Interviews, Articles, Reviews, Events, News
Collages - art, dance
and storytelling
November 30,
2003
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| There was a good representation from the dance community
(with whom Ramani has worked through the years) with the presence of Kalanidhi
Narayan, the Chandrasekhars, Lakshmi Viswanathan, Alarmel Valli, Gopika
Varma, and Indira Kadambi. Singer Aruna Sayeeram, friends and upcoming
dancers were also present.
Sour note: There was a conspicuous absence of fellow artists. In making the collages, the bits of paper are so cleverly used that not only are the images life-like, the colors are also striking, like the various shades of blue juxtaposed with black for the Krishna images. Kali’s demonic aspect is highlighted by her dark blue face and a bloodstained red tongue hanging out. The Ravana portraits are made up of warm, earthy tones of ochre, reds and greens. The Ganesha portraits are bright and cheerful. Being involved in so many diverse activities, where did Ramani find the time to create so many brilliant pictures, the colors blending harmoniously, the images so simple, yet so dramatic? Ramani talks about his career choices and what inspired him to come
up with this solo exhibition.
After quitting that, I got a job in Coimbatore, since it was close to Madras, but I returned soon because of the difference in attitudes there and started freelancing. It led me to so many things. My interest in films, dance and music took me to various performances. That triggered off my stage work. I used to attend lec/dems at the Krishna Gana Sabha. Sitting at the back, I would look in awe at all the dancers. Even though I used to do vocal accompaniment for some dance performances, I never even imagined that I would take to the stage in a different way. Once, I took my paintings to Gomathi.Vishwanathan, wife of Enfield Viswanathan (Kalamandir Trust ) as he was known. I told her they were presenting music and dance, so why not visual art too? She agreed and along with the dance festival, I had my painting exhibition at the Narada Gana Sabha foyer. It was strange to see the dancers just walk past without even glancing at my paintings! The next year, they held a festival called Devata Vandanam. She asked me to do the stage décor for that and I hadn’t the faintest idea of what I was going to do. Fortunately, whatever I visualized must have been a hit because my stage design career took off from there. In the textile field, I designed sarees and ready-mades for Radha Silks. My stage work led to theme decorations at weddings and other functions. After doing all these things, I came to a stage when I wanted to get back to my roots. That’s where you get full happiness. You are not answerable to anybody, you do what you want and there are no restrictions! So, I started to do painting and collage. I did not want to combine the two. I wanted to focus on collage. Once some interesting work started taking shape, I thought I would exhibit them”. |
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| Did
you have any particular theme in mind when you started work on this series?
I basically started with the idea of doing things close to my heart. My association has been basically with music and dance, as also a childhood fancy for Krishna. I wanted to do a complete series on Krishna, but once I started, a whole lot of ideas came to me. So, I moved away from Krishna to other things. How do you
go about your creation? Do you choose the design according to material
or the other way round?
You have
done 10 images of Ravana, depicting the nava (9 ) rasas. Why 10?
In the Kaliya image, the inverted car was what set off my imagination. When I completed Kaliya, I did not want Krishna to upstage Kaliya’s powerful personality. I wanted Kaliya to be the hero. Even a small image of Krishna’s face would draw attention only to Krishna. So, after a lot of deliberation, I depicted only the back of Krishna’s head. There is no distraction and the focus is on Kaliya. In the image
of Krishna with flute, the 2 eye-pieces gave me an image of someone enjoying
blissful music. Since the color was also blue, the picture took the form
of Krishna. In everything I do, I look for the images because everything
has to fall in place, the color has to coordinate and the composition value
should definitely be there.
This has been
such a wonderful experience that people want to know if there would be
some entertainment every day! Maybe in my next show…it will be like a festival!
Following the inauguration of the exhibition, Srikanth presented Collages through Dance, starting with Ganesha for which Ramani lent vocal support (another of his talents), then Ravana and ended with Krishna. The items were chosen to complement the images on exhibit. “Ramani asked me to do something using collage as a theme. I love Tamizh as much as I love dance. I am very confident about my prowess in Tamizh. So I did one piece in proper Bharatanatyam on Ganesha. For Ravana, I wanted to do something different. I took Ravana’s pralapam (soliloquy), as a great Shiva bhakta, a great Vainika, a great king and so on. Everything comes to naught because he covets the wife of another man and the good qualities get lost and only the demonic traits take dominance. I wrote the Tamizh text myself with assistance from Mr. Raghuraman. For the 3rd item, I wanted to do raas in folk style, next to the puppet. So, I took Ramani’s idea and mixed raas movements with puppet movements.” “I eagerly awaited this performance as I sang, spoke and danced, all together, in this show. It was very challenging and I enjoyed it immensely. This is my first experience of performing at an art exhibition. I look forward to doing more such shows. I also want to do programs based on Tamizh. I want to do Ravana as a full-length production. Next year I plan to do a full length production Nirmalyam based on M T Vasudevan Nair’s award winning film of the same name”. Srikanth participated recently in the Summer Residency Course in teachers training conducted by Kala Bharati and Mamata Niyogi-Nakra in Montreal. Teachers from across USA and Canada attended it. Guest lecturers were S P Sundaram of Sruti, Devesh Soneji, Vincent Warren and Sarasi Raj to name a few. Srikanth represented ‘Tradition and Beyond’ since he’s from the Bhagavatamela tradition and is a regular performer in Bhagavatamela natakams. He presented a paper on Bhagavatamela, what are the changes that have happened, what are the elements that will never change – like girls not being allowed to perform in Bhagavatamela natakam and so on. During the
Chennai December season, Srikanth has 4 solo programs, something to be
proud of, as male dancers seldom get such opportunities.
One knows Anita Ratnam as a dancer, choreographer and speaker. She has now ventured into the world of storytelling. She entertained children and adults on November 22nd with Collages of Stories taken from folk tales. She started with how Vinayaka was born, how he came to have only one tusk, followed by a story on Kali with Ramani doing a background alaap, and other tales. She used an array of interesting props and instruments like the ‘sad flute’, the ‘happy flute’, the sparrow’s chirp, the silambam, a Vinayaka mask made of woven palm leaves and so on. When did
you develop this interest in story telling?
For me, storytelling is a natural extension because as a parent, I worry when I look at my children growing up in a very disjointed and disconnected world. Even though living in India in Chennai, they are caught between academic pressure, the school and the trend in consumer aspirations like branded items and exotic holiday destinations. No matter which economic group you come from, this brand consciousness has become so high that a lot of our children are self-conscious about talking in Tamizh, or doing anything that is Indian. I think storytelling is a wonderful way of connecting and holding their attention. We must remember that the TV has become today’s kadhai vaadiyar. We obviously don’t have proper Indian stories to tell them, so they look at Cops and Robbers or adult serials like Friends and we have no idea what’s going on in their heads. Even in our education system, we don’t have storytelling, either compulsorily or as an option. Do you plan
to take up storytelling in a big way?
I don’t know about the future, but I like to collect stories. For example, my works Gajaanana and Andal have become to me, a compilation of stories. It never ends. In my current production Utpala on the lotus, I am still collecting stories. Do you have
any preferences?
I feel every
one of us has a reservoir to tap into within ourselves and I think storytelling
is a wonderful way. I discovered how much I enjoyed it through Daughters
of the Ocean when I started finding my voice in 1998. It hasn’t stopped
since then. I don’t know about continuing performances as a storyteller,
but I continue to think of myself as a storyteller in whatever I do, even
in the speeches I make.
Lalitha Venkat is the editor of narthaki.com Contact: Ramani V V
Srikanth N
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