Bharati Kapadia

B : In 1991, when I was...

B : In 1991, when I was engaged with mixed media on paper paintings, I’d already begun to conceive 3-dimensional objects, that had elements stuck on like collages. During the 93 communal riots in Bombay, I saw holocausts and despair from my seventh floor flat; I saw fires burning and people wailing and the police standing around doing nothing. Some aspect of feeling helpless, angry and wanting to energise my method and materials with the power of signs began to change my attitude . Tearing, sticking, and stitching paper were expressions which met my perceptions of making alternative art objects .In 94, I was invited to Seattle as artist in residence. I came back with renewed effort made towards working this way on paper peeling it and using rope and threads. The physicality of material was important and enjoyable. The interaction with paper and rope led to work with fabric, and thread and the dry peepul leaf. The loose stitches took on calligraphic meaning for me.

R : You have evoked iconography of the Buddha . Sometimes it is a concrete formal reference as a figure outline but at other times, as in your current series, your embroidered screens appear as ritual offerings a transfiguration of the idea of an empty bhikshu’s bowl.

B : There was a huge banyan tree at the site I was supposed to have worked on for the Kala Ghoda Festival. The idea of the Bodhi tree Knowledge, Birth and Death took hold of me. So I drew the Buddha figure. I felt a bond between the tree the Buddha and myself.

R: The graphic nature of your present art objects, has much to do with the notion of an interrupted and endless space.

B : Space, for me is an invisible presence, it is also a substance. The nylon fabric gives me the opportunity to work with transparency, cutting through it allows me to open another dimension. It is giving shape to negative space. On paper and canvas, you create negative and positive space. Here, you keep designing the emptiness. Nylon cloth is a self-effacing material. The quality of mystery it evokes, is a quality of life manifesting itself. I would like to keep a sense of wonder alive on the surface.

R: On the whole, the painted surfaces of the framed screen do not have a focal point. One sees a tapestry of shapes and colours. This technique encourages the gaze to slide all over the place, capturing subtle changes, looking for hidden significance.

B : I think I am involving the spectator in the aesthetics of the elusive. The moment I start making a perfect and concrete form, I tend to dismantle it. It is like problem solving in the process of thinking. I don’t have a monolithic statement to make. I like to suggest various energies with the materials that I use.