Focus : ARTIST OF THE MONTH (www.mattersofart.com)

Manjunath Kamath : Moa pick of the March month

Quotidian narratives float in emptiness .

Hauz Khas village, the ethnic hub of Delhi is always crowded. Boutiques, art galleries, coffee shops and people ever curious and driven by the buying capacity are everywhere. Just outside the entrance of the village, on either side you see the sprawling green of a reserve deer forest. Anoop Kamath, CEO of www.mattersofart.com drives his Toyota Innova through the winding alleys and finds a proper parking place. We unfasten our seat belts and jump out. We are on our way to Manjunath Kamath’s studio located in one of the narrow lanes of Hauz Khas village. A flight of steps takes us to his studio. A huge one with a lot of light and air. Pigeons fly around and some of them come to the huge glass windows and peep into the studio as if they were making sure that we did not see their lovemaking. All the walls are filled with more or less finished paintings.

Looking at those paintings we immediately get the feeling that many things have happened in this artist’s life. Yes, chuckles the jovial Manjunath Kamath. “The title of my forthcoming show is ‘SOMETHING HAPPENED’.” ‘Great!’ Anoop and myself exclaim. Manjunath calls out for his studio assistant Krishna . Krishna appears with three cups of tea. Then Krishna takes down the paintings from the mantle piece and displays them for us one by one. Manjunath walks down memory lane. He talks about how these images have been conceived.

“I have been trying to paint emptiness,” says Manjunath. “Yes,” Anoop and I say in unison. We can see the empty spaces dominating all those 15 canvases. But those images of goats, pigeons, swans, donkeys, ambassador cars, tigers, bathroom drains bring in strange narratives. Quotidian narratives but when put together by the artist they look surreal. The yellow black stripes on the road divider correspond to the tiger painted on the left side of the canvas. “Some are deliberate and some are accidental,” explains Manjunath. “My life, these days, is tuned to the journey between Vasant Kunj where I live and Hauz Khas where I work. All these images come from this routine.”

Manjunath is all set for his solo show after a decade in Delhi . Gallery Espace would present his show on April 7, 2006. He talks to us about his work, process and outlook. Excerpts from the interview:

JohnyML: Emptiness. And Something Happened. Interesting. Could you please explain a bit more?

Manjunath: I think the other way round. Something happened and emptiness (smiles). You see, I was brought up in a milieu where Yakshagana (a traditional narrative performance in Karnataka) had a strong presence. It happens the whole night. Next morning, after the play is finished, if you go to the field where it took place, you find a strange emptiness. You might have noticed it happening even after the Kathakali (an intricate dance drama performance of Kerala). You feel the emptiness then. But you know that it was where all those things happened a few hours before. That is a strange feeling. Emptiness comes to me as a predominant imagery from this understanding. One of my works deals with a desolate road just after a traffic jam is cleared.

JML : Conceptually it is true. But how did you manage to bring it in your canvases?

MK : I would say it is a continuation of my previous set of works. I dealt with a lot of history and concepts in those works. I had to start again after a break. I was almost blank. Only the stories from my childhood, my humour and day-to-day events gave me company. To begin afresh, I had to start from where I stopped. It was then, in relation to my present routine of life that I got the idea of emptiness. Once I chanced upon the works of Prabhakar Barwe. It inspired me in structuring the emptiness.

JML: I feel the concept of emptiness is only a structural technique as far as these works are concerned. They have a lot of narrative in it as well, perhaps trying to displace and dislocate each other in order to find a place on the pictorial surface.

MK: Structuring is an integral part of my work. I am a very active designer and design is basically about perfect structuring. This has helped me a lot in creating a structural effect in my new series. I place images in such way that always an enigmatic balance is created. If you look at the work titled ‘Looking for a Safe Issue to Discuss’, you see a donkey kicking a bucket and cup, a man holding a swan, a table covered with a white cloth and some books perched precariously at the edge of the table. As you mentioned, each of them demands attention from the viewer. But my stress is not on the individual images. On the contrary, I deal with the issue that is specified in the title against an empty space.

JML: Interestingly, this title (Looking for a safe issue to discuss) seems to be loaded with polemic…Do you intend to say something about the art scene itself?

 MK: Life is all about problem solving (laughs). Everyone wants to discuss but it should be least polemical. A donkey kicking the bucket is not a problem for anybody. That’s the donkey’s business. A man sitting with a swan is his business. But he has a table and a few books near him. You might have noticed a bulge under the tablecloth. Actually those are the polemical issues or books containing polemical issues. So it is pushed under the cloth.

JML: Your donkey seems to be coming from Bhupen Khakkar…

MK: Yes, I am quite aware of that. This donkey in the ‘Safe Issue’ painting is from Bhupen Khakkar. But later I did a few more paintings where donkeys appeared. ‘I Can’t Please All’. I did that painting and then I realised that it was almost like affirming what one of the Bhupen Khakkar paintings says, ‘You Can’t Please All’. So my painting should be read as ‘yes, I can’t please all’. In another painting titled ‘Stretching Canvas in front of Fernandes House’ you see a donkey standing still while a person tries to stretch a canvas. You can say that the man is my own self and the donkey would be the only thing that would wait till I finish the painting.

JML: Your works are loaded with witty stories.

MK: True. Actually my paintings reflect my outlook of life. I am a fun loving person and I make stories about my friends. In all those stories I give them different attires and attitudes. But when it comes to paintings, I have a repository of stories in my memory. My grandmother had told me many stories. Also I have imbibed many stories since my childhood. They all come in disguise in various paintings. And they have an inherent witticism. ‘Creating a Main Character for My Grandmother’s Story’, ‘Marriage in May’, etc., are best examples for this. ‘Marriage in May’ shows a couple at their wedding ceremony. It is the month of May. Terribly hot summer evening. However, the bridegroom is seen wearing a three-piece suit. There is a row of footwear seen at the left corner of the canvas. It shows the sanctity of the ceremony. But it happens in a five star hotel as the swimming pool at the left top corner suggests. In this sense, my paintings are about very humorous stories. The pun is quite evident in the work titled ‘Tiger on the Tiger Skin’.

JML: You seem to have taken a lot of photographic references.

MK: Yes, of course I take references. But I do not paint a referential image directly. I transform it into a character in my paintings. I think each of my images comes either from a photograph or a real life situation. The elephants and pigeons are from Delhi. But when they come to the pictorial surface I give them the guise from the miniature tradition. In the work titled ‘Group Prayer for Government Fall and Rain’ I use the reference of a religious video where priests are seen in various phases of praying.

JML: What are the other exhibits you have in the forthcoming show.

MK: I would like to present a few drawings. Besides, I will definitely present a two monitor clay-mation film. The images are very simple. In one monitor a man is seen absorbed in counting money. The other monitor shows a man making gestures and faces at the money-man. He counts money. The other man makes gestures. It goes on and on. That is the way of the world.