The artist who jokingly referred to his newest work as ‘animal art,’ because he lets it decay naturally, explained how he wound up making models of babies and many site-specific works influenced by his humorous outlook on life, gregariousness and philosophical introspection. He chatted with Shana Maria Verghis
Chintan Upadhyay said that he was recently planning to hold a show of his work, using his house as the exhibition hall but the neighbors disagreed.
“There would have been too much crowding because some of the pieces were very big,” shared the artist, who has been working on the theme of ‘home’ for a while. “Funnily, this incident made me feel yet again that the idea of the home has a lot of implications and stories around it. An earlier work (still in progress) featured a house made from Britannia biscuits that he left unattended on the ground in the open. First the monkeys came. And then cows arrived. The structure was slowly demolished. Now I’m going to be doing something on the same lines and let rats and monkeys have a go,” he said with a grin.
“I call this ‘animal art’. I was pondering over the concept of ‘home’ because of personal reasons. When you build a house, the same thing happens in a different way. People consume the house from outside and within.”
Chintan was having a pow-wow with us after he had shared his process during the second session by
TAD arts at The Pint Room where an artist and the audience interact. It was in the Ambience Mall, giving the session a live-buzz, as people trolled the area around. You could see them through the large glass windows that looked down on the floor below.
The poor mike system made it difficult to hear words clearly however. For a while now, Chintan who was born in Rajasthan during 1972, has been working on large sculptures and site-specific installations, but he said he plans to return to painting.
He took us through art that he has been creating from around 2002, after mentioning that artists are doing a lot of collaborations across the board–with scientists, with musicians.
“Such synthesis of the two is an idea of the time we live in. We’ve gone beyond this now. I, for instance have worked with craftspeople. When something like that happens, who am I? The artist generating an idea. Someone exploiting craftspeople. Collaboration is now taken to a different level.”
For a long time he has been using babies in his works. Large models of their bodies. Sometimes just heads. They aren’t just plain babies, but have various details on the surfaces. And when those change (the artist finds they are growing more detailed with the years), its in tandem with the world.
He reflected, “I don’t understand my own work sometimes. It took a while to realise why I was making the babies. I then realized I was replicating certain ideas about changing environment, and they were a by product of the time. They weren’t real and were constantly modifying. As I mulled, I realized Indians also have an obsession with babies — particularly male babies. I didn’t give the babies identity. They could have pink skin but be any country or character. I find there’s a parallel here with computers and systems. Technology is a form of a control system. The notion is that if one can control systems, one can control everything.” He continued, “It’s similar with food, ideas, genetics. My parents still think I’m a baby and want to control me. If you put a mobile in the baby’s hands, your thoughts turn to topics like consumption. All control systems are detached from nature. They are artificial environments, like this mall. Even the plants here might not be real.”
This probably explains why he has done a lot of site-specific work in rural areas, closer to nature. But initially he did paintings on sexuality and masculinity. He was stirred into it by the sight of couples in parks, and remarked to us, “Do you know Delhi has around thirty-two thousand parks, but there is not enough space in people’s homes?” He also superimposed traditional craft designs to large stamps painted with images of icons like Madhubala, James Dean. He has dealt with subjects like pollution of a river in Mumbai, and used a traditional Japanese game, Kaiawase, as an excuse to enter locals in Tokyo’s lives.
He doesn’t seem to think much about permanence of art, though, recalling an artist who hung a work on a tree. Next day it was missing. Locals had thrown it into the lake. “They found the rope holding it in place more valuable and took it away!”
