PRESS COVERAGES - HEAD TALE

CARTANART - Art review of HEAD TALE by Johny M.L. The well known art critic from India.

CIRCLES CERCLES - Interview by Kanika Vora.

BLUE ANT STUDIO - Interactive session with the Blue Ant Studio team members.

HEAD TALE - Solo Art Exhibition

I started working on this series of drawings and paintings on paper based on my personal experiences. Street urchins forced to perform acts of jugglery in front of the public just to earn a piece of bread (roti). Even doing terribly difficult and fantastic acts of acrobatics. Small kids with an innocent smile on their face doing the impossible. Farmers committing suicide, with debt to follow up by the helpless family. Migrants with punctured dreams, homeless on the streets of our cities. All unsung souls who die trying to achieve that minimum sanctity of humanness are my inspiration, my 'HEADS'. I am telling their tale of hope, despair, failure, struggle, deceit and tears. All these heads are reflecting the soul of our present society. The contemporary dilemmas of mankind are vividly portrayed here.

'HEAD TALE' stands on an understanding of daily exploration of our soulless journey towards attaining the truth. 'HEAD TALE' tries to visually trace the imperfect frameworks for negotiating the complexity of existence – a symbolic vastness within the greater vastness of this physical world. It's a galactic pile-up of reality – meditating prisms to which someone, somewhere, is still clinging. The elements facilitate engagement at all levels of consciousness, being provocative in nature. 'HEAD TALE' is based on our inner turmoil and its struggle with various elements. Influenced by forces of society, norms of survival, rules of coordinated etiquette, economic pitfalls, political lies, back stabbing idiots, race to success.

One might ask why only head. Well the head including the face is the real mirror of our soul. We read hundreds of faces in our daily life. Still we remember few, sometimes none. The head or face strikes you first and has its own story to tell. 'HEAD TALE' is an assemblage of strange contradictions of contemporary life. Some faces will remind you of the friend you just met on the street or the stranger who just make you laugh with his uncommon acts. Among millions of faces, some are truly memorable, for reasons unknown to us. Just too hard to erase from ones memory. Why we treasure them, is truly mysterious. This unknown connection maybe known as human bonding, so prehistoric yet surviving the troubles of our time. This element of mystery make our life naturally lovable. That slight twist of eyebrows, that cunning smile, the pale look, happy faces hiding everything beneath them, the anger blowing hot faces, old and tampered faces and so many of them. Scratched, curved, chiseled, painted, pampered, cannibalistic, injured, glorified and drowned in pain. Faces unlimited.

These 'heads' are common faces with uncommon stories carved on them. Raw in appearance and bold to the core. The colourful appearance  is deceiving to one's eyes. Painted to hide something mysterious. The material used is least important. The cause becomes supreme, transforming your routine space and time to a new level. Sometimes the heads are meditating, one with the self. They are vulnerable but determined. They are on the path of self exploration to explore the world in a more divine way. The void in them is taking the form of solace. The monk of his soul is questioning the meaning of worldly encounters. Ready to take on pain with very little effort. Finding the Shangri-La within oneself is the endless journey of all humans.

The heads are not to dismantle but to challenge and question our ignorance. They make you confront painful realities and provoke thought. ‘HEAD TALE’ is a shock therapy for the disillusioned times. To tear down the corrupt citadel of fake dreams. These heads let you rediscover the lost moments of your soul. A tribute to honest living and slowly but surely the heads gets under our skin.

Artist Statement -

Soumen Bhowmick

PITARA Catalogue

Left to Right : Suman Roy, Soumen Bhowmick, Debashish Das and Tanoy Roychoudhary

From Left to Right : Soumen Bhowmick, Suman Roy, Tanoy Roychoudhury, Debashish Das and Gangadhar Mahato

From Left to Right : Gangadhar Mahato, Soumen Bhowmick, Debashish Das, Tanoy Roychoudhury and Suman Roy

 

PITARA

PITARA 

A Group Exhibition of Paintings & Sculptures

Artists : 

Arpan Chakraborty, Debashish Sarkar, Gangadhar Mahato, 

Manoj Kumar Paswan, Suman Singha Roy, 

Soumen Bhowmick, Tanoy Choudhury.

5th to 11th January, 2014

11am to 7pm daily

Lalit Kala Akademi, Rabindra Bhavan, 

Copernicus Marg, New Delhi 1.

With Warm Regards,

Soumen Bhowmick

M : +91 9810661959

The GASSED Article

This piece of article was published by CSR TIMES magazine. The Corporate Social Responsibility magazine newly started from Delhi.

JAANE BHI DO YAARON

FALL OF THE GOLIATH, conte on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick 2013.

