NGMA- Bengal School Of Art

So, the night before class we got a mail from Narendra saying that we don’t have to come to class tomorrow, instead we need to go to National Gallery Of Modern Art and see the exhibition on the Bengal school of art.
I was very happy, because for me NGMA is just like home. The feel of the place is so fresh and warm, and the yum food at the canteen is just a plus.

So, we all planned our trip and reached NGMA by 11 in the morning. We got our tickets and walked in. I had Fine Arts in 11^th and 12^th grade in school , so I had my background study on Bengal school of art.

Bengal school of art came into being in the early 20^th century to renew the Indian style of art. It was started by Abanindranath Tagore, who thought that because of colonialism, the artists were getting influenced by the western art and were losing their Indian touch. He wanted to change that. He wanted to draw inspiration from asia and bring a new style of art. He was offered a lot of support by EB Havell, the principal of art school of Calcutta and a few other Europeans.
There were a lot of paintings that I had read about in the textbooks, but finally seeing them was just incredible!

Paintings like seven figures by Rabindranath Tagore captured my eye. They were so simplistic yet beautiful. I had read about and seen Gaganendranath Tagore’s Magician painting and I loved how he used cubism to showcase the rush of the city. That is why I was absorbed by his Fairy In The Moonlight, Himalayan Bride.

Nandalal Bose’s Santhal Harvest and Bapu also caught my attention. I loved the technique of woodcut that he had used.

Jamini Roy is again one of my favourite artists. The way he uses his bold strokes and strong, bright colours is astonishing. Also, he uses a lot of Indian motifs in his paintings and that gives the paintings an Indian essence.

There were a lot of other artists as well like Avtar Singh Panwar and Bb Mukherjee, whose works were also showcased.

Bengal school of art, according to me comprised a lot of miniature art, Romantic- misty scenes, Rural settings, portraits. I also like how the wash technique from Japan was used in so many of the paintings.

As we walked out, we all were in for another treat! There was another on-going exhibition showcasing the works of Amrita Shergill, which took us to another new world. 

Final Installation

For our final installation, we were given complete freedom to work any way we wanted to. Narendra wanted us to create the sort of installation we wanted to make. We could work individually or in groups.

I wanted to work with light, because I was influenced a lot by the effect of Yayoi Kusama’s installation. I wanted to play with light and see all that it could do. Being a student of science background, I knew about a few experiments that I could work with. Like the double slit experiment. I also thought about making a huge prism or filling the room with kaleidoscopes. But, one of the criteria was that the cost of our installation should be minimum. And every idea that I got, was costing a lot.

So, I thought of doing something else.
Barkha and I thought of doing the installation together. She wanted to work with her idea of small leaves. We started thinking of ways to put our ideas together, but got no place. We both had a mind block.

A day before we had to start working on our installation, I was reading news and came across another absurd theory related to the Malaysian airlines MH370, and thought of doing an art installation for that cause.
I shared the idea with Barkha, and we both thought of doing a huge dream catcher. It would not be the usual dream catcher, but it would be our representation of it. And there would be creepers with leaves coming on it from behind. The more we thought about it, the less the creepers made sense. We liked the visual of birds more.
So, the next day we started thinking more on the line of bird. We thought of combining birds and the dream catcher.

Then, Barkha had the idea of making exactly the same amount of birds as the number of passengers and crew in MH370, which were 239. We both got really excited about this idea, and definitely wanted to take it ahead.
We wanted to work with origami. So, we looked up the method of making origami cranes. We got white butter paper about 8 sheets (5 rupees each, so the minimum cost criteria got checked out).

We both were then joined in by Anahita also. So, it was the three of us who had to make the 239 origami birds. Over the course of 1 week we made these 239 birds.
On the day of the final installation, we first finalised the site of our installation. We chose the staircase on between the first and second floor. We wanted to hang the birds from the ceiling above those stairs, and the windows just added to the aesthetics.

So we started stringing each crane and got the ladder to put them up using masking tape. What we did not realise was that it was going to take us the entire day to do that. We had a pattern in mind; we wanted to show movement of the cranes. And for that we had to alter the height of the string for each crane.

