As obscure as the title might sound, this entry is a very interesting observation about Aarti Sunder’s work and herself…..well, at least to me! The deep intimacy she shares with the characters that she has been drawing puzzled me at first. She seemed to believe that they were real and was very protective of them. Why would someone glorify doodles to the extent of personification? What made them so special? What is it that made them real for her?
Aarti in a talkative mood in her studio.
Aarti came across to me as a very politically and socially sensitive individual. And initially, I could not see any of that awareness or the acknowledgement of those issues in her work. It puzzled me as it went against my understanding of people’s psyche. She talked about how uneasy it made her feel to have created these characters and not put them to use. She saw them as getting trapped somewhere in uncertainty, waiting for things to happen…waiting for something to happen…perhaps a story to begin. She had hoped to do “something” with them during her residency in Khoj. That “something”, for her, turned out to be bringing at least one of her characters out of the 2D drawings and bringing “it” (or this “fellow” as she would like to call the character) into 3D as a sculptural form. It was only when Aparna compared her characters with Tamil refugees, a fairly frequented topic in our nocturnal conversations, that I saw some kind of link of these characters to the personality that is Aarti.
Some of Aarti’s drawings of the “fellow”.
Aarti’s “fellow”, in the process of actualising in 3D form.
The stargate to the universe of Aarti’s imagination opened and these characters paraded out of it making me easier to understand them better……or at least interpret the purpose of their existence in my own way. She had told us earlier that she had started drawing these characters, which were mostly animals, after reading “Animal farm” by George Orwell. The Pig was the first animal she drew and she had exhausted herself by drawing it again and again. Though, she moved on to drawing other animals and even insects and human (the latest “fellow” is the first full humanoid character she has experimented with), the fact that she started off passionately with the Pig gives an important clue to how her mind works. She talks fervently about the strong caste divide in the Tamilian society and the role Brahmins play in this caste sensitive society. I could gather from our talks that the society is certainly moving in a more favourable direction for the people but the issue is still too real to ignore. She talked very confidently about the Brahmins to the verge of stereotyping them. I went on to realize later that it was because she was a Brahmin herself and she had been talking about her own community. I couldn’t help but notice a certain amount of guilt (and shame?) that she indulges in for belonging in this class. This guilt almost weighed as much as the uneasiness that often engulfed her whenever she considered her imprisoned characters. One by one the pieces came together to me. I couldn’t ignore the pig which, to me, could be compared to a Brahmin in the animal farm which was the Tamilian society. And the jam of the characters in purgatory was her inability to come in terms with the issue in “practice”.
What the most interesting part of the process of understanding her work was the fact that her “fellow”, even though liberated from 2D to 3D, was still stuck to one wall and seemed to be in an awkward position. I was reminded of Jan Svankmajer’s “Darkness Light Darkness” where the struggle with identity (pertaining to a nation) is apparent. The figure is successful in reconstructing itself only to be later trapped in an awkward position and thus making the whole effort futile.
A screenshot from Jan Svankmajer’s “Darkness Light Darkness”.
She intends (at least till now) to cover only 3/4th of his body/structure with the yellow paper that she has been using for, what I understand as his skin. The paradox of the form finally getting created yet remaining undefined due to her hesitation to give it a complete human form (absence of skin/paper at certain areas) seems to reflect her struggle with the issues that she is constantly bombarded with. Though aware of the issues, it seems she is yet to confront them with a certain mindset that she is to acquire. The form could be an allegory of her struggle between her want to express and her hesitation that hampers it. I see her characters which, she has created and I see her knowledge on political and social issues and both of these lots seem to be stuck in a place where they are waiting for her reaction….her readiness to take them to the next level….or perhaps give them a conclusion.
