This conversation, conducted by e-mail, between N.S. Harsha and Naomi Siderfin, co-director of Beaconsfielld, was the beginning of a discussion between the two artists, who had never met or spoken before. Separated by so many miles, the electronic exchange provided the opportunity for them to discuss Harsha's work as well as some of the practicalities of the imminent residency. To facilitate the conversation, co-curator Grant Watson sent both parties a series of questions that they might like to address together. Naomi never received her copy and so the discussion began in a somewhat arbitrary way.
Rather than a sequential narrative, what unfolds here is a - at times haphazard - conversation which highlights the difficulties and delights of long-distance (mis) communication. As well as providing insight into Harsha's artistic and thought processes, the text reveals the everyday realities of how a collaborative project such as this evolves and documents the development of a working relationship and a friendship. We begin with the initial disorienting e-mail that Naomi received and leave the reader to work out the questions to which it was replying. Pressing deadlines draw the conversation to an end almost as abruptly as the correspondence began.
Dear Naomi,
I am ï¬Â］ally sending you some of my answers to Grant's questions. Hope we can start with this! Please let me tell you ï¬Â〉st that I do not have much skill in expressing myself in words. However, I have tried my best and do hope this communicates some of my thoughts.
I guess I am influenced by narrative ï¬Â“urative tradition, scientiï¬Â… drawings and thoughts, and, to some extent, miniature tradition and popular art forms. I do not follow the pictorial characteristics of any of these influences, but I know I like works from these traditions. Recently I have started using rangoli powder for my bush drawings but it has got nothing to do with the traditional practices; it is just a borrowed material used in a completely new context.
I am not sure if an artist can consciously work out a balance between tradition and modernity. So I am not sure I can answer this question of yours. But one way of deï¬Â］ing this aspect in my work is to look at my constant interest in placing traditional materials in a contemporary context.
Yes, hybrid is certainly an issue I deal with often. My exposure to vast visual traditions from far-off lands (art education) and present-day artistic liberty (because of globalisation) allow me to use images from other traditions and the ethical issues which follow this artistic process interest me deeply. In one painting, I tried to implement all my skills and paint in different stylistic fashions; I was trying to give meaning to this juxtaposition of styles which are embedded in me.
Yes, I feel hybridity is certainly reflected in my everyday art practice. For example, one day I paint on canvas; next day, I go out with a sack full of rangoli powder to the bush to draw; next I sit at my computer to make a plan for a project to work with kids; then I go to out with my watercolour pad and brush to draw some plants or trees. So it is certainly a hybrid activity which I carry out here. I enjoy the amount of concentration it takes to draw with thin lines. Most of the time drawings are a separate activity for me and they are rarely connected to my larger works or art projects. Lines are constant exercise for me; each time I approach them, there will be a new problem.
I am not sure I would like to relocate a cultural space with my wall drawings. But I am sure a wall drawing is highly dependent on its site and atmosphere. It is hard to say anything about these issues now.
Most of my art projects with kids are highly time and place speciï¬Â…. I am moving towards planning more such community-based art projects, which are dependent on local materials and speciï¬Â… to time and place.
I am feeling blank after answering these questions. I will sit again with these questions tomorrow and will let you know if I want to add any more to this.
Regards Harsha
Dear Harsha,
Thank you for your mail. It was an interesting, rather abstract narrative since we were not familiar with the questions you were responding to!
Perhaps we can start from this end on a more practical level...
We would like to start by welcoming you to Beaconsï¬Â‘ld in September. We have been thinking about where the best place for you to stay might be - accommodation is hard to ï¬Â］d in London. There is a flat very near to the gallery which will be empty at this time. It is big and basic, but convenient for the gallery and you could cook for yourself and have time alone without having to share a house - which is sometimes a good thing during a project abroad.
To let you know a bit more about us... Beaconsï¬Â‘ld is an artist-led organisation set up in 1994. We are based in a large 19th-century building and the gallery has two floors. Beaconsï¬Â‘ld is right next to the railway line. Adjacent to the main space, with access through the yard, is a railway arch, where we are planning to project slides of the Victoria & Albert Museum's collection of Company paintings as part of the exhibition.
There will be another exhibition in the railway arch until the end of September, so during your residency you can base yourself in the main gallery on one or both of the floors. We are giving Grant and Suman desk space in the ofï¬Â…e during this time so that you will have close contact to them.