Around 4o’ clock we presented our installation to the class.

Pictures of our final installation :

Our concept note:
Amidst all the conspiracies that surround the disappearance of flight MH370, one can very easily forget the 239 people (including passengers and crew) whose lives are being treated with insignificance, the people whose families haven’t got any closure after the flight went missing, the people who have become a faceless number in the news. This is a small way to give a face to each life, and to let them know that they aren’t forgotten. Take a minute to look at the mass above you.

Each crane is a life.

Day 7

We were supposed to research and then choose any five artists who we find inspirational and present their works in class. The following are the installation artists who i chose.

FIREFLIES ON THE WATER- Yayoi Kusama
Yayoi Kusama works with polka dots, usually. 

I really liked this installation of hers because of the way she has used lights to create the sense of infinite space.
She has used LED lights, reflective surfaces like mirror and water to create some thing so extra ordinary.


FORGOTTEN SONGS-Michael Thomas Hill

The installation is located in Sydney, Australia. It is installed between buildings, the display is actually meant to bring attention to native birds and the loss of their habitats, which is a main problem attributed to bird extinction.

He has put up about 50 empty bird cages. When one walks under them, they can hear the sounds of these birds. Their calls change from sunrise to sunset. Their names are also inscribed on stones kept on the road. 

FOREVER BICYCLE- AI WEIWEI

Ai Wei Wei has taken 3,144 bicycle frames and put them in a way to give an incredible visual effect. They give the idea of being in fast motion. He wants to bring to attention the fact that the entire world is moving too fast and the social environment of the world is changing, especially China.

THE FALLEN - ANDY MOSS AND JAMIE WARDLEY

These two British artist created a very strong visual on D-Day landing beach of Arromanche in France, on the peace day. This was their tribute to all the soldiers who lost their lives on that day during World War II. They made 9000 stencils, and with the help of volunteers they raked sand to get the figures. The installation was washed away by the tides in a short while. 

SILENT EVOLUTION- JASON DeCAIRES TAYLOR

The artist is famous for creating eco-sculptures. These living sculptures act like artificial reefs which attract corals and eventually increases the marine life. I really like how he has combined environment with art. 

    

Day 6

A week after watching those 3 films, we were divided into three groups and each group got a question.
Group one:  Who is the artist? The one who makes the film or the one who acts in it.
Group two:  Compare the art of direction between Pollock and Rothko’s film.
Group three: Discuss the artistic process.

I was in group one. By this time, we had already realised that Who is the artist is one of the most difficult (and Narendra’s favourite) question. So, when we all sat as a group, we had no idea what to say. Because this question can be answered in so many ways, yet none of them seems completely true.

We discussed the films and tried to relate the question to them. Artist according to us, was everyone involved in making the film as well as the person it was based on. ‘Artist’ is a term too diverse to be used for a specific job.
In making of the film also, a lot of work had to be put. Script writing, shooting, direction, lighting, and all of this, according to us is art. So, we categorized all of them as artists. Then, the person on whom the film was based is also an artist because of the work they did.

While discussing our findings, a lot of question were raised, especially about the hierarchy system for the artists. What defines this hierarchy? Is it the skill or something else?  And is it fair if the films sell because of the artist (actor) involved instead of the director. According to me, it is very subjective. In the commercial sector of films, the films usually sell because of the actors involved, because for a layman to think about the script writer or to know the director is very unusual. But, if you are into the artistic field, then your outlook changes accordingly.

Then, we moved on to other question and groups. One of the groups talked about documentaries and docu-fictions (something which I had never heard about).  According to this group, a film can only be called a documentary if it is shot at the time when the action is happening. It cannot be something that is being re-created or re-told, even if it is without change.
If some event is being re-told, then it will be called a docu-fiction.
There was a lot of debate on this topic.

We also discussed about the artistic processes, and if art can be created by doing something without having a conscious sense about it. According to me, it is alright if someone creates something and later finds meaning in it (while doing it or after finishing it).

This is one of the things that I love about Narendra’s classes, no matter what the topic of discussion is, all our debates lead onto something very different yet very related.

