Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Photograph © Nandita Raman
Text © Nandita Raman
I'm moving through the city, wishing to reclaim it, to make this heady and almost mythical place my own. How do I experience my body as I traverse this metropolis full of female deities but where women are conspicuously absent from public spaces?
I'm very aware of my body walking through the lanes, not of its strength but its vulnerability, a tiresome companion. Placing feet firmly on the ground, I see I am. It situates me back into the geography.
"The form of the temple, all that it is and signifies, stands upon the diagram of the Vastu Purusha." Vastu refers to the physical site and Purusha or person refers to the cosmic man. Even though earth is female, when land is bought Vastu Purusha is ordained its symbolic custodian.
Drawing feet from photographs of my foot, including cracks and dead skin.
Looking down, I would stare at my feet during the months I was feeling burdened. Maha Maya's feet though are spotless. No cracks, no dried skin. In our visit to Bharat Kala Bhawan Museum, Naval mama distinguished the Greek influence statues from other Indian statues. He thought the Greek statues were more real, imitated the human body as is. The other gods and goddesses followed the stature of the imagined ideal, a better version of humans.
While drawing the minute sweat glands of the feet I see all sorts of things in them, clouds, ellipses, spheres and void. Without the sweat glands, Maha Maya must retain a lot of body heat.
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At the time of our 1:1 Interview with Nandita, she was asked these questions about Body is a Situation.
PSA: Please share a bit about of your personal photographic work - Body Is A Situation. Why did you make this particular body of work? What guided / prompted you to make it? Does it influence your photographic work at large?
NR: I was reading the India journals of Allen Ginsberg, while I was in Mexico. There is a section that he had written during his stay in Varanasi, my hometown. I found the voice casual, playful, experimental and unapologetic. It was refreshing to read this handling of the city. The books on/about the city that I had come across were very heady and strongly fixed in their notions. The journals of Ginsberg, Alice Boner, and William Gedney led me to this idea; I think of this work as conversations with myself, the city, and these journal writers.
PSA: This work is a mix of photography, text, sketch, sculpture, installation, and performance. How and why did you progress to include other art forms with your photography? How naturally do all these intersect in your various projects?
NR: My roots are in photography, but if a particular work is better realized in another medium, then it becomes important for me to go through the learning curve and work in a new medium. I'm committed to the demands of ideas and questions foremost. When Body is a Situation came about, I was in a phase where I found myself stuck in my head. There was also a sort of heaviness that was pulling at me during this time. The physical sensations of the body ushered me to present the moment. These were valuable and I wished to work with the body and consequently its socialization. I wanted to work in a tactile way to feel my body and its movement. Photo-making felt mechanical. So I started sketching and then learned etching. This led me to the collage, Rock on Me.
PSA: You say that more than the 'making' of the object, it is the 'process and where the process leads you,' which is important for you, and that these works are just a byproduct of these learnings. Please elaborate on this.
NR: Making art is a way to act on my every day experiences, engage with them and myself. It helps me to understand my world better and, when I'm willing, it even shifts how I go through life. At times it's painful and difficult. At other times it's full of discoveries and delight. In both cases it's enriching and wholesome. And along the way come these drawings of feet that become a placeholder for that momentary sensation of my feet touching the floor and being aware of that contact point. So, the process and the making happen in tandem and feed into each other, but one is not more important than the other.
PSA: When you put together these series of images, please share your process of creating the narrative of the story?
NR: At the moment this is shifting, as I work more with the material. I don't have a bird's eye view of this work or an overarching narrative. The relationship between the images, drawings, text, and video are emerging, as I go - quite like a journal, where each day brings its own pitch to the page.
20 November