A land where you can get a plateful of food for Rs.5 only, where women get raped for wearing jeans, where women get burned for dowry but also get worshiped as goddesses, where farmers commit suicide for loans, food rots outside go-downs and on railway platforms, where people get prison for stealing Rs.200 and enjoy freedom to steal crores of money, a paradise where people are killed in the name of caste and religion, where education is inaccessible and booze flow like streams, where jobs are scarce and jobless souls aplenty, where the corrupts enjoy office till the last day on earth and the honest get shot by hired goons, where gratitude for the teacher is unknown, where the planning commission has no plans, where the economy is gone for a toss, where you get caught for smoking in public places but can pee in leisure publicly, where the law itself is lawless, where bribe is the supreme judge, where police himself rape the victim, where every child is living in fear of rape and abuse, where the highest of the office is corrupt, where a tainted leader get Bharat Ratna, where innocent people fear the law and the criminals command their respect, where the court is treated like a concubine, where money is wasted by the same government which teaches austerity, a place which is a heaven for the corrupt and criminals, where the rich can play god and the poor counts its every breath, where bread is scarce and imported wine is cheaper, a janam bhoomi of chamchas and followers of nepotism, where a god man can rape child in the name of religion, where god men or preachers loot the poor common people morally and physically, where tragedy is celebrated by organizing fashion shows, where you have to pay for god ‘darshan’, where terrorism is as common as monsoon, where charity is done to evade the law, where art is treated like a burden by the government, where politicians play Holi with coal, where Common Wealth Games are organized to loot public money, a land where roads and electricity are scarce and non existent in many regions, where the political class have a life of a Maharaja, where the poor still have to sell their newly born for food, where bonded labours roam the fields, where love birds are killed by khap panchayats or parents in the name of caste, where prisoners do graduation but children dropout from schools, where you get corporal punishment in school for asking questions and sometimes get killed also, where you get the license to pollute the rivers in the name of immersion of  idols during festivals, where you spend (eat up) crores of money simply to clean the river Yamuna, where one get arrested for trying to commit suicide, where the tribal women had to drink local booze to lessen her pain for breast feeding (she herself is without food for days) her hungry baby, where people driving luxury cars frown on seeing a child begging and at the same time attend seminars on their upliftment, where burgers are given to beggars but rotis miss their plate, where earning money is a simple case of going to war, where one has to pay thousands in donation in school to make one’s child educated, where education and food is the birth right of every male child and daughters are killed on birth, where female feticide is a routine affair, where religion is bigger than the soul, where the roads of the capital city gets flooded every monsoon and turn up like a lake, where traffic jams and rude drivers are treated like necessary add on, where else you will find corrupt babus and ministers driving huge cars on government money guzzling litres of petrol and diesel and flashing a red beacon, where else you will see no respect for the brave soldiers who die in our border doing their duty for the mother land, where else artists are threatened and their works destroyed for being honest and brave, where else a great artist of the land has to live his last life in exile for painting what already exists and which is the truth, where teachers rape their own students, where the government dump its own people who are victim of a barbaric gas tragedy and help the guilty to escape, a land where gold is supreme and rice is deemed to be rare, where budget time is the horror period for every Indian family, where else you have dogs roaming hospitals wards, where else a ward boy in a hospital practice his hands in operating a patient and in the process kill the helpless soul,  where else teachers are missing from their respective classes and busy freelancing, where children die in schools after having their free lunch all sponsored by the government, where people die due to negligence of fire safety, where judgments by the highest court is treated like mere funnies by the rich and powerful, where the judiciary itself is partnering with corruption, where our political maharajas make enormous promises only to be fooled later, where half the politicians in parliament are actual criminals, where we vote rapists and murderers as our rulers, where you spend millions on cricket and spend a penny for other sports, where dreams of many a talented sportsmen and women die before seeing the light of glory, where a corporate can spend lakhs for its calendar shoot with bikini babes but unable to pay salary to his employees, where you have the most child marriages in the world, where you make law to break law, where you can even buy the heaven by bribing god…well the list is endless, never ending. This wonderful incredible place I’m talking about is the one where on earth I live…INDIA!

This demonic situation persists in India for a long time now. We all enjoy this and are part of it. Being in this mess and chaos is the sublime happiness we thrive on. Otherwise we really get bored by those whistle blowers who crop up some time and ultimately get killed by the rich and powerful of our land. Fools they are, try to justify honesty in their heart with their deeds and words. They bang their feeble head to the thick strong wall of corruption and vices of all colours. Just take a break man, this incredible land of ours is the ‘karam bhoomi’ of the corrupt politicians and the businessmen. Fear of law is a vague thought in their mind. So engrossed they are in looting this place that even death will fail to justify why they don’t die. Volumes have been written on this evil raj of ours, but who cares to react to them. Time is not in our disposal.

Just got into the habit of ignoring the flow of decaying filth of corruption everywhere. One’s views on the state of affairs in India now is like reading stories from the Gotham city, of the Batman series. Batman was still there to save the people of Gotham, but who will save us? Helpless souls take refuge in RTI (Right to Information). But to what good, the corrupt are never punished or tortured. The process to show them their real place takes ages. Once in a while we get to hear some damn bloody politician is behind the bars…then after some time he was let free to roam the wilderness of deceit and evil. The kingdom of corruption is so vast and well guarded in India that no single soul can demolish that. Every prediction of well being and goodness is a complete failure here. The new age Maharajas (politicians) of this cursed land try every trick in their book to keep the people poor and unfortunate. There is no lack of food or scarcity of resources in this land of ours. It’s vast and prosperous, but only for the betterment of the politicos.
They create false scarcity like the one with supply of onions or potatoes. The dude from Maharashtra, Sharad Pawar plays real havoc as a minister of food. He heads the cartels of sugarcane and other vegetable suppliers. They stock vegetables when their is flood or drought and create a fake scarcity in the market and reap millions through black marketing. The owner of Kingfisher Airline had all his wealth and power utilized for clicking semi nude female models for the gorgeously beautiful and expensive new year calendar. All exotic locales are there, with the best photographer to his command. It's an effort worth my appreciation artistically. But needs the money to flow like a waterfall. Meanwhile his employees' of Kingfisher Airline had to let go of their salary for months end, sometimes six months even. One of the employees's wife even committed suicide for being unable to support her son's further education. All the cries and voices of despair fallen into deaf ear of Vijaya Mallya the owner of Kingfisher.