For the next class, we were all asked to think about what sort of installation we would like to do, and research and present 5 installation artists whose works we like.

Day 5 and Artistic Processes

After the loooooong break from class, Narendra decided to give us an easy day. So, we saw three films.
In The Mood For Love which was a film based on the south Asian politics. The artist has made the film in a ay that it can be treated commercial as well as artistic. It is upto the viewer to derive the meaning out of the film. Then we saw two films based on the lives of Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock.
We were then asked to write a reflective note on what we think an artistic process is.

When I thought of becoming an artist/ designer at the age of 10, I thought that I would just walk up to a pretty landscape, put up my easel and paint. A term like Artistic process was not present in my dictionary. It wasn’t until very recently that it came into existence.

I did not think that the thought process that goes behind an art work could actually be the art itself. In our last class, we were made to watch the art processes of Mark Rothko and Jackson Pollock. Then, we all started to think about what an art process should be like.

After watching both the documentaries I was wondering if the art process had to be like theirs. Both the artists were unbound, easily inflammable, full of passion and mad.
If a layman were to see their art works, he would most probably laugh it off and say ‘a 5 year old could do that.’
But only after you see what got them to do what they did, would you see their artistic process.

According to me, an artistic process is subjective to everyone. One person’s artistic process can be completely different from the others. There is no way of saying that someone’s art process is wrong or right. It is something that goes on in the mind of the artist and no one can change it.

How Rothko and Pollock arrived at their art pieces is personal to both of them. Rothko bared down his art to just basic colours. He made his work minimalistic. Whereas, Pollock worked with abstract expressionism.

Mark Rothko was one of those artists who sat in front of his art piece, smoking his cigarette and just contemplating his next move. Whereas, Pollock was one of those artists who went with the flow and got annoyed when anybody stopped him.
Both of them wanted things to be done their way and if anything went out of place, they would lose their cool.
According to me, one’s artistic process begins when he starts to think about his basic idea and goes on until he delivers his final piece. The thought and work that goes into his piece donates to his process. Every mistake that one makes, adds to the learning. This, according to me is the best way of finding your place. Only when one makes mistakes, again and again does he figure out what he can do and what he aims to do.

While watching the film based on Pollock I came across a few things that I liked. I like the fact that he did not work for an audience. When he was working, he did not want anything or anybody to break his spontaneity.  When one of his paintings was selected to be displayed in four seasons, he went there to sit and observe the space. When he saw the kind of people who went and ate there, he said ‘Anybody who eats that kind of food with that kind of money would never look at my painting.’ and with that he refused to put up his painting there.

Hence, everyone has a different artistic process depending on the way they see and perceive things.

I do not know what kind of an artist process I am going to choose as right now I am just experimenting and trying to figure out what I want to do. Maybe this itself would be my artistic process. I am not sure. But, I am sure one day I will.

Day four

In our fourth class, we were divided into three groups. And each group got a topic to debate about.
group one:  Conceptual Art
group two: Pop Art
group three: Minimalism

I was in the minimalism art. We started researching and debating about it, and came across the fact that minimalism is actually a form of art created as a form of revolt against Abstract Expressionism.
Artist stripped down their art to basic forms.



Donald Judd’s art
Sol LeWitt's Art

Minimalism is using the basic forms, but they can be repeated as well as played around with.
While reading and looking at the art, we also saw how a form of art which was made to oppose abstract expressionism has slowly mixed with it and become abstract as well.
We also talked about Andy Warhol’s pop art and how the underlying meaning of capitalism comes across.

Then, the groups were reversed. The group of conceptual art had to do an installation based on pop art and vice versa. Whereas, our group had to do an installation based on Abstract expressionism. Abstract expressionism was the form of art that developed in America post world war II. It brought upon the idea of surrealism, and the emotional state of mind of the artist.

My group: Me, Anahita Ganjoo, Barkha Gupta and Priyank Malukar.
We thought of doing something spontaneous and in the moment. We wanted to do a Jackson Pollock with the materials that we had.
So, we went on the terrace and took the materials available to us. We found coconut husk and sand and started working with it.

