Alok Bal

Did you always want to become a painter?
Well, I started my formal graduation with a degree in Commerce from the Sambalpur University in Orissa. I wanted to become a professional footballer, though due to injuries I couldn’t pursue that dream. All along I had been drawing and loved to spend time doing that too. So I began to study painting from Jaspal Singh but thereafter hearing about the Baroda Fine Arts...

Did you always want to become a painter?
Well, I started my formal graduation with a degree in Commerce from the Sambalpur University in Orissa. I wanted to become a professional footballer, though due to injuries I couldn’t pursue that dream. All along I had been drawing and loved to spend time doing that too. So I began to study painting from Jaspal Singh but thereafter hearing about the Baroda Fine Arts Faculty, I ultimately shifted to Baroda to complete my B.A. in painting followed by a post diploma in the same, which I finished in 2001.

You have been working with the human figure for a long time. Has this always been a preoccupation?
Generally, I have always liked figurative work. Yes, I have been preoccupied with working with the human figure ever since I started drawing. My work talks about relationships, between people and their surroundings and this has been the most comprehensive way to express my thoughts. I take references and often use my friends or myself as the protagonists in my paintings. This gives me a thrill and a sort of excitement knowing that my work is a window to my life and myself. My art has always been realistic, as realistic as life can be. I have learnt the importance of friendship and relationships ever since I was a child and it has been those experiences that have made me the person I am today. This is what keeps coming back in my work. My painting serves as a means to pay respect and give due credit to all the people who have been and still are a part my life, of me.

So you spend a lot of time thinking and feeling before you begin anything?
Yes, I think a lot. I don’t know whether that is positive or negative. But each thing and person has his or her own individual value and this is important to me.

How does the process of creation begin?
I don’t work very fast. I build up the on the ‘idea’ which is the starting point of my creative process. My work comes from within me and becomes an integral part of me. Normally I sketch and do a lot of drawings before I begin a painting. . While the idea grows and gets purified as the work proceeds. I don’t like to start a work directly on a canvas. I enjoy drawing; I continuously gather references and preserve them to memory by drawing them. I am flexible to all themes, which is the reason I need time to put my reactions on the canvas. I observe and absorb a lot. Wherever I go unconsciously or intentionally I take in my surrounding, the people I meet. There are things that touch me from these daily interactions and as an artist this is what figures in my work. One thought leads to another. So does my painting. There is a connection and a progression. Though I may experiment with the surface quality and images the underlying thought is same in all my work.

What are your present works about?
At the moment I am working on a series of landscapes. These large works on canvas, talk about some of the several problems we, the human race have created in our environment. As human beings we do not really appreciate what we have got and eventually end up manipulating our surroundings to suit our convenience, regardless of the consequences and ill effects it will have on us. My series of landscapes are satirical comments on this. All my recent works are representative of my comments on this situation. The manner in which I treat this subject is also slightly humorous apart from being satirical. I believe in working seriously without forgetting the necessity of being playful as well.

Though your paintings are figurative and predominantly realistic, this is the essence of fantasy, sometimes in the way colour is used or even in the addition of surreal images.
Since my work is based on reality, it tends to remain so predominantly. But wishful thinking and the desire to make something happen, which in true life isn’t going to, gives way to the images of fantasy.

Since your paintings display variants in terms of style, what do you feel is common denominator in your works?
There is a connection in all my works. All the time. As ideas keep changing and reinventing and replacing each other in ones mind, my style and technique may change but the underlying sentiments and attitude is definitely the same. There is a conscious effort to retain the spontaneity in my work as well as a type of playfulness, which prevents me from becoming stereotyped. I don’t want to stick to any particular style, language or idiom. This is where experimentation plays an important and inherent role in my work.

You love to experiment. Is this limited to the painted surface or do you want to go beyond that too?
I want to do sculpture more often. I feel that there is more physical involvement in working with 3 dimensional media. A more total involvement. Sculpture requires the artist and viewer to be involved in an intimate way. This relation is very intense and passionate also. The process of creating a sculpture often involves more than the one person, the artist. The entire process may require the involvement of several other agencies also. And that adds to the appeal of working with sculpture.

Your favourite media for sculpture would be?
That would be metal. I have even painted on metal. I used to go the scrap yard and the entire procedure of looking for the right piece and finding it amid the other scrap has always intrigued me. I have painted on metal previously and want to do so in the future also.

You are inspired by …..
Everything around me gives me reason for speculation and inspiration.

Artists whose work you admire …….
I enjoy the work of Atul Dodiya , Bhupen Khakkar and K.G. Subramanyam for the very obvious qualities of spontaneous creativity with an underlying yet significant element of abundance. And it is from these artist whom I choose to learn from.

The art market is booming. This is really a great time to be an artist. Comment.
It is nice to see more and more people appreciating art. But more importantly, being an artist at this moment entitles me to the freedom of doing whatever I please.

What do you want to do in the future? Any thing specific?
I wish that I could do what I cherish, be it painting or playing. I have a lot to do yet. A long journey to travel.

Interview by Arati Desai