The poor and helpless farmers are always dependent on the rain god’s blessing for their thirsty farm lands. Still following the old method of farming, devoid of new scientific approaches. The officials responsible to monitor their farming affairs is busy making money the wrong way. The BDOs (Block Development Officer) or IAS babus just take things easy. More busy serving their political masters than the people of India. We are a nation followers and not leaders. We teach our generations to serve and not to question the authorities. Serving the British Raj for 200 damn years has mellowed down our very basic societal spinal structure. Our strength of character is now completely loose. It can always be taken for granted by our ever enthusiastic dominant neighbors in a wrong way. They don’t want to miss a single opportunity to bully us now and then. Even the smallest state of Nepal can show us the middle finger and they did that many a times.
This country has many varieties of malice’s. And it’s not that other nations are not touched by all these, only thing is they have a strong social and economic structure to face those short comings. The political class always supports the thriving population of the poor and the poorest of the poor for their own political benefit. Elections are won based on the number of poor and communities. Our political master’s are excellent jugglers of numbers. They know how to make things sound rosy and blessed with just a few damn number games. For the entire year we keep listening that the economy is up or going down...who cares for that even if it’s up, it’s always down for the man on the street. His or her days will be spend in day dreaming of a time which will never be possible to achieve by these brigade of corrupt politicians.

Elections are time to play the fortune changer...KAUN BANEGA CROREPATI. A game every Indian politician is in love with. Before election the fortune of a candidate may be a few lakhs in his bank account bot the moment he steps into the realm of a cabinet minister or even a small time MLA he gains that all time blessing of the electoral process...MOOLAH! His fortune changer works over time to make the dude a real time Maharaja with crores of money in this account. But the best part is his hunger for excellence in making moolah never recedes. His heart always play the favorite tune of the political class...YEH DIL MAANGE MORE. Today we have the naxalite situation in a very grim stage. It all began in the 1960 to 1980 and later on, when the government tried to fuel the development fire on the pyre of poor farmers. The farmers were made to vacate their only valuable possession, their land. Which at least gave them food and shelter. The were not educated and had no other skill to fall back on. So their livelihood and finally the survival of their family throw a difficult question on their face. They sought judgement the way they knew it better, by taking to arms revolution. By becoming a naxalite and ultimately fight for their land and livelihood. The situation is fully instigated by the state sources and they are to be blamed for the situation India is facing. still many Indian corporate and MNC companies are fueling this naxalite problem for their own profit. Farm land is becoming scarce and the poor farmers and tribals are left with no other choice. In some cases the farmers had to sell their girl child for few hundred rupees for a bowl of rice. And ultimately the girl is sold off to brothel in Delhi or Mumbai. The male child had to drop out from school to help his father in earning a living. This cycle of hell goes on and on. The divide between the haves and the have nots is now a grim reality of our life. The social equilibrium is challenged every day in this land of peace and harmony. A bullet for a bullet attitude of the state machinery will only alienate the poor farmers and the tribals. Make them involve with the mainstream development and the question of their survival and well being should be the utmost important policy of our movers and shakers.

The list is endless and a million words will fall to deaf ears to make things better. Decades of frustrated yawns have filled our lives. Possibilities are enormous, but the will to make a change is missing. Dribble your ball on your own to net the goal, that is what needed by every individual in India. Take your stand and let your voice say 'Hulla Bol'.

But for now, let it go friends let it go, JAANE BHI DO YAARON!


By: Soumen Bhowmick, September, 2013.

MANDI HOUSE KI BHATAKTI AATMA (MBA)

COME TO MY CIRCUS, pen & ink on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick

"MANDI HOUSE KI BHATAKTI AATMA (MBA)" 

Or 

"THE WANDERING SOULS OF MANDI HOUSE"

I pick myself as the first example for this piece of writing. Well I am a qualified and self proclaimed “Mandi House Ki Bhatakti Aatma”, that means I am an MBA. What a qualified soul I am!

You need to be an all year round wanderer around the Mandi House area. A place for all troubled creative souls in Delhi. It’s the place to be in for creative nirvana. I am not the first or the last of this breed. There were many more before me, like M.F.Husain, Jatin Das, Shahrukh Khan, Paresh Maity and many more known and unknown faces of Indian art and culture. Well you just need to be a qualified, troubled, thinking asshole these days to earn this coveted title; ‘MBA’. Troubled, yes we all artists, actors and writers are suffering that disease now more often. MBAs used to be rare at one point of time.

Surprisingly the place is a breeding ground for MBAs. With the presence of Shriram Centre for Arts, National School of Drama, Lalit Kala Akademi, Triveni Kala Sangam, Kamani Auditorium, LTG Auditorium, FICCI, Shriram Bharti Kathak Kendra and the College of Art. So now days there is an over supply of MBAs. So much of talented people are floating around, the souls are frantically looking for some foothold some where on the rough Delhi grounds. I hear their voices daily, some are complaining, some are praising and some just mute.

These Bhatakti Aatmas have one purpose only to soak in the strange and secret aroma of survival of the place called MANDI HOUSE. The place is intoxicating, it reminds you of the lost values of humanness, struggle, honesty, dedication and focus to one’s goal. Sometimes I feel disgusting to keep floating around as an MBA, what’s the purpose of this soul? Is he a loser or simply lost all hope in goodness. What really troubles me and many other MBAs, I hope, is the absence of care and sympathy for these Bhatakti Aatmas. Have anyone pondered, why are these souls wandering around. Sitting alone in one corner of Mandi House or in groups. I’m not trying to be sarcastic or emotional or want you to cry, just give it a thought. Some of the MBAs have died recently and some have left the city for good, to put an end to their question of survival.

