ).
Component of the montage
The courtroom: may be a tribute to Kafka as in his story Joseph K
accused of a crime he is not aware of.
Probable Interpretation; Those of us who were
brought up in the Assam in the dark period of 80s have a sense of being guilty
of some crime we are not aware of. Like Joseph K we don’t know our crime but something
hunts us .
The commode: It is the most famous ready made created in DADA
revolution. (Fountain by Marcel Duchamp)
Probable Interpretation: ??? May be its time
to flush out the filth and darkness that’s fills our head.
The stage/the boot /the hanging noose/the hat: Waiting
for Godot?
Probable Interpretation: In those dark period of 80s
Assam We had nothing to do (school
closed, an election without peoples participation, ethnic trouble and the fear
of someone attacking you …So we waited ?waiting
for whom and what we never knew.
PS: I
still believe “eksweasya padarthai nanrupe prkapalm” and …
… I am not art historian /art
critique/artist. I only expressed what I conceived in words (or call it visual
narrative) to full of my conviction.
