Ved Nayar

Ved Nayar's exhibition 'Crating Space amidst Planets' is on at the Jamaat art gallery in Mumbai till 17th of May, 2002. He talks to Deepali Nandwani about the influences on his work and this exhibition:


Q. Tell us about your latest exhibition. What's the thought process that has gone into it?
I believe man is going to go a long way, even reach beyond earth. His discoveries are going...

Ved Nayar's exhibition 'Crating Space amidst Planets' is on at the Jamaat art gallery in Mumbai till 17th of May, 2002. He talks to Deepali Nandwani about the influences on his work and this exhibition:


Q. Tell us about your latest exhibition. What's the thought process that has gone into it?
I believe man is going to go a long way, even reach beyond earth. His discoveries are going to be large, his involvement in them larger. In these circumstances, there will be certain changes in the way he looks. He will lift creativity from earth to the universe. So in my work, as you can see, blue color is important, it represents the universe. I have elongated the figures to show man's reach beyond earth to other planets.

Q. All the figures in these works are women. In fact, they are the supermodel icons you had evolved some time ago. Why?
A woman's body has been the most depicted form in history of creative art. My female figures or forms represents the human figure and is an icon representative of our times.

Q. What is the process that goes into evolution of these figures and forms?
I am a sculptor and I evolve forms that fits to our contemporary times as well as my creative personality. Evolving forms is a time consuming effort and requires a certain thought process. Only after that are figures evolved.These figures are relevant to the time I live in. The creative compulsions come from within the life around me. It's like when you learn a craft, you not only know about its nuances but even the references associated with it. Similarly, an artist derives his references from not other artists, but life around him, from the aggregate of his cultural identity. That's when history will place him in the right cultural identity.
I evolve my icons or my figures from life around me. I synthesize and shed all references that are external or alien to my reference system.

Q. Man as superhuman is another recurring motif in your paintings? What drew you to this figure? What disturbs you about it?
I think the thought of man as superhuman evolved out of the influence that the electronic media has on our lives. So much so that we feel it can change our way of thinking and living. Also, the celebrity has emerged as the most influential and powerful icon of our times. This celebrity cult has in a way inspired the superman. A superhuman celebrity has evolved out of this process. This superhuman is going to crowd the world with assembly line produced products, like the car. He has already started imagining himself to be the master of the universe. He is dreaming of immortality. Television is also recreating and inventing icons or humans that are representatives of our times, desires and dreams.

Q. How much of your childhood do you remember? Were there any signs of you becoming an artist then?
I don't remember any signs during my childhood that predicted that I would be a painter-sculptor. I was the youngest child in the family. I was a lonely child who had adjusted to aloofness, enjoying it and hating it alternately.
I lived in a house that was amidst a jungle. From the house, a pugdandi (foot bridge) led me into the jungle. My first relationship, outside the house, was the jungle. It sometimes let me feel its love, care and indulgence. It provided me the cover of the cool shade when I walked through it, while returning from school. It allowed me to explore it, let me climb the trees; pick the flowers, listen to the conversations of the birds. It sometimes even scared me, like when a snake would pass in front of me. And it was also one of the biggest influences on me as an artist.

Q. You stared out as a painter. Why did you move on to installations and sculptures?
I think I could relate this to my visit to the Mangeshwari temple in Goa in 1980. I was standing on a large platform of the temple. All around, paddy fields in intense shades of green extended till the sea and the horizon. The paddy was swaying in the directions of the wind as if tune with the rhythm of a raga sung by the deity. I saw the deity at the centre of the platform, all covered with flowers, except her eyes.
The idea for my first installation, Mankind-2110, took birth right there, at that moment. I grew a real paddy field as part of my installation. Above it, in the centre, I suspended a polished mahogany log in its natural rounded form, in space. I carved stairs through it, like stairs in a cave. I attached some brass stairs to these to make them reach the paddy plants below. On the log, near from where the stairs started, I placed a Devi's (a female deity) figure in bronze, as if walking on the log to go down to the paddy fields to bless it. I got hooked on to installation after that. It started quite abruptly but has evolved over the years. On the way I also began making hard-edged paintings. They were abstract derivations with ritual connotations. The third dimension crept into my work at this stage

Q. How would you say contemporary Indian art has changed or evolved, especially in the last few years?
In the last century, creative movements like Impressionism were the norm. Artists formed groups and worked in certain parameters. In our times the focus is on the individual. There is no room for a collective movement. An art style or thinking normally ends with the individual.

Q. Would you say this is a positive or a negative development?
I would say it is positive. Earlier, there was too much of collective thinking. Now, one individual is important and that individual is normally more aware of his cultural identity. In the pre-independence era, the Orient, Japanese or Ajanta and Ellora paintings and art the Bengal influenced artists or painters from Santiniketan. Post-independence, a lot of art was derived from Western concepts. The artists recreated what Western artists did. In the 70s, some of us begin to feel that we can't always derive from others. We should derive from our lives and our present. From that moment, Indian contemporary art with its entire fault really came on its own.In this millennium, I believe Indian art and artists will be leaders.

Q. In your writings and your work you lay a lot of emphasis on cultural identity.
Though the world is moving towards globalization, we are also more aware of our cultural roots. Once upon a time, an Indian living in America would always praise that country. Today, when all his desires are met, he is generally homesick. He wants to acquire all icons that remind him of his roots. Cultural identity is playing a big role in art. If you have to be yourself and true to your identity, the first criteria is to evolve your own storyboard or visual imagery that comes from your culture.

Q. How would you define this cultural identity?
Each of us carry compulsions of our cultural identity. As we grow, certain images, customs and rituals get associated with us. These play a big role in the way an individual and even an artist develops and the direction he takes. But let me also state that I am not negating living in present global scenario and the effect it has on our consciousness.
For an artist, globalization has a major effect on the way his craft develops. Electronic media and the computer affect his mode of artistic creation. Even in our daily lives, certain things alien to our system creeps in. Like Pepsi, which has become a hue part of our society. After sometime, we won't even be able to say that is alien. Society, and the artist, will accept some things and reject others.

Q. What were the earlier influences on you? Did partition influence your work?
Not really partition; it was the loss of the jungle close to which my house was located, which influenced me. Besides that, I don't think that I experienced too much violence during partition. I did see some instances of cruelty of one man to another, but not enough to change the way I looked at the world. We had moved to New Delhi from Faisalabad much before violence really broke out.

Q. Given that you are a sculptor, how much importance does drawing has in your work?
Drawing is a big habit with me. Earlier, I used it as just another medium to express myself. Now when I draw, it sometimes becomes a painting. Sometimes even scribbling is a part of evolving icons. A lot of icons get sorted out in drawing.Drawing for me is a complete expression and a vehicle to arrive at my sculpture and my painting.