Our famed policy makers in Delhi should take out some time and make it a point to visit this holy place of MBAs. Be there dudes, for it will open your dumb, nut-shell brain (if you have any). Try to sit there at least for an hour and make policy decisions there it self. You will see breed of all kinds there…the entire nation is passing through that place. You will get hundreds of ideas and can make critical decisions look so amusing to make. The place is sinking now. The economic down fall in the world has sipped into its air. The MBAs are getting tensed by the day. Now they don’t ask for cups of tea or samosas. They just keep watching the sky or the birdies and some times the two legged beauty passing by. They keep a very quiet presence. They hope, some one will ask them for tea or have “Ek bata Do” screamed to the chaiwallah. Alas it happens rarely. No fags are shared these days. The cost of cigarettes have crippled our mind. The holy smoke is missing from the air of Mandi House. For how long we the qualified MBAs be suffering in silence. Time has come to make our presence felt. No hand is strong enough to crush our dreams…the Bhatakti Aatma will settle down some day (we all prey for that).

The MBAs demand that Mandi House be declared as the most important centre of Indian cultural journey. Lets build a coffee house at the place and give us some better option to wander around. The Bhatakti Aatmas will be praising the Delhi Govt. for a long, long time to come. The tea stalls have made our life unbearable with the price of one cup of tea being Rs.7/-. It’s not hygienic at all. The place is getting filthy with garbage all around and smell of open toilets. Man we need to do something seriously to save the MBAs. Otherwise they will perish or will seek protection from the Govt. as endangered species. Come on you human beings save us. The MBAs need your support and care. Visit the place ones in a week and make it a point to talk to some of the MBA’s and you will see the real India around you.

People of Delhi, don’t be scared of us. We might look troubled, lost or even menacing, sometimes, but we don’t bite. Painters, stage actors, dramatists, dancers, activists, students, play writers, singers, photographers are the qualified regular MBAs. Mandi House has embraced them all with equal space and warmth. They all feel secure and loved here. Mandi House give us respect and the feeling of belongingness.
And thanks to Delhi Metro (DMRC) we now have the metro station to arrive on time and comfort to do our job of wandering around.

Say cheers to the ever lasting spirit of Mandi House Ki Bhatakti Aatmas (MBA) and their zeal to face all odds in life and the world.

By:
Soumen Bhowmick
July, 2013.

ART Vs A.R.T.

THE TROJAN ACT, conte & charcoal on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick

Its’s not a story of a lost soul neither a fickle dead argument. It’s a collective effort of all my senses to make an honest effort to present a clear perspective of the present art scenario. The contemporary art practices and its nuances from a new angle.

“ART for the artists is an honourable self exploration for the benefit of the society as a whole”, this is my understanding of ART. Sometimes it reflects the realities of life is a more raw mundane way and sometime in a more subtle vibration. Knowingly or unknowingly artists make A.R.T. (Active Repetitive Thinking). May be I’m the first individual to penned this term…HURRAH! What a revelation to come. Now expect the unexpected from the raw art…

 Many of us now a days are producing clones as ART, which is ultimately taking shape as >Active Repetitive Thinking (A.R.T.)< and feel proud of their creations. Galleries, so-called Art Critics, Collectors and Curators are pumping their jack for these skillful mass producers of A.R.T. No names here, but I don’t feel the need to nullify or justify their stand here. The present downward journey of the art scene in terms of financial gains is evident enough to ratify my position. May be not, but take some time and explore the art producers of INDIA now and you will see the 

Active Repetitive Thinking syndrome is suffered by most of the artists, mostly painters or installation artists. Some of the best known names of Contemporary Indian art are feeling the horrible jolt of their lifetime. Their values have taken a down spin and going down deeper by every passing day. The promoters of these big shots have either fled the art scene or banished themselves to self-imposed exile. Many well know galleries and art funds have closed down BODHI, ANANT ART, MINT, PAINT BRUSH & CHISEL, BOSE & PACIA (Kolkata), RELIGARE ART GALLERY, ART ROOM, BAJAJ CAPITAL ART HOUSE and HONGKONG FINE ARTS (Manisha Khemka) to name a few. The rest are in a real bad shape, limping towards their self created hollow goals. All through 2005 till 2009 all these galleries and self proclaimed art promoters have done enough damage to make the greatest dent to the Indian art scene. They have punctured the morale of serious dedicated artists who worked tirelessly, away from the lime light and all these shooshabaji (Nonsensical sounds of false glory). The aced Art Critics and Curators have written thousands of words for the upliftment of these great performers. Years have been spent to create a false hype around certain artists. It suited all of them, the artists, the Galleries, the Curators and the Art Collectors or Investors. And the PR firms made their juicy cuts from these affairs, the entire affair used to be well orchestrated...a great symphony, but so fake! Prices of artworks touched the roof, yet qualitatively they are no good than a mere photocopy of realism around. Size does matter…no make it big. Huge canvases with mere placing of photographically referred elements, well synchronized and brightly painted. These breed of hyped ART were cherished and got pushed around for many years. Still around but the speed has been slowed down by reality of time. 

Years after years all we have seen is Active Repetitive Thinking (A.R.T.) in the form of boring, gigantic steel assemblages, forced dark eroticism with very predictive boldness and treatment, Buddha’s and Ganesha’s popping up as new found icons of Indian art, abstract colour patches, smart collages with minimalist approach and super realistic plastic paintings. Very dead and soulless effort by a large number of artists, some of them cream of Indian Contemporary art. Repetitive usage of content in the form of photographic support or reference is a mere short cut for most of the artists today. Ignoring their true soul stirring efforts to create something genuine and qualitative. The works created are least memorable, with a plastic like essence to their being. 

