With the exhibition Barren Red, artist Puneet Kaushik attempts to re-establish techniques like weaving, knitting, crochet and Tibetan bead work embellishment that are on the verge of extinction. By Saritha Saraswathy Balan
Artist Puneet Kaushik’s works impact more than the physical space. Barren Red, his latest solo exhibition showcases a tech of weaves of his multi-layered installations and mixed-media works aimed at seeding the landscape to the scape we live in along with the viewer’s own interpretation. The works ask us to think about humanitarianism, the colour ‘red’ and about our deep rooted traditions.
Known for his strong, abstract, primeval artworks, Kaushik has worked closely with tribal craft practitioners of the country for almost two decades now. Having engaged with folk and tribal art practices of various regions of India, the artist continues to mould them in his signature style. His attempts to establish a ‘global-local perspective’, is visible in the works presented under the title Barren Red.
Kaushik in his installations has been driven by a single idea or concept, injecting, an element of exploration, with materials … offering their own guiding agency; and in this respect he marks a posture of difference. ‘Fibre art’ gets altogether a new dimension in his works with crochet being knitted in copper and stainless steel wire. He strongly feels that the national identity is deeply rooted its indigenous people, and their expressions which manifest in building materials, crafts, textiles, folk stories and so on.
He says, “The indigenous techniques transport us back to our roots and also evoke an urge of knowing the ‘self’. I have travelled from Kashmir to Amritsar, from Madhya Pradesh to Maharashtra and to the south and have even went to the extent of working with the weavers at the loom. The whole idea was to binding people, bringing those with different dimensions to work together on some projects, mostly with the idea of understand the medium of traditional weaving and craft works. I have been doing projects to develop the weaving and craft tradition, be it for the artists to do miniature work in jute and for artisans to work with hand- made paper”.
For him red is the only colour, that is universally identified, that unites people universally. “In any culture, religion or caste, red is the colour that unites people irrespective of where they belong to. In human beings and in all living things red is the colour under the skin. It’s the colour of the blood that flows within every human body, a colour with different connotations but followed uniformly through the ages,” he says.
The other aspect that the artist explores is of the ‘skin’ which contains biological and cultural history within its layers—in a way, similar to the pigments of paint in an artwork, fibers in clothes, or the architectural makeup of a building. His works also have many layers. Kaushik elaborates: “My work has many layers like the air and earth. Skin is the largest visible organ of a body. With different layers I ask people to go deeper into something and not to take things in the face value only”.
Deeply rooted to the ground he feels it’s important for everybody to understand where they belong to or from where they came from. “We shouldn’t loose the whole essence of our own being. We should understand India itself as a diverse culture which it’s deeply rooted. I felt a sense of belonging when I returned home after studying abroad,” he adds. For him the nature of folk art is specific to its particular culture, which moves towards civilization yet, rapidly diminishing with modernity.
“What bothers me is the attitude of the young generation towards it. “They simply don’t realise what they have to conserve. They don’t mind doing any other job. But they don’t treat craft people as artisans but as labourers which upsets me,” he observes. Why the title barren redIJ “It’s like landscaping the internal self of me, just like a position of landscape outside me where I have veins , arteries and the flowing rivers. The territorial landscape which is ever changing when viewed from the top (aerial view) also appears ‘red’, it can be one’s perception and can be related to the fierce world of terrorism we live in. The outside landscape can be barren as well, and there is always red. And hence it’s barren red,” he signs off. The exhibition, progressing on Gallery Espace, concludes on December 20.