Grant has told me that he discussed the possibility of working with our local schools during the residency and exhibition period and that you were open to the idea of doing some work with school children, although we are anxious not to give this too much priority. We are planning for two classes of 14-15 year olds to visit the V&A to see the Company drawings and then later visit the Beaconsï¬Â‘ld exhibition. We were wondering whether you would be willing to go into the school on the mornings of 20 and 25 September? The workshop/talk need only be one hour. The teaching theme that this series of Drawing Space visits will be connected to is ‘Adorn, Embellish, Decorate'. Could you tell us how you think aspects of your work might relate to this theme?
Look forward to continuing our conversation.
Best wishes Naomi
Dear Naomi,
I am very sorry for the answers without questions. I assumed you must have got a copy of Grant's mail, which had this list of questions for me. I have forwarded the list along with this.
Thank you for introducing me again to Beaconsï¬Â‘ld's program and space. I am very to keen to work in this space. Accommodation sounds perfect.
For the school program, the dates are ï¬Â］e but I will be very glad if we can ï¬Â］alise the dates and the whole idea soon after I land there. Is this OK?
Most of the time I treat school visits as a project. I also have a brief idea about the project which I have outlined below, but I feel it will need more than one visit and also some help from other people.
Yes, ‘Adorn, Embellish, Decorate' sounds ï¬Â］e; I can think of a class in and around these lines. In my work, the aspect of decoration has a lot to do with celebration; it is also about fragility. But I will ï¬Â］alise on this after hearing from you about the options.
Here is the outline of the project:
Kids age group - 10 to 14
Thought - Kids will be asked to paint on the plaster cast of their own feet (or on a common cast of a foot). The storyline given to them will be ‘Dust on the Foot'. I will speak to them about a visit to an imaginary land where the most wished-for things are found. So it is almost like I will ask them to imagine that they visited this land and then later found lots of things from there stuck to their foot. Basically I want to recall the history of this journey. I wish to elaborate only after I hear from you on this.
Expected materials required for this project are: - Foot plaster casts for each participating kid or a common cast - Acrylic paint - Some pieces of cloth - Adhesive - Brushes (ï¬Â］e) - Pedestals for display - A video to ï¬Â〕m the kids listening and speaking about their visit to this land.
Please let me know if you have any more questions regarding this. Will stop here and look forward for your mail. I am sorry I could not reply to you last e-mail very fast, but I was in Bangalore.
Best wishes Harsha
Dear Harsha
I discovered that I had been given the questions by Grant and they had got lost in a pile of paper and are now found. Meanwhile thanks for sending a copy on.
The kids project looks great. How long would a workshop be?
In response to your comments in the ï¬Â〉st e-mail, I agree that it is not really the task of the artist to assess the extent of his/her influences but rather the job of the critic. Theory seems sometimes so removed from practice. As a practitioner, one does not always set out with a set of conscious objectives or, if one does, they are generally subverted to process - even in the most conceptual work.
When you talk about placing traditional materials in a contemporary context, I'm inclined to think that if tradition means an old practice which is still in use then, without trying, it is contemporary. I just looked in the dictionary for the deï¬Â］ition of tradition, which is ‘handing over', so in a way tradition is always contemporary because when the handing over ceases, there is no more tradition. You mention that that you have been using rangoli powder but not in a traditional way, so I wondered what rangoli powder is traditionally used for - is it for body painting? And if it is, and you don't use it on skin but on paper, does this mean that we can no longer talk about ‘continuing a tradition', but have to talk about ‘breaking a tradition' or is this a subversion of tradition (which is slightly different)?
And where does that leave modernity (‘of or relating to the present or recent time')? With the new I suppose, but the irony is that already we use the term modernity on a historical level more often than not. In the year 2000 we tend to talk about contemporary art rather than modern art, unless we are very old. And when we talk about hybridity, it sounds very post-modern...
These are a few passing thoughts in the middle of a busy day and all I have time for now.
Perhaps we can write again tomorrow because next week I will not be in the ofï¬Â…e until Thursday.
Best Naomi
Dear Naomi,
Thank you for your response to my kids project. I may have to plan the whole project according to the availability of time. If the casts are done by someone there (I can send the measurements), then it is only me spending some time with the kids, telling my stories; the working period would then be about six hours over three days. It could also happen in Beaconsï¬Â‘ld during their visit to see the pictures - if there is space and it does not disturb the working schedule.