Our concept note:
This piece of art depicts the most common of the problems faced in life. Making decision based on the current situation. The husk can be seen as the state of our minds. Just like its texture, it’s chaotic and wavering.The shift in shadow depicts situations that we can contemplate. The wind can be seen as spontaneous events that spring up in our lives randomly. The combination of both these forces bring about a disturbance in our so-called ‘plans’. The empty spaces between the mud signify how void our plans feel retrospectively because we poured the mud in reference to the husk’s past position. 

Day 3!

 

 

 

 

 

We began our third class by answering the questions asked in the previous week. We talked about the way blind people sense and perceive things around them.
Our facilitator talked about his experience with some blind people in Ahemdabad. We thought that maybe these visually impaired people are more humane than we are. This could be because of the fact that they are more depending on others than we are.
After the discussion, a question was raised. Are we more blind than they are?

Later, we talked about what aesthetics are. Is it a conscious decision? We talked about how so many people a are displaced from their homes for the sake of 'aesthetics.' Narendra, our facilitator talked to us about his experience in Ahemdabad, where people who were not well off were displaced from the home land.

Over design/ Over beauty or Over comfort is easy to kill anyone. This is why everyone needs change. Change is the only human thing.

Narendra gave us a brief introduction to performance art.
After this, we were given a task. We had to form pairs and research on performance art, and then come up with one act that we would like to perform during the break for the public. All of us went and researched. The part of spontaneity stuck me and Barkha Gupta, my partner. We wondered how people reacted when put in a situation. This is why we wanted  to take up a performance which would involve the public as well.

We had to present our ideas to the class. All we wanted to do was have fun with the performance. So, we came up with an idea where we would connect ourselves with a ball of yarn and then that ball would be passed around to random people who would have to entangle themselves in any way and pass the ball further. We knew that a pattern would be made in the end, but what we wanted to see was how people connect and how they react to this situation.

We shared our idea with the class, and went out to buy the material required.
At 12:45, we were set to perform. We asked a  friend to record our performance. We stood at the centre of the cafeteria and I rotated the string around my hand and passed it on to Barkha. Barkha passed it on randomly to a friend and so began the game. It was interesting to see how people wanted to participate in it voluntarily. The number of people kept increasing and they kept entangling it around their body parts in interesting ways. Some wrapped it around their waist, some around their neck, hair and so on.
After about 15 minutes, it came to an end when the yarn ended. Everybody had their own idea about what we should do now. Some said we should dance, move around together, pull, push etc etc.
We decided to move in opposite directions, and slowly everybody got more entangled inside. Slowly everybody un-entangled themselves and let go.






It was hands on experience of performing art, rather than just sitting and reading about it.

After performing, we went back to class and shared our experiences. Then, Narendra shared with us a few Performing artists and their works like : Yoko ono and her performance 'Cut Piece' in 1965, Marina Abramovic, Frida Kahlo. All of us were so enthusiastic to see more of their works and learn how they perceived art.

Today's class has been the best one ( for me ) in all these 3 weeks.

 

Day two

Our second class was to make us think more. In the beginning, there were discussions about a lot of things related to installations.
We talked about the art of storytelling as a performance. Two questions were raised : Can deaf people hear any sound, if yes then how? And, How does a blind person dream?
I looked it up and tried to find the answers.
Deaf people do enjoy music, it is through the vibrations that sound makes. Different sounds make different vibrations in the air, that is how Beethoven was able to play even though he was deaf.
Blind people do dream. But their dreams are not visual unless they went blind after about 5-7 years of age. People who are blind since birth, do not get any visual dreams because our dreams are made up of our real world experiences, inner most thoughts and anxieties.

After this, we talked about how only when you react or express yourself do you qualify the feeling. Everything needs expression. Everything that actually matters to us, like the love we feel for our family or friends is not touchable, we can only feel it. Our facilitator also told us about how there are 3 levels of art practices. One to one. One to many. Many to many.
While making something in the name of art, your inner most feeling and outer showcasing should be segregated.

