Art
Electronic Swaraj
SHAKTI MAIRA
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Though "Eternal Gandhi" cannot be faulted for the care with which it has been put together, it is a profoundly disturbing exhibition.
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The more compelling absence of "interactivity" in this exhibition is the lack of interaction with the viewer's minds and hearts.
PHOTO: PTI
Contemporary insights: Problematic interpretations.
IT is unusual to see an exhibition that is as rich in art forms and art languages as "Eternal Gandhi" at the Gandhi Smriti in New Delhi.
It is a masterly assemblage of high-quality work across a range of art forms from tribal and village art to post-modern installation, video and electronic arts. Every piece has been crafted to an amazing standard, yet the experience ends up being profoundly troubling. It fails to communicate Gandhiji, whose life and message it attempts to present in a contemporary and hip way, and is deeply flawed artistically as well.
Invaded space
Starting with the setting — it is in the house where Gandhiji spent his last days and where he was killed. A place where one wishes to experience a moment of history, be still and touch the spirit of this unusual human being, and be inspired by his passionate simplicity, his search for truthfulness, and his struggle to find peace and freedom for this still-racked-with-violence subcontinent. I think it was a huge mistake to overwhelm this historic space with an indulgent and expensive, noisy and flashy display of electronic wizardry.
The contemporary manifestation and communication of ideas, old or eternal, is a constant challenge for all the arts. It is risky business and I hesitate to be too critical because I am not a traditionalist or revivalist, and am an artist who is engaged in making palpable ideas that are imbued in time and cultural history. Let me explain why I thought this exhibition fails.
A critical flaw is the almost total overwhelming of the idea and spirit of Gandhiji by the mediums and forms employed. Gandhian thoughts, feelings and spirit have been dominated and superseded by an impressive and inventive range of electronic multimedia devices. How not to get lost in the medium so as to lose the message — to avoid the modern problem of the medium becoming the message and art being just for art's sake — is a crucial problem in all contemporary arts-practice. This has happened here at several levels.
The most beautiful crafts have been used as background devices — to make tables, stands, frames and props for a riot of creative electronic devices. It is such a "perfect" example of severing art languages from their meaningfulness that it could be used as a lesson for art students. To use the analogy of a painting, the multimedia electronics are the painting and the crafts are just the frame. This is particularly ironic in a show focussed on Gandhiji who gave a special place to hand-made things. For example, to have created a "charkha room" with decorative non-functional charkhas that are switches for projected images — turn charkha to move the movie along — is so "off the message".
This is a vital issue in contemporary art — the turning of real, meaningful and functional things into symbols, intellectual playthings, and getting lost in conceptualism.
That the visitor is in for a confused fusion-jugalbandi in art forms is established on the staircase to the main exhibition level by three Gaudi-like forms that house microphones, which are switches to taped music... as you make a noise, one of Gandhiji's favourite bhajans or sitar piece emerges from the speakers. That you don't actually get to listen to these songs that were so much a part of his life and message is a pity. It is not only an appetizer for the meal served upstairs but also a sort of "Truth" statement like the statutory warnings on cigarette packs.
Another characteristic of this exhibition is the use of pictures, music and words as fragmented elements in a Disneyland-type creation. For instance, the word "Truth" appears in a variety of forms — in mist, in digital tiles, in projected images — none of which particularly brings alive the feelings or ideas of truthfulness. Is one to suppose this deconstructing and playing with words — in the contemporary ethos of Post-modernism — is in itself adding meaning and depth to Gandhiji? It is a philosophically and artistically thin premise that the repeated use of the word "Truth", for example, will not only establish its centrality in Gandhiji's life but also inspire visitors.
Then there is the great stress on "interactivity", which was stressed to me by a tour conductor, one of many dressed in designer Khadi outfits. What this really amounted to is that most exhibits have computer mouse devices that control them which are elaborately camouflaged by crafts. Yet as viewers are not allowed to touch most of these, the essence of user-viewer interactivity is defeated.
No real engagement
But the more compelling absence of "interactivity" in this exhibition is the lack of interaction with the viewer's minds and hearts. Real interactivity, which one hopes for as an artist and communicator, is a robust engagement with the thoughts, feelings and consciousness of viewers — an aspect that was very weak in this exhibition. None of the main ideas of Gandhiji — ahimsa, satyagragha, swaraj, sewa — were handled in ways that stirred and engaged one's thoughts and feelings. The whole focus seemed on the entertaining delights in an endless display of magical "electronic-craft" doodads.
I was told this exhibition has been so successful that it is being replicated for national and international travelling shows. That's great as it will be a compelling show of the advances India has made in computers and electronics. Though its name should be changed from "Eternal Gandhi" to "Electronic Swaraj", and be used as a promotional vehicle for NASSCOM.
Artistic failure
This exhibition is an unfortunate imposition on Gandhi Smriti, dislocating and often demeaning Indian craft-art forms and is an artistic failure in its attempt to make eternal ideas contemporary or in bringing Gandhiji's spirit into modern languages. The movie "Lage Raho Munnabhai" does a much better job of contemporising Gandhiji, though that is not saying very much for it.
Shakti Maira is a noted contemporary artist and author of Towards Ananda: Rethinking Indian Art and Aesthetics (Penguin Viking). His website is www.shaktimaira.com.
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