Placing traditional materials in a contemporary context. Yes, this is a little puzzling. Let me give you an example. When I work with silk cloth, a number of local values and meanings associated with that material feed into my artwork; for example, silk is usually considered auspicious and is used during special occasions. And it is also a material which is taken care of because of its fragility. So when I use it in my work, the meaning is woven with lots of other contemporary issues which are not usually associated with this material. Housewives use rangoli powder to make drawings every morning in front of the house. So I am really drawn to this ritual which my mother has practised with so much belief every morning for all these years. But I am not using it to make any statement or comment about this ritual.
When I've done a drawing in the bush, rain is the process for cleaning my canvas. I return to the same place for my new drawing. But this process is new to me and I feel I am working towards a community artwork out of this practice. I will bring the material back to the same people who use it every day and ask them to make something different rather than using it in the routine way. So it is neither breaking nor continuing the tradition. I think it is just an artist recognising a medium, which is posing new challenges to work with. I am interested in the beauty of the material itself when placed in a particular atmosphere.
Hope this helps you to understand my associations a little more.
Regards
Harsha
Dear Harsha,
Today I have been thinking about the issue of hybridity. You said that in one painting you knowingly combined a variety of skills or stylistic traditions to create new meaning. Or, as I understood it, to articulate your concerns as an artist by utilising a combination of influences. This seems to me to be a very honest approach to making work and is probably the only way contemporary art can be made now. However, the challenge of hybridity, I think, is producing clarity - on a formal level and also of meaning. What do you think?
I'm going away for a few days to a place where there is no electricity or telephone line. I will take my laptop and hope to ï¬Â］d a place in the nearby town to plug into in order to continue the conversation.
Best Naomi
Dear Naomi,
Hope you are having a very peaceful time there!
Yes, I agree the challenge is to keep the overall clarity of the work. But most of the time I am interested in when we negate or retain certain values from the past for the present times. That is where your earlier deï¬Â］ition of tradition ï¬Â》s in I think. In the process, some values die and new ones are added. Philosophically, there is nothing new here. But there is a restructuring of elements according to the times in which a tradition lives. So when I say I combine different elements in my work, I am trying to retain certain values associated with the images and the materials of different traditions.
So much comes to mind but I can't write it, but am trying my best
Best wishes Harsha
Dear Harsha,
I have found an internet access point in my place of retreat and so we can continue the conversation. I think there is some urgency now, so we should keep talking.
Hope you are well.
Best wishes Naomi
Dear Naomi,
Good to hear from you.
I also wanted to know if the kids project can be done there. If yes, how do we do it? Is there someone who can take at least a few foot casts and prepare them ready for the workshop period. Alternatively, just a single cast. Can we have multiple casts? Or the other option is to buy some ready-made foot casts. They should extend about six inches above the ankle. Can you please conï¬Â〉m on this at the earliest.
I am so keen on this project because of its associations with the exhibition. May be some sculptor there can help us to get this done. I am not sure if I can make casts myself because I am not very good with plaster.
Hope you are having a good time and look forward to receiving your further questions.
Regards Harsha
...
Dear Harsha,
As far as foot casts are concerned, I am thinking about whom we could approach to help make them. I am sure we can ï¬Â］d an artist here to help. This can not be arranged until the beginning of September now - everyone is on holiday, including Beaconsï¬Â‘ld!
I am concerned that the kids workshops do not take up too much of your time and would like to suggest that we talk more about these during the ï¬Â〉st week of September when we will be back in touch with the schools. It would be best to arrange the whole thing here when you arrive because the teachers have their own agendas as well.
Thinking about the overall concerns of the Drawing Space project again, I realise that we have not talked about this issue of space. I suppose the title of this exhibition refers to both physical and metaphorical space. Interestingly, the drawings and paintings in your notepads use a number of spatial conventions from the East and West. Sometimes you emphasise the flatness of the picture plane, as with Indian minatures, and at other times you create illusionistic space with perspectival drawing, which seems to refer more to a European tradition. I have only seen the three-dimensional installations you have made in reproduction, but in these you are deï¬Â］ing real, actual space and creating environments within which the spectator can move about. At the same time this drawing or activation of real space often connects back to images painted on a flat surface - the gallery wall. These gallery installations could be described as site-speciï¬Â… since they only exist in a particular space for a limited period of time. How do you feel about the temporary nature of such site-speciï¬Â… installations?
