Journalism of Courage
Khoj celebrates a decade in business with its artist family
On Friday night,Nikhil Chopra brought alive his artistic alter-ego Yog Raj Chitrakar once again. Dressed in a white bodysuit,he took the audience at British Council through the ten years of Khoj with his shadow on the wall projecting clippings of celebrated artwork initiated at Khoj. As the A-list of artists in the audience,including Subodh Gupta,Pushpamala N,Bharti Kher,Anita Dube,Arunkumar HG,Ranbir Kaleka applauded,Chopra observed,The institution has to be celebrated through its art. In a corner,Khoj director,Pooja Sood smiled. After all,it was Khoj which had been instrumental in the genesis of Chitrakar in 2007,when Chopra had walked down Lal Chowk in Srinagar to draw a picture of the clock tower on the road,even as soldiers frisked his audience. It was challenging. We were working in a new territory,amidst the tension, recalled Sood.
Known for its repertoire of notable public and performance art acts,the beginning of Khoj in 1997 was,however,humble. While the first donation of Rs 60,000 came from Ebrahim Alkazi,meetings then were held at Soods Panchsheel home. It was more than five workshops later,in 2002 that Robert Loder,founder of the Triangle Arts Trust,helped Sood find a permanent address for Khoj when he spotted the two-storey Khirkee space. It continues to be its operating space.
Over the years,the quarters have acted as a studio for innumerable artists from the world over. In 2004 it was the venue for Marco Paulo Rollas virtuoso performance Body Extensions . Wearing only a mountaineers harness,the Brazilian artist collapsed on a pile of electrical junk in the studio. Artist Anita Dube urged the audience to rethink the meaning of words like avant-garde and sexual love,when she fashioned them out of buffalo meat,placed on muslin-draped ice-slabs in Keywords in 2005. Before utensils became Subodh Guptas trademark,at Khoj in 1997 he depicted his childhood memories in a site-specific circular enclosure of bricks and cow-dung. It was meant to be an experimental space for artists,where they could make art independent of formal constrains. It was an initiative for artists,by artists, says Sood.
The very artists are also the focus of the book,Khoj Book 1997-2007,that documents a decade of the organisation. It traces the evolution of the organisation through detailed accounts of its workshops. Sood recalls the experience of creating a network and getting artists from world over in Delhi,Geeta Kapur discusses various projects and defends the criticism that Khoj lacks sustained discourse and Nancy Adajania chronicles artist collectives in India. The highlight,however,are candid confessions and interesting anecdotes that lace conversation between artists,where counterparts discuss interpretations of artwork,its origins and art practice. Gupta tells Jitish Kallat how wife Bharti Kher pushed him to rethink his art in the early 1990s by telling him he was making bad paintings. Interviewed by Ashok Sukumaran,Sudarshan Shetty confesses he spends time doing nothing … I need deadlines to keep me working and Umesh Madanahalli discusses his acting career in Kannada films with Pushpamala N. Shambhavi Singh tells Bharti Kher how VS Naipaul impacted her and Gigi Scaria talks about the collection of Agatha Christie novels in his library. Riyas Komu confides in Baiju Parthan his love for automobile design,which he dabbles in whenever he can find time off his studio. The interviews of artists by the artists will contribute to the contemporary discourse, observes Sood,pointing out that among others it was collaborating interviews for the book that postponed the tenth anniversary celebrations by three years. It takes a lot longer than getting critics to interview, she adds.
The wait has been worth it.
