Australian dancer Fiona Gardner tells Ayushi Sharma that Indian culture impacts the world in every manner
Limbs and face painted like the overwhelming goddess Kali, the symbol of the destructive energy of the sacred feminine, Fiona Gardner, an Australian performer, has merged the traditional with the experimental in her new work named eponymously.
The artist, who has been deeply influenced by Eastern cultures, thinks that the West looks towards India often. She also facilitated a dance-parkour film working with refugees from Afghanistan, West Africa and Nepal.
“Whether it’s hung on pin boards or in galleries, played on iPods or in concert halls, enjoyed on screens or in theatres, culture comes in many forms,” believes Gardner, who created a thematic, experimental dance that was performed at the Delhi International Arts Festival, (DIAF).
She’s from a Western culture, doesn’t know India deeply and yet attempted to reinterpret a Hindu mythological story. And it is only through her art that she could have done this, she believes. And DIAF was the perfect platform for that. DIAF’s main aim is to re-instill pride in the country’s rich cultural heritage and diverse aesthetic practices, while simultaneously inviting artistes from across the globe, like Fiona. DIAF is a “mélange of cultures”, says the Australian dancer. “I think Indian culture really does impact the world in every manner. I definitely think that Western culture has always looked towards the Indian culture,” she said.
The work emerged out of a dance trip to India in 2011, and has been under subsequent development for the past 7 years.
Fiona says that her solo performance used the traditional narrative of the Hindu goddess to represent the female life force of creative energy in a live experimental performance. She says, “Traditionally Kali embodies the characteristics of three female goddesses Lakshmi, Saraswati, Paravati, relating to wealth, learning and power respectively. Together they represent the strength of a woman. It was a contemporary dance form which has taken this narrative as a starting point to explore the construction and ideological depictions of women in social life.”
It is partly correct to say Kali is a goddess of death but she brings the death of the ego. “As a sociologist, choreographer and performer, my artistic statement is inclusive of how our social construction impacts the nervous system. In Kali, the research enquiry is how religious characters are constructed to represent ideological depictions in social life for women. Thus, it challenges the traditional symbolic power of women’s identities portrayed in Western popular culture that is the nurturer of life vs the taker of life. It was an amazing experience and opportunity for me to present Kali on an international stage that too in a country like India. It was something that I have never even thought of doing before,” adds Fiona. The dancer also talks about one sequence where she painted her face, hands and feet, trying to challenge the idea that a women is defined by beauty. “It was very grounded, organic and natural,” she says.
Fiona feels that art is something which helps an artist to connect to the world. It’s beyond boundaries and restrictions. For her disparate art forms spread the flavour of cultures across geographical boundaries. “It would have been really hard to enter into those avenues without the support of any art form. I think through my dance I can talk about everything. If I didn’t have an expression like that how would I connect with the people on a level that I’m able to do it now. Art isn’t just a painting or a song or a form of dance, it is an expression of emotion that cannot be felt through just words themselves,” she said.