By Naila Grewal
Neha Grewal is a young artist based in Delhi. She completed her Bachelorsof Fine Art from College of Art, New Delhi in 2011 and thereafter, a Masters in Fine Art from The Faculty of Fine Arts at Jamia Millia Islamia in 2013. In the past year, the artist has continued her art practice at her Delhi studio and more recently has become involved in the sphere of Art Education as Visiting Faculty at new institutes for Art & Design.
Neha has participated in several art events, some of which are, the Second edition of the United Art Fair under the curatorial section of the curator MeeraMenezes, a three-person exhibition at the prestigious Art Heritage Gallery at Triveni Kala Sangam, a workshop and exhibition organized by the Sanhitya Kala Parishad and a group exhibition at the Art Bull gallery centered around the issue of gender specific violence. In keeping with Neha’s dedication in the field of art, she has received accolades such as the Ravi Jain Fellowship Award 2013 by the Dhoomimal Gallery and the Second, First and Second Prize at three consecutive Annual Art Exhibitions of Collage of Art, Delhi.
To begin with Neha, describe your art practice? What is the medium and process like?
In terms of my medium, I mostly paint and draw on surfaces such as paper, canvas, cloth and plastic lending to the work a layered visual, that goes on to create an intimate spatial dimension. The many marks that lay hidden under these layers lends to a sense of the surface as something live and living and it’s this tension created between the seen and the un-seen that intrigues me. There is a long history of the traditional medium of Painting and as a result, many artists have turned away from the tradition to fine a more direct form of visually communicating an art concept. I, however, perhaps as a result of having been trained within the tradition of Painting, find that the medium of painting has the ability to transcend the illusion of the visual, even though, it is eventually only seen as a “picture”.
For me, the process of its making and the frame of time spent in reflecting on a certain issue and then translating that onto the surface is like a conversation. There are, of-course, visual concerns that preoccupy an artist, as this finally allows the image to be understood by the viewer. However, painting is constantly in flux – between the eventuality of its image-hood and the performance of its process like an un-structured conversation that exists only in the moment of its happening. So while I definitely see myself predominantly as a painter, I feel it has to do with more than just pure images. In terms of my process,the making of an artwork is akin to living life – there are moments when one suddenly becomes aware of something that seemed mundane before and the parasitic thought lingers on. One has to feed it to understand more about it, and that is just what my process is about. I begin with a fragmented idea and this idea develops with me.
What issues do you explore through your art practice?
The body of work that I have been working on and developing most specifically for the last three years deal with the temporality of memory – I’m interested in the act of forgetting and then the act of making up a memory. This visually led me to interior spaces of homes and I thereafter have worked on the social and gendered roles played within these spaces. This furthered my interest in the role of women, and our visibility in society. I don’t restrict myself to a “theme” or stylization. I feel that my work must imbibe a transformative, changing quality. Again perhaps, it is much like living…
Could you please talk us through any one of your works?
Sure, as expressed earlier, a recurrent thematic in my body of work is that to do with architectural spaces, and the dynamics of this space and the gendered roles played within it. Particularly, one may see this in the work “unititled” composed of five segments. Two of the drawings within this work represent women I have known who have come to the city in search of jobs as domestic help. I began to imagine the story of their lives, which are for the most part, forgotten and at other times never heard. I was intrigued by these hidden stories and thereafter started with a scattering of drawings and text on text to represent this dichotomy between representing these alternate lives and yet having them remain in a space unknown.
Another section of this work is a letter to a lover who could never be where the text on text references the disturbance between saying something but then not stating anything specific. While in yet another section I take prints of my own body as an attempt at trying to undo Yves Klein who was an artist who used the body of women as tools for his paintings. The fact that I become the artist and the ‘tool’ and the subject, realigns notions of women as subjects in art history. All the individual images come together in there need to talk about the unheard/unseen.
How do you deal with the possibility of contradiction? As an artist, you may have a strong opinion on a certain matter and with time and interest, this opinion may naturally change. How then do you stand by that initial opinion which is in the form of that specific work of art?
Yes! Of-course that is a concern. However, as an artist or really, anyone, we all must choose our ideas on issues of society based on research and experience. After doing this, if ones ideas on life and society naturally develop, I don’t think one should fear that. So while ideas may seem contradictory, nothing can specifically be one thing and not another. So perhaps, it is necessary to acknowledge that in our statements/words/art. I feel that fundamental issues of violence, freedom, equality need to be questioned by all. That must be the starting point always…
How do you think art affects society and what is the purpose of art in our current Indian society?
Art affects society because society is what creates art. The whole purpose of art is to reflect on given systems and to question it. For a viewer who visually sees a work of art, the art work is that medium through which one can begun to question those concepts for oneself. Heterodoxy is what guides us to betterment and that exactly the premise on which art must be made.
As a young artist what would you say are the challenges to your creative energy?
Art and thinking needs time and energy. I feel there needs to be more art spaces that could be used by artists to collectively or individually think these through. The visibility of such spaces will also then increase the interest of others to act as active members in the “viewing” of art. I had recently done a social experiment wherein I took my paintings out on to a busy street and put them up against the boundary walls of the public space to see how people interact with these objects of art. As you can imagine, people seemed positively confused.
What all are you currently working on Neha?
Apart from trying to give myself the time and energy required to think and do my art, I have begun to explore the possibilities in Art Education. While there are quite a few prominent institutes for art, I do not think these are by any calculation enough. There are a great number of schools that do not even consider Art as a subject. Other urban schools though are giving art a certain amount of attention. From both these types of schools, there are young adults wanting to explore themselves in the realm of art. The problem though is how can these students, specifically those without an introduction to art at the school level, make a space for themselves in these few prominent schools of art? In that regard, I feel some private new Art and Design colleges are at the very least, opening up an option for many. I am giving some of my time as a visiting faculty to a couple of such institutes. I feel ones introduction to art really does affect our journey, and I’m enjoying my time in introducing whatever I have till this point understood.
Where can we see more of your art-work?
Some of my images are up on the website of The Art Heritage Gallery run by Ms. AmalAllana, the daughter of famed theatre director EbrahimAlkazi, and an equally prominent figure in the arts. I am also looking to set up a website to document my process soon!