Another great menace which have popped up recently as a black hole for all serious Artists, is the ‘AFFORDABLE ART’ scene. Well packaged, glamorized, interior friendly, cheap in price, party conscious and dead in content is their profile. This Active Repetitive Thinking (A.R.T.) is now growing at a rapid speed, profoundly displayed in high value malls and galleries. Feel sorry to call them CURIO shops in the garb of posh galleries. They have fancy names and equally fancy attitude towards ART. These sellers of A.R.T. have done more harms to real ART than destiny itself. The perception of ART as a cheaper option for decoration has really harmed the serious ART scenario. It gives rise to A.R.T. that has no value as appreciation over the years monetarily. Qualitatively they are poor, no brains used, any pain involved…absolutely any soul into the ART. The concept of ART management is absolutely missing in Indian scenario. Poor maintenance of archive or total ignorance of art cataloging. It’s done so in the name of cost saving by galleries. Except for few big galleries who take great pain to make research and cataloging a serious affair of their art exhibitions.

Mass produced A.R.T. is now hanging unsold in most of the galleries. The auction houses are seeing the reality of time more lately. Some of the so-called icons of Contemporary Indian Art have gone unsold in major International Auctions during recent days. Within this turmoil will give rise to some of the best talents from India. Their perseverance and utmost honesty towards their profession will give a new meaning to ART. The recent fall of the art scene in terms of sales has done much better justice to the hard working faceless talents of our land. Slowly but surely they are now getting recognized. 

Their time has come, ROAR out the real tigers of Indian Art and show A.R.T. its real place!

By: 

Soumen Bhowmick

Date : 08/7/2013

SKETCH BOOK STORIES

My stories are for you all, just walk about with them and surely you will be surprised. Splashing my thoughts on pages of this sketch book was not a mere performance for me. It gives me delight to my soul and to my dreams.Some are on your face images, some just play with your doubts. But none is without a story. It's my solemn affair with my profession as an Artist that compelled me to come up with this body or to say properly, had an adventure with my thoughts and the materials.

Right from pen and ink, pastel, acrylic or charcoal on paper are there to explore. The combination of soul, hand and the tools, turn a mere piece of paper into something magical, at least for me!
I missed no moment to enjoy my affair with this sketch book.

GOOGLISED ART

INGLORIOUS BUSTERD, Pen & Ink on printed paper

Rightly said by some art critics and curators in India and abroad that art is now more global than ever. It's more influenced or just taken from another source.....credit to the internet. Now that we are exposed to millions of images on the net and all that is easily accessible to artists of all genre and ages. Art students in different colleges and polytechnics now rely heavily on the net rather than on their imagination or instinct.

Just with a simple click get more images and ideas than a normal human brain. Soul is dead and mouse is ruling the art world now. Manipulate, collate, crop, chop or simply filtered images are painted or drawn on canvases. Fuck the real artist inside you...just surf baby, that's the motto of our time.

INDIA ART FAIR...A Visual Saga!

INDIA ART FAIR SAGA 1, pen & ink on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick 2013

Hard to let go of those glasses of Absolut vodka, the martini...the scotch or that moheto. Dreams half broken like those glasses which felled on the floor at the lounge of the India Art Fair. Feels cheap sometime to be a drunk art lover...a title so enviously guarded by many. Those moments of drunken bliss and philosophies were so tempting to be repeated year after year.

Observations from the India Art Fair:

There are more people in the isles than in the booths.
The best place to meet collectors is in the loo.
More people look at the work label than the work itself.
More people are buying art with their cameras than with their wallets.
People love to collect cards and any other material that is free.
A diet of chocolate and chips is a healthy art fair diet.
Wednesday is the new Saturday.
People watching is a favorite pastime.
People spend 80% of their time visiting 20% of the booths.
People want to see edgy but buy safe.
People ask for exactly the size of work that you do not have.
Lots of famous artists make lots of bad art.
Bad art sells.
This gallerist is brain dead.

By : Soumen Bhowmick
       Visual Artist & Writer
       April, 2013

INDIA ART FAIR SAGA 3, pen & ink on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick 2013

The Fair, The Boozes, The Art and The Business

What Happened to India Art Fair?

I do not know at first, because I was struggling to have a VIP entrance to the fair since its inception at Pragati Maidan.  I was not allowed by the door keepers they kept on saying that it is for the VIP.  I guessed at that time might be there would really be a very interesting thing happening inside where no artists are allowed and only the VIPs.  I waited for a while and try to see who these VIPs are. Gosh! I was astonished to see that they are only artists with a card in hand and they were escorted inside.  I asked the gate keeper what was that, he said that it is a VIP entrance, I asked him again do you know that he is VIP? He said yes because he had that card...Oh! That is the case give me that card I also wanted to go inside I replied... he said no, because you are not VIP, how I replied, he said because you do not have a card... hmmm! That’s sounds interesting. Then I called my collector who was also there as a VIP and also a participant curator, he said you wait I will arrange it to you.  And then suddenly from no where someone came and called my name in.  I looked at the door keeper in delight... he just smiled and let me in...

What and where I am entering too I didn’t knew till I felt that these fairs are not for the artists they are only for having wine, dine and have party, I saw not a single work that had inspired me a bit, it looked like a haat of Kolkata bazaar or in fact any where in India.  Every pickle, every vegetable was polished and put up with its entire price tags... hmmm! That’s interesting, now people do not have to ask for the prices anymore, I thought that there would be number of potential buyers but I ended up in the VIP lounge which was exclusively for someone who want to drink seriously.

Ha ha ha... I drowsed myself and went home...

And what about art... who cares? It is a good fun to go to the VIP entry and then drowse oneself with wine and come back home with empty mind...

The second and third art fair I didn’t got the passes so I went there spending 200 Rs. flat yet I ended up drowsed again because someone was there to give me VIP lounge entry and I was drunk again and went back to home with empty mind...

In fourth fair my dear friend had given me the VIP pass to get into the fair to view the works for the first time... as I went past the stalls I found only the master’s were looking great with their works but the contemporaries were all the same... looked like a solo show for the entire art fair... another experience I wanted to add then VIP lounge came again... and again I went empty mind to my home...

