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`Artists are wooing the media'

Multimedia artist Naresh Kapuria and Kuchipudi dancer Kaushalya Reddy on the commodification of arts

PHOTO: R.V. MOORTHY

SHARED IDEALISM Naresh Kapuria and Kaushalya Reddy blame the media for promoting shallow artists

They are the more visible artistes in the media. Both firebrand April-born Arians. They have written their own scripts — never mind what the world says. It takes courage to live on the edge. And a lot of living. Often misunderstood, but still opting to be forthright in their approach and behaviour. However, interestingly enough, not even their worst critics have been able to find fault with their work. This has taken interesting turns and has prompted them to explore dimensions of their own creativity.

Alka Raghuvanshi brings together artist Naresh Kapuria and Kuchipudi dancer Kaushalya Reddy and finds that the finesse they bring into their work stems from an idealism that they commonly share.

Kaushalya: I consider ourselves national property, for, with our work we are putting Indian art on the culture map of the world. Whenever India needs to be showcased, we are put on board, but when it comes to extending facilities to us, the powers-that-be shy away from it.

Naresh: Isn't it surprising that all those who are willing to shell out fees for doctors, architects etc., feel that artists should share their art for free!

Kaushalya: I think there is an urgent need for an impresario system within the Indian context, which hunts out talent and helps nurture it. Gone are the days when artists could wait for recognition to come to them. Now we have to seek it.

Naresh: But then in this mad rush to gain recognition, artists are only concentrating on wooing the media. Countries like Russia provide all facilities to artists who concentrate on their work and not about how they were going to get their next meal. Art can't gain root unless there is confidence in the artiste about his or her basic needs being met.

Kaushalya: I think bureaucrats and politicians should stay out of culture. The arts are specialised areas like the sciences and should be kept out of the purview of non-artistes. Our needs are different and it needs to be addressed differently.

Naresh: I think it also leads to unnecessary competition among artists — things like backstabbing, which is a huge problem within the art community. When this comes to an end, a whole new creative era will dawn. How does one explain the fact that M.F. Husain got six crores for a small canvas?

Kaushalya: Where are the gunijan, the real connoisseurs? Diva, prima donna, exponent, ustad, pandit — these are epithets that the artists start decorating themselves with — what to talk of others! Where are the real divas? I think the role of the media in rather huge in propagating the shallow ones.

Very few dancers bother to see each other perform. We tried to make an artists' guild and it couldn't take off because everyone was so suspicious of the other!

Naresh: This when the arts are part of a shared heritage. I find it very amusing when people tell me that they saw me in the papers or the television — I have risen from the ranks — from the road to the footpath to the lamppost to the spotlight — and it has been a long and tough journey.

Kaushalya: Exactly. The artists from the 1960s and '70s still have a humane approach for they came up the hard way. We are visible, but the more visible you are, the more vulnerable you are.

Naresh: But then aloneness is an essential factor for the creative impulse.

Kaushalya: Silence, peace and the right company are the key ingredients!

Naresh: When I started, I wanted to be a printmaker. But then my own impulse was to explore landscaping, stage design, lights — there was no label for it then. Now we use the phrase `mixed media'! I want to be a visualiser and not merely an artist bound by the dimensions of my canvas — for my canvas is bigger. But the bottom line is — jo jeeta wohi sikandar, baki sab sadak chaap!

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