Sachin Karne

What has been the continuity factor in your work over the years?
Generally, I look back and feel that the biggest factor, which remains throughout, is that I always work with social issues. This is because I am concerned about human condition. To solve and understand those issues, I need to put my feelings and thoughts on a canvas. Working with social issues is a driving and continuous thing. Since my first solo...

What has been the continuity factor in your work over the years?
Generally, I look back and feel that the biggest factor, which remains throughout, is that I always work with social issues. This is because I am concerned about human condition. To solve and understand those issues, I need to put my feelings and thoughts on a canvas. Working with social issues is a driving and continuous thing. Since my first solo exhibition in 1996, addressing these issues has been my concern. Earlier my works were more narrative and very figurative. Then there was a conscious effort to break free from the typical narrative. Stories remained but not the sequence of a narrative. Each issue became a story of its own and then I moved away from the human figure. At different times the issues were varied. In 1996, the Babri masjid demolition, in 97 issues related to environment and the displacement of ecology. Later, the show in Sakshi, I tried to bring myself as the culprit and victim of these situations into my paintings, thus making the works autobiographical.

So would you say that social issues preoccupy in totality?
I just can't paint anything without this aspect, consciously or unconsciously. I read a lot and these thoughts tend to linger and eventually find a place on my canvas.

What are you presently working on?
I am focusing on 10 large paintings, which have a certain uniformity running through them. I have taken the images from a print and manually reproduced the same images in different paintings, so I had to choose same size canvases. I look at all of these paintings as if they are one. One leads to another and they are interlinked together. The process is almost like taking photographs of one thing from different angles. All my works are a branch of a common tree.

Presently I am working for 2 shows. In these paintings I am talking about violence, control and the present state, which we are in, political also. And to be very precise the Gujarat riots still bother me, especially the involvement of women and children. In my painting, each canvas has a multitude of images. Each image is linked to the other. For me the choice of images is important. In my recent works, 2000 onwards there has been a shift in my sources and I started focusing more on the image. I source them from existing images from photographs from newspapers, magazines etc. While assimilating these visuals I do a lot of editing to achieve what I think will fulfill my purpose. I don't transfer the image per say but I conventionally paint it. I still draw from life and believe in the old technique of conventional brush and paint way of painting. In the process I shift the meaning of the image. I may take a photocopy of a picture and whatever distortions happen are retained in my work.

Which is your preferred media?
I love oils, though I do use acrylic sometimes. I also enjoy watercolours and drawing. Change in media gives you a break. I would love to do large watercolours soon.

Which other media has interested you?
Sculptures, prints, installations sometimes, but I am basically a painter and retain my passion for the flat surface. Presently I am working on two videos, which will be a part of my show in Sakshi, Mumbai in the end of this year.

What is Abstraction?
Abstraction in art is a very debatable concept. In my personal opinion, thoughts are abstract and once one gives them a physical existence, their abstraction ceases to exist. I DONOT believe in such categorization of art. For me ART IS ART.

What do you call art?
One should not limit one's perception by conventional limitations of what is or not art. Art can exist in any aspect of life; it is up to a person to be able to perceive it. In a sense, anything involving some kind of aesthetics and ideas can be considered as art, whether or not one perceives certain things, as art is a personal choice. Ultimately, to be able to remove the barriers of what constitutes a work of art is to expand one's horizons of aesthetic experience.

Art is about......
For me art is about understanding the complexity of life and in the process express my personal concerns. "My art has always dealt with the complexities of the human condition. The use of multiple images in my work is to enable one to have multiple readings of the issues I am dealing with."

Where do you see yourself in the future?
I want to do more ambitious works, scale wise and image wise. There are some issues like censorship, which I want to address. I would also love to do drawings, independently, i.e. without having to carry them forward to painting. I am going to do more videos that will allow me to extend my painting off the canvas.

As you have been a teacher yourself, do you think art can be taught?
You can learn art but you cannot teach art. Techniques can be taught though. I feel I learnt more from my friends than my teachers. But the teacher does have a role to play. Not to teach you what to paint but how to analyze yourself. He is like a mirror, offering the artist an outside view and perspective of one's painting. He is more like an advisor.

What do you think about technology taking over the conventional means of creation in art today?
There should not be any hierarchy in art practices. We tend to romanticize art. Art lies in the intention and end product. Whether it is printmaking or painting, all forms of art are basically art.

Which artist's work has influenced and inspired you?
I admire Jogen Chowdhurys work especially his pen and pastels work. Bhupen Khakkar has had an influence on me. He made it so easy to bring out simple things on a canvas.

By Arti Mehta