Fifth fair I was not willing to go... then suddenly I got a card... I got suspicious why? Why again? Yet I went there when I was getting interested in the art works... again the VIP lounge came and again I went empty mind to my home for all the three days... Ha ha ha

INDIA ART FAIR SAGA 2, pen & ink on paper, artist : Soumen Bhowmick 2013

What is serious about India Art Fair?

The seriousness about India Art Fair is the VIP lounge; the wine, the beer, the boozes and the boosts.  Every artist try to get the VIP pass to get the first day entry so that they could meet important people who buy art, so that they could able to introduce their works to them.  But instead much of the artists were in the VIP lounges laundering and talking rubbish, collecting information and puking.

And what about the works... they all vanished from the minds because of the simple fact that after five years of art fairs it is still a haat.

Galleries participate and they go but the owners of the Art Fair becoming scum of the corporate rules the artists...  and pick a handful of them who sells... I am not against the selling and buying of art works, but my suggestions that if you remove the VIP lounge from the fairs do people will be interested in going there and visiting there. I guess participant artists would not like to go there.  Anyway hope for the best as the boozes flow, minds will be kept empty...

By : Rahul Chaudhury
       Visual Artist & Writer
       April, 2013

INDIA ART FAIR, pen & ink on Fair Booklet,
artist : Soumen Bhowmick 2012

'V' series article with AFP magazine, Hong Kong

'V' 

'V' here stands for Vendetta and Vigilante. My series of B&W drawings and paintings are inspired by the English movie of the same name, V for Vendetta is a 2006 dystopian thriller film directed by James McTeigue. The common mans fight against the different social diseases or malice is predominant here. It's satirical depiction of social upheavals and voice for change around the world. It's the contemporary fight for change for political situations as well as economic security. Funny yet raw in essence the drawings will definitely make your heart aware of the predicament of the masses. The common man acts as the vigilante here, voicing and fighting against oppression of all kinds and various social, political and economic malices.
It’s a satirical depiction of social upheavals and voice for change around the world. It’s the contemporary fight for change for political, social and economic security. Funny it might look yet raw in essence. The drawings will definitely make your heart aware of the predicament of the masses around the world. The commonman acts as the lone vigilante here. Voicing and fighting against oppression of all kinds. We suffer from an insecurity of living our life humanly. Dreams are crushed even before they are given shape. Ideas lay scatted unattended on the path of corruption and manipulation.

One can live in this world but surrounded by fear and scared of truth, looking only at a hopeless dream of sanity. The cause to fight for justice and equality in the society is an immortal journey. Pursued for ages by mankind. In this series of work, swords are always drawn, a great battle of individuals is raging all over the space. It’s a battle for change. A call to fight corruption, lies and evils in all shapes and colours. The slogan raised here is “Let the overthrow of old world of malices be traced on the palms of your hands”.
We are looking for heroes among us but powers who thrive on corruption and insecurity are crushing them all the times. Revolution of ideas and free speech is in danger in this era of faceless ideals. What are we standing for; has honesty, truth are just alien to man now. Times are charged with change in the air. But it is not easy for us to know what we want; indeed, we may well want something, yet still remain in a state of negativity, a state of dissatisfaction, for we may as yet remain unconscious of new positivity. Striving for a pure state of stability is a myth, yet it’s our humanly duty to fight for at least a bit of it in this world. The fight is immortal and that makes this series V immortal as well.

JOURNEY OF A LONER

My steps dissolving into a space that evaporates into thoughts I do not think…
– Octavio Paz

This free world… And its enormous labyrinthine space, my soul dissolving into it, evaporating into multitude of forms as testimony to my thoughts. Being out there, with my arms ever spreading out to embrace the limitless expanse of possibilities, I would say I am a creative citizen of this free world, always working towards creating new vistas of human endeavours. My ideas, colours and lines – my art – has been the most enlightened form of self-expression.
A Bengali in origin, I come from Kolkata. Did my BFA from College of Art, New Delhi in 1997. I first saw my dreams taking shapes when I won the “Vice-Chancellor’s Award”, the highest award of excellence, while in my final year. Thus, my journey into the professional creative world began in the year 1997. With every passing day, ever since, I have learned and earned everything that I could, immersing myself in all hues and colours – that is my world, my art.
I am involved primarily with painting and teaching as a Lecturer in College of Art, New Delhi. I worked for various publishers & NGOs from India and abroad as a Illustrator, Cartoonist and Designer, like: Times of India, Business Standard, Down to Earth, Life Positive, Computers Today, D.A.V.P., CII, Rupa & Co., Macmillan, Orient Longman, Oxford University Press, National Book Trust, Goodword Books, Harcourt Educational Publishing (Heinemann/Ginn & Reed, UK), Glen Tree Publishing (UK) and Pioneer Book House (Dubai), TERI, CSE, Manushi and Nirantar. Illustrations give wings to the imagination of children and allure their thoughts making it an essential part of the learning process. However, conceptualizing the theme and creating the visuals is not an ordinary job. I find children book illustration the most challenging and enjoyable creative job besides painting.
One needs to keep few important things in mind, before taking the plunge into the world of children books. The delicate and finicky world of children presents with lots of challenges. Especially if you are an Illustrator, dealing with images of the children’s world. Whenever I go through a new manuscript for any children book, the first thing that comes to my mind, is my own childhood days. It’s a dream world of infinite possibilities, with adventure, action, unknown beasts and colours. I always keep in mind a child’s mindset, before starting my drawings. Based on the initial writings, I try to put my own know-how of the children’s world into use. Try to do as much justice to the writer’s words, blending with my own views of he same. But take care to make it look humorous and funny with some elements of surprise put in. I have illustrated couple of books, which incorporates values of saving our environment using some elements of fun. I feel strongly regarding environmental issues. Teaching also gives me a lot of satisfaction, feels the joy of giving back to the society.
Recently during the 2008 World Book Fair, two of my illustrated books-“Bunbun and The Mango Tree” and “Toru Nanu and Hipu” done for Khaas Kitaab got selected for the 100 Best Children Books exhibition, from all over India, organised by AWIC and NBT.

