September, 2001

Masked Dance for the Ancestors

#9402
Acrylic, oil, crayon and wire drawings on canvas
47.75 x 47.5 ins.
1994

 

Masked Dance for the Ancestors
is on view at Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai until September 20, 2001
For more details see the EVENTS page.

We always celebrate any exquisite happening in our lives by visiting the Metropolitan Museum of Art where we can look at the artistic creations of 5,000 years of history from all continents of the world. Here it is possible to look at art objects without giving undue heroism to the creators. We do not care to know who created the works or their monetary worth that might otherwise hinder our pleasure in seeing. Three sections of the museum which always attract me immensely are the African sculptural section, the pre Columbian art and the Egyptian section. These pieces put me into a state of being which is suspended in time and space. For a while I can forget about the day to day superimposed, overabundant, sometimes very trivial ism-isms of the New York art world which are fading.

About the African masks; I was never involved or intended to become involved with African culture or it's spiritual or magical contentions. I have not visualized or experienced their vigorous masked dance format or even their death dance format. What I appreciated was the extraordinary range of their dance masks. These were created using the natural shape of the wood together with other materials such as shells, grass, cotton and are now exhibited in a very dramatic way in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. Although I am very well acquainted with the actual Indian classical masked dance of Kathakali and the very decoratively dressed dance performance of Bharat Natyam I have not seen the African masked dances, apart from those in photographs or in vulgar Hollywood movies which I discarded a long time ago.

Inspired as I was by looking at these African masks, it was left to my own imagination to transform the immense amount of materials I had at hand into new mediums and conceptual adventures. My own tradition and my own working habits require continual change and refreshing newness. Not simply for the sake of newness because I am saturated with too much of oriental classicism from which I cannot rid myself that easily. However, I always look for new techniques and materials which give me new ideas. Merely becoming aware of the wide range of cultures helps me to manipulate varied forms and materials which on their own may not have aesthetic possibilities.

Consequently, each time I get to work on my painting it always comes as a challenge and a surprise. I have nothing to do with spiritualism. I always avoid high craft and I always avoid endless repetition. What remains is a confrontation with whatever I have acquired and my reputation of being an artist. I regret having been classified as an artist. Throughout my working system it always occurs 50% failures, 40% successes and 10% an open door for new ideas.