When you come to Beaconsï¬Â‘ld you will have the choice of several large wall areas and will probably make a new and beautiful work which will record your residency here. The tragedy of this piece will be that it cannot remain on the walls of the gallery, since other artists must work here after you. The work of several weeks will eventually be painted over. One of the issues here is that the work does not have a direct commercial value. Do you believe that this way of working is valuable in other ways?
The type of temporary gallery installation described has been an internationally accepted form of practice for many years, but do you think such a way of working has particular signiï¬Â…ance for you, in terms of your own cultural background in which ritualistic traditions are very important and symbolic action probably plays a larger role in daily life than here in Europe? Also, how much do you think the London context will affect the ï¬Â］al work?
It would be nice to hear from you before Saturday because I am then off on a workshop for two weeks and I might not be able to get internet access.
Best wishes Naomi
Dear Naomi,
I will go slowly on the kids workshop. We can work it out when I am there in London.
With these small drawings, I start with an image and then work my way around the image; it is very rare that I begin with a space and then insert an image into it. The notebook that you are speaking about was made with a very conscious drawing process, because I wanted to exploit all the possible skills I have. So each drawing in that book might be said to inhabit a different space. It is a book about the concept of drawing.
I think the term site-speciï¬Â… has layers of meaning. My focus, most of the time, is on how to make a work evolve in a physical site and speak with the atmosphere around it. I also wish to think about what that space used to communicate before my intervention and what I want that site to say after I have intervened with my images and objects. If we look at our own project, there are lot of things which are going on behind the actual site-speciï¬Â… work - I have been reintroduced to Company drawings and I am also working with an imaginary ‘there' from ‘here'. So I guess one can see two different cases here: (1) where a work relates conceptually as well as visually to a space; and (2) where it relates visually to the space but is conceptually alien.
I feel that the beauty in a site-speciï¬Â… work is its ability to change the language of a space momentarily. This quality is only attainable with temporary art works. Such works lose their value the moment one tries to make them permanent in some way. So I don't see a tragedy here. Even if one succeeds in make them physically permanent, they no longer breathe the moment, so in a way they are dead.
In my art practice, I follow a number of different activities: drawing, painting (on canvas, on walls, silk and other materials), rangoli bush drawings and community-based art projects. So most of the time, a thought comes to mind and then I choose which medium to use. Often I flow from one medium to another; an image conceived in rangoli will appear in my paper drawings or one of my notepad drawings will be blown up to a community project.
The commercial value of an artwork - this is a tricky thing. Some of my works can be sold and some can't. When it comes to wall paintings, I don't do them to express my resistance to the commercial value of art. It is their simple beauty which makes me do them. Moreover, there are pleasures both in making them and seeing them painted over. For example, when I do a bush drawing with rangoli powder and it rains later that evening, I will be happy; it just makes me conï¬Â‥ent that the surface is clean and all set for me to do a new drawing. So there is a beauty in this natural cleansing. I also have a part-time job as a web designer which helps ï¬Â］ancially, so I do not worry much about the commercial value of my artworks. And I am also lucky that Comat, the company which I work for, supports me and is very understanding about my art practice. Certainly, I lose some ï¬Â］ancial beneï¬Â》s, but that does not affect my thinking or artistic processes much.
Yes, rituals and symbols of Indian tradition are very much woven with my life and art. My experience with local rituals is as complicated as the idea of space in my notebook. Sometimes I see with a European eye; sometimes it is an Indian eye. I was brought up in an environment in which rituals and symbols are ï¬Â〕led with religious values and then later my academic art education had completely different things to say about these rituals and symbols. So now, I am living with this investigative eye, which is always searching for values in these rituals which are relevant to our contemporary lifestyle. On the one hand, I have all this personal experience of local practices; on the other, my exposure to other cultural practices from far-off lands - via the booming communications media - keeps on challenging the local beliefs. I am constantly trying to negotiate a space which deï¬Â］es this complex situation.
I am not sure how the London context will affect my work and I don't want to arrive with any preconceptions. But I am sure there will be a lot of enriching dialogue triggered off by this exchange, but we are running out of time. Sometimes I like these deadlines because they stop me typing and help me to get back to my work with brushes.
I have written this very spontaneously, so please excuse me if I have gone off track or if I did not answer your questions.
Regards Harsha