Painting for me is the only source of feeling alive in this mundane world of despair and ignorance. I try to spend most of my time in my studio, doing paintings or drawings with new materials and new ideas, with stress on experimentation. Presently working on a series of paintings and drawings for my various upcoming shows in India and abroad. Had my first Solo show-“Circus of the Absurd” at Lalit Kala Akademi gallery, New Delhi during March, 2010. Also participated at the “Animamix Bienniale,” MOCA Shanghai 2009-2010.
My style of work got much appreciation from galleries and curators from Israel, Italy, Germany, China and South Korea apart from galleries in Delhi. My paintings and drawings got much appreciation from Prof. Victoria Lu, Creative Director, MOCA Shanghai (She is the first female Art Critic and Curator in the Chinese Contemporary art world), Ms.Vittoria Biasi, Professor of art, Curator and Art Critic from Italy and In-Sang Song, Creative Director of Seoul Art Center, South Korea.

This is the only process which gives my life a sense of meaning and I do believe painting made my life more sincerely truthful to myself. I just paint to feel free of all pain and desperation of this rusted life of ours. Like to explore the world with colours and lines. I find the use of line very intriguing. I believe in the strength of lines, it can create simplistic wonders of enormous value. Colours of limited volume and used with absolute justice to the subject can make it very purposeful at the end. Breathing life to my semi-abstract body of works is some time very time consuming and delightfully painful.
Like to experiment with various kinds of medium and surfaces. With my present series of work, I am working in acrylic, soft pastel, pen and ink on paper primarily. I am working in an abstract form but with figurative elements. In this series some of which are black & white while mostly color works, painstakingly drawn imagery often featuring hybrid creatures, partly human and partly animal. Sometimes there is no classification between the clown and the tigers, they change forms and get inter mingled, to surprise the audience. There is a juxtaposition of fact and fiction in my imaging with a touch of humour and satire. My characters perform their role in the circus of absurd within the urban arena. Because I get inspired by the daily nuances of the big city. Here my clowns or tigers and skeletons take on different characters of acrobatic performers. Influences of Indian folk and tribal art is visible but with a contemporary and global nuance.
In my present series of paintings and drawings, I have shown Man-kind’s constant fight with his inner dilemmas and the ultimate victory of truth and goodness. In this case I treated the subject with a social commentary style in the form of pictorial depiction. It’s a blend of satire and irony of our present day predicaments. One will find a clown or two struggling with four tigers. The clown uses golden daggers to fight with the tigers. The tigers personify the various vices of our own self, like - lust, anger, fear and envy. The golden swords are here to show truth and purity of heart one needs to use to overcome all this weaknesses. The tigers are heartless, selfish and materialistic, although they have a royal presence. A duality of character is visible in this case. They deceive the society and the circus shows there various characteristics at various times. Whereas the clown uses his sword made of gold to kill the tigers during the show. Shown cities being destroyed, faith being plundered by the tigers.
It also a part of the show. The tigers play with our innocence at every step of life. Sometimes impersonating the clown, to deceive us of reality. The imposter is shameless to play the role of a pure soul. But it didn’t last long and the clown takes back his reign of goodness after much struggle, with the help of a golden sword. You need a pure golden heart and faith to kill the tigers amidst us. During this ongoing contradictions and power play, the circus in itself becomes enriched with various emotions. I tried my best to capture all this intricacies in this series of works.
Here gradually the performance overwhelms the reality and in itself becomes reality. The ‘Sadhu’ and other characters have a certain role to play here. I have shown a boat in most of the paintings or drawings, to show homeland and our place in this world. It is made of wood, showing vulnerability. Sometimes it has got wheels, to show its unstable or flowing. This Circus of the Absurd is the circus of our physical word.
Absurdness is now so common and obvious around us. The various acts of absurdity by the clown and the tigers gives one a feeling of dark humour and sometimes fantasy, but it all is so true.

My works are in the collection of ART ALIVE GALLERY, COLLECTOR'S STOP ART GALLERY, DELHI GYMKHANA CLUB, AIFACS, HABIART FOUNDATION, many private collections in INDIA, NORWAY and CANADA.

FIREBALL FROM HELL

Rules are yet to be broken in hell,
Still very nascent, drowned in its own glory.
The DEVIL risen.
Asked me, if I would take his place.
The eternal tortuous fire of hell is burning me down,
High and brighten by our failed souls.
I was preparing myself for this day of reckoning.

I was thrown out to earth
to burn down the proclaimers of modernity.
Hell was good,
Really comforting for the duality of my soul.

One aspire to achieve the impossible
And the other surrounded by failure of heart.
Devil loves blood of change,
For it flows without questioning the creator.

The smell of burning flesh, empty bowls of solace,
False promises, wandering souls, tired eyes full of tears.
Torn apart,
Tortured views of that helpless fellow on the street.
It's hell out there.
Just cheated our senses to make one feel comfortable
With all that gory happenings.

Now I am ready; the FIREBALL.
Hell has created me.
Time to burn down the scums of million years of dusted living.
Terrible will be my justice,
No mercy, no tears, no pity, no fear,
Just tonnes of burning heads rolling on the ground of temptation.
Chopped down views of mediocrity is no mean to save oneself.