We started talking about 'faith' plays a key role in our lives. How everything we do, is on the basis of faith. Whenever we say,'I think, I believe, I understand', we are talking about our own faiths.  But, what is faith, I dare ask. Nobody really knows how to define it. But, still our entire system works on the basis of faith.

We learnt about the theory of minimalism and maximum. The theory of minimalism talks about expressing the same expression with minimum material. The theory of maximum deals with expressing the same expression on a macroscopic level. 

We wondered what material is. Material is an object. Only when you use it with a motive, does it become a medium.

Experiential understanding of material is what installation is.

After our discussions, we started watching a film called 'Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry'. It was a documentary on the life and works of Ai Weiwei. When you watch a film like this, you see how one artist can actually try and change the world. Ai Weiwei wants to change China from what it is. He revolts using his art and is not afraid to speak up. He has always been in controversy about his art and has been investigated by the government of china again and again.

After watching the movie, we were split into 3 groups. Each group got one question they had to try and find an answer to.
Group one: Who is an artist?
Group two: Is it necessary for an artist to be an activist?
Group three: Who is a non-artist?

I was in group one. We never thought that defining who an artist is could be so tricky. So we started with a mind map. We could not find more than 4-5 words that fit well with it. Then we had to form our argument and present it to the class. Our argument was : An artist is someone who can express himself using medium. 
And so the questions were bombarded on us. Don't we all express ourselves? What do you mean by medium? What all qualifies as medium? And so the debate went back and forth. We kept adding and subtracting words from our definition.

An artist is an individual who consciously expresses themselves with motive, medium and methodology. 

The next group came up with the answer that: No,an artist is not essentially an activist, but an activist is an artist. 

The third group defined a non artist as a person who doesn't express with an intention of expressing. 

After all these discussions and debates, we were left with a question for the next class: Will an artist still be an artist if the viewer fails to recognize the art? 

Day one!

So, today was the first day of our new course called 'Installation Art from modernity to post modernity.'
I thought this course would be all theory and theory and more theory. But, it turned out to be so much fun.

The class began with our facilitator Narendra asking us, 'How many of you like art?' Of course, all of us being art and design students raised our hands. Then he asked us why? We all had different words as to what art is to us. Like:
Way to communicate, boundless, medium of expression, experimentation etc.
Then, we had to research about what installations are and find out one installation we really liked and share it with the class.

I shared Mona Hatoum's 'Prayer Mat'. I had seen this installation at NGMA, Bangalore and it had really caught my attention. The way she has showcased the contradictions revolving around religious beliefs is extraordinary. From afar, it looks like a usual prayer mat with a compass pointing towards Mecca. It is only when you move closer that you see the mat is made up of brass needles. This installation ever since the exhibition has been one of my favorites.

After this, we were made to clear our tables and stand on them. We had to walk on the tables. Stop. Walk some more. Stop . Walk. Stop. Jump off the table. Stop. Walk. Stop. And finally sit!
This was the way to make us realise the different spaces and how we use them and the difference between medium and material.

Then, we were divided into groups of three and were asked to find any space in the campus, and without making any alterations we had to give it a name. According to that, we had to write an artist note about the installation. I was grouped with Rhea Iyer and Mohammed Chiba. We found this empty electrical main circuit box. It had no wires in it. We found it out of the ordinary (maybe we were just looking with our designer eyes)

Then we started mind mapping as to what we could call it. Words like ' portation', 'narnia' 'wardrobe' 'completely incomplete' and many more. Until finally Rhea came across the catalogue number of the box which was '607716'

We looked at this number properly and it gave us two dates : 6/07/716 and 6/0/7716.

Then we started thinking of this box as a teleportation device which will take you to either the past or teh future depending on its 'mood' because it is sentimental.
We thought of the entire process as to how someone will be able to use the electric wire box as a tele portation device.
After this break, the entire class had to gather and then we went looking at everybody's art installations. Everyone had such amazing stories revolving around our spaces. In the end, Narendra told us how all of us had thought about the stories and scenes with our space.

All in all, today's class was totally opposite of what i had thought it would be. And I am actually looking forward to the next Tuesday.