Nothing better than this
SUMANASPATI
|
A visual treat of pyrotechnics, live painting and dance by French and Indian artistes marked this show.
|
In this show, which is a search for the deeper spiritual core of existence, we single out, through various artistic devices, the element of fire and then wind Karl Knopp
PHOTO P.V. SIVAKUMAR
PLAYING WITH FIRE Dazzling fireworks.
This was supposed to be an installation-performance and a mix of pyrotechnics, painting and dance - presented by two very highly reputed French artistes. But what you had on stage was strikingly earthy, elemental and artisan-like.
Call it retro-Indian, if you like. Around a large circle there were twelve black earthen pots. Hovering above them were 12 big pedestal fans with small plastic battery torches and streamer fireworks fixed on their heads. Ropes ran radially to the centre of the circle. And there were a variety of firework fountains - boxes and cones - placed in and around the circle.
At the far end of the circle stood a huge canvas painted in rich yellow and orange - colours of fire and two hand mudras of traditional Indian dance. Springing out from the canvas over bamboo sticks on both sides as if releasing and embracing the circle were some more streamer fireworks.
This kind of installation-performance targeted at the common people is still an infrequent art practice in India. And it is precisely the mission of Pierre Alain Hubert and Karl Knopp. Hubert is one of the leading pyro-technicians in the world today. And Knopp is a painter, and founder of the group Fusion, which specialises in experimenting art in urban spaces by fusing installation and graffiti with various other arts materials. Together for the last three years and for long individually, they have set themselves resolutely against elitist and bourgeois notions of high art.
Hubert was an architect by profession in his youth. But the search for a new medium of communication at once spectacular and full of creative and artistic possibilities led him to pyrotechnics.
"Fireworks have been traditionally used to celebrate and glorify the power of the ruling classes and institutions. But I use it to communicate artistic and multi-layered symbolic messages to the masses. I paint the skies for them!" said the ageing Hubert with a glint in his eye. Over the years he has enthralled crowds across the globe at some of the most prestigious events: World Cup Football opening ceremony (Seoul - 2002), New Year and Millennium celebrations on the Champs-Elysees in Paris (2000), opening of the Asian Games (Shanghai, 1993), Bicentenary of the Italian Republic (2002) - it's a big list.
For the India tour, when Hubert proposed a concept based on the idea of shunya or zero, it was readily accepted. The installation-performance then evolved over a few months as they travelled in India looking for materials and ideas.
Knapp discovered that hands play the most expressive part in Indian classical dance. The ubiquitous heavily whirring fans on Indian trains impressed Hubert a lot. So did the Hawa Mahals in Rajasthan. So they found the name for the show - `We can't catch the wind!'
Pierre Alain Hubert with a fireworks hat over his head
"We always create a personal symbology and mythology through our explorations and encapsulate it in such a way that it can be felt and understood by the common man. In this show which is a search for the deeper spiritual core of existence, we single out through various artistic devices the element of fire, and then wind."
Knopp explained, "We believe in fusion because that is the condition of humanity today. It is the defining style of contemporary life." So they had two young Bharatanatyam dancers: Ajay Bharadwaj (from Coimbatore) and Meghna Venkat (from Hyderabad), to lead the audience through familiar items like Sivastuti, Mohinibhasmasura, Dasavtras and an Ashtapadi into an intensely explorative ritual.
Knopp came on stage using fire itself as a tool to burn in the mudras into the canvas and embellish it. And as he painted the Siva Linga and primordial symbols of phallus and vagina, thin fountains of fire began to pour out form both sides of the canvas and on the top they created a blistering suggestion of Siva's third eye.
Hubert, along with seven other figures dressed in thick black (the eight dikpalas?) moved in toward the circle with torches in their hands and lit the powder in the pots raising a cluster of slow moving flames. Then went off the fire fountains on top of the pedestal fans. Then the fans were switched on stoking the flames a little more.
Karl Knopp paints in the background as Meghna Venkat performs. PHOTO P.V. SIVAKUMAR
An additional sensory element was added when the fans sent a wave of fragrance into the audience from thick bunches of incense sticks. As the dark dikpalas stood around swinging circularly tiny fire pots hung on thread, the sky was showered by a variety of air bombs sprinkling colourful starry blasts and sparks. The rest of the fireworks were gradually released in controlled geometric formations to a continuous aural background of Buddhist trance music, suggesting a movement inwards to the dead zero centre of silence, the unmoving fire, the bindu.
At the end, as small firework whistles shrieked noisily atop his juggler hat, maestro pyro-Hubert moved to the front waving to the audience. For most of them though, it was too short a show that concluded even before they could sense what the pataakhebaazi was all about.
On his part, Hubert was terribly handicapped by the quality of consignment he received from Sivakasi. Many items were different from what he had carefully checked and ordered and many had less fire powder than promised. Some exploded unnecessarily. Some wouldn't go off. So he had to go down to his elemental best reconfiguring the show before and during it. That did impact the total effect of the show.
Yet it was a richly sensuous performance, deeply conceptual but accessible. Like a ritual. The children enjoyed it.
Printer friendly
page
Send this article to Friends by
E-Mail
Entertainment
Bangalore
Chennai and Tamil Nadu
Delhi
Hyderabad
Thiruvananthapuram