My eyes are full of vengeance.
They are burning for ages,
Behold the soul, for I am the FIREBALL from HELL!

CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD

This new series is the second phase or part of my earlier series by the same title. During
this time lots of new experiences and emotional turmoil’s played its definite role to shape
this new range of works on paper. Mainly pen & ink and mixed media. Done over a period of two years, fuelled by innumerous socio-political consequences globally and its impact was dramatic on my work.
The contemporary daily upheavals in the Indian scenario, telling instances of helpless souls and their struggle for mere survival.
Now the struggle is not internal but with external elements of our society. The tiger here plays the role of the more identifiable face of social evils – Corruption, Terror, Poverty, Deceit, Injustice, Nepotism and Aimless Growth. Sometimes the images disturb your established norms of Visual acceptance. Well, that’s exactly I want to achieve, shaken and stirred and served raw on a platter of undaunting flow of emotions. The Clown here is me and you, the commonman . Tired by its own conformity and dualism. It tries to break free through the mess, with the use of the golden sword. Trying to force ones way forward, with an endless jest for true liberty.
The new man (Clown) emerges out of pain and blood, to claim his rightful place of honour. Here an amount of movement is created with the images of the butterfly, the symbol of freedom and innocence. It’s truly honest and beautiful, but sometimes it’s nauseatingly repulsive. The butterfly plays with the clown and creates an environment of challenge and tranquility at the same time.

Although it’s all very ABSURD in the fist glance, the path is laid for DREAMS to step out, to shake the hollow regime of DISHONEST Tigers.

Just make way for the CLOWNS!

CLOWN HEADS

A series of pen & ink on paper. This series is an extension of my previous series 'CIRCUS OF THE ABSURD'.
I started working on this series of drawings on paper based on my personal experiences in various forms. Street urchins forced to perform acts of jugglery in front of the public just to earn a piece of bread (roti). Even doing terribly difficult and fantastic acts of acrobatics. Small kids with an innocent smile on their face doing the impossible. Farmers committing suicide, with debt to follow up by the helpless family. Homeless on the streets of our cities. Migrants with punctured dreams. All unsung souls who die, trying to achieve that minimum sanctity of humanness. They are my inspiration, my ‘CLOWNS’. The golden sword or dagger has its own role to play. It gives judgement. It takes the test of purity. The golden sword is alive, does its own tricks. The clowns are tragic, funny, nauseating, cruel, sad, happy and above all humane. I want to put some questions of important issues through my art. In this series of ‘CLOWN HEADS’, the question of minimum humane existence is dissected in different forms. The clowns are faces among us, seen everyday in different forms and situations.

The series of ‘CLOWN HEADS’ stands on an understanding of daily exploration of our soulless journey towards attaining nothingness. “It’s a small world”, its an old joke, but you wouldn’t want to paint it. Or rather want to paint some crucial moments from its vastness. The ‘CLOWN HEADS’ are visual traces of imperfect frameworks for negotiating the complexity (and perhaps meaninglessness) of existence – a symbolic vastness within the greater vastness of this physical world. It’s a galactic pile-ups of reality – meditating prisms to which someone, somewhere, is still clinging. The elements facilitate engagement at all levels of consciousness, being provocative in nature.

‘CLOWN HEADS’ series is based on our inner turmoil’s and its struggle with various elements, influenced my forces of society, norms of survival, rules of coordinated etiquette’s, economic pitfalls, political lies, back stabbing idiots, race to success…what not may be the right question.

One might ask why only heads…well, the head including the face is the real mirror of our soul. We read hundreds of faces in our daily life. Still we remember few, sometimes none. The head or face strikes you first and has its own story to tell. ‘CLOWN HEADS’ is an assemblage of strange contradictions of contemporary life. Some faces will remind you of the friend you just met on the streets or may be the stranger who just made you laugh with his uncommon acts. Among millions of faces, some are truly memorable, for reasons unknown to us. Just too hard to erase from ones memory. Why we treasure them is truly mysterious. That unknown connection maybe known as human bonding, so prehistoric yet surviving the troubles of our time. This element of mystery make our life naturally liveable. That slight twist of eyebrows, that cunning smile, the pale look, happy faces hiding everything beneath them, the anger blowing hot faces, old and tampered faces and some many of them. Scratched, curved, chiseled, moistured, painted, pampered, injured, glorified and drowned in pain, faces unlimited.

These ‘CLOWN HEADS’ are common faces with uncommon stories carved on them.

Raw in appearance and bold to the core. The colourful apppearance is deceiving to our eyes. Painted to hide something…mysterious. Clown paints his face to appear funny or appropriate for the show. The show is supreme for him, an every day challenge. Here some accessories are part of the show, the golden swords, the trapeze, the umbrella, the bicycle, the arrows, the ball, the ladder, the golden daggers and the golden guns. They keep popping up here and there to test the clown’s faith and to make the show more thrilling. ‘CLOWN HEADS’, simply put are just spontaneous images of raw experiences. Hope and failure, life and death, are spread across the lines and colours of this series of work on paper. The material used is least important. The cause becomes supreme, transforming your routine space and time to a new level.

The clown heads have another aspect to them. The Buddha eyes with dream like aura make you think why peace suddenly. Well the clown is meditating, one with the self. He is vulnerable but determined. He is on the path of self exploration to explore the world in a more divine way. The void in him is taking a form of solace. The monk of his soul is questioning the meaning of worldly encounters. Ready to take on pain with very little effort. Finding the Shangri-La within oneself is the endless journey of all humans.

My clown heads will make you travel through many aspects and feelings of a clown’s (nayak) life during and after the show. It’s for the viewer to explore. Let it be mystified for time to reveal its true meaning.

(*Upcoming Series...on its way!)