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Shubha De
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Shubha De sees herself as 'a visual person', as opposed to being 'an artist', thereby emphasizing the divide between the kind of preoccupation which excludes concerns outside of the purely aesthetic and an attitude which would seek to integrate art with community. Her belief in the centrality of gender questions in the prevailing patriarchal society forms the basis of her explorations in life and art, serving as a critical standpoint which...
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Shubha De sees herself as 'a visual person', as opposed to being 'an artist', thereby emphasizing the divide between the kind of preoccupation which excludes concerns outside of the purely aesthetic and an attitude which would seek to integrate art with community. Her belief in the centrality of gender questions in the prevailing patriarchal society forms the basis of her explorations in life and art, serving as a critical standpoint which would place individual struggle within the desired perspective. Her language lends itself with ease to her convictions, deriving its vocabulary from combined media, from autobiographical and narrative sources, from journeys undertaken, experiences consciously sought in an effort to uncover a history whose comprehension would be vital in the quest for meaning. Speaking of a body of works on paper exhibited in 1996, she says 'You seek to devour, you seek to taste......I call this wanting, this search and this asking for more, 'Gluttony and Other Feelings'.
Recent work centres around the home as a maze which would correspond in form to the functions imposed upon it by the inhabitants; the child a pivot to the complexities of the exercise, the family forming a unit, a filter through which to negotiate the world outside its confines.
However, Shubha confesses to an increasing impatience with studio practice, and a corresponding need for something more interactive, a desire to extend her knowledge and experience to 'strike a communication between people and also to see it being directly used to initiate a kind of conversation'. There is in addition a search for an appropriate medium. She is at present composing a set of photographic stills entitled 'Initiation', constructed around motherhood, allowing close-up confrontations with routine rites like the mending of clothes or the cutting of hair. Removed from their context, they would expose the violence and the play of power inherent in the outward manifestations of protection and care which cocoon dependence ---- 'since my preoccupation is about power and patriarchy --and I see myself often exercising power, I find that extremely contradictory -- and more and more fascinating'.
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Born
1964
Kharagpur, West Bengal
Education
Studied Printmaking at Shantiniketan and at the Faculty of Fine Arts, Baroda.
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Q. What exactly do you mean by 'a visual person'?
I mean that there is a great disparity between an artist and a visual person. I'm a bit uncomfortable with the fact that whatever we talk about - sensibilities and sensitivities -- ultimately we are painting for patrons who are anonymous; I don't find that very stimulating. But I do feel that the visual has a lot of communicative qualities and it is not only...
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Q. What exactly do you mean by 'a visual person'?
I mean that there is a great disparity between an artist and a visual person. I'm a bit uncomfortable with the fact that whatever we talk about - sensibilities and sensitivities -- ultimately we are painting for patrons who are anonymous; I don't find that very stimulating. But I do feel that the visual has a lot of communicative qualities and it is not only instinctive -- it is part instinct, part skill and part I think goodwill. I have a lot of faith in the visual language and I would want to put that to use not only in terms of my own painting, to sell it to anonymous buyers and draw a line there, but also in other fields where my activist self could also join in.
Q. Why do you speak of changing your medium?
Because there is a gap between my thinking visual and doing visual. I think there is a tunnel -- sometimes I cross over and sometimes I don't. And I don't completely enjoy painting in a studio, I really want whatever my work is to be interactive.
Q. The photographs that you plan to do, would you like to say something more about them?
There's this whole thing about motherhood, there can be such softness but there are also a lot of ego clashes and power. I see constantly that even as I want my baby to understand the sweet things of life, I'm also preparing her to know her place. So I'm initiating her, manipulating her into doing things. In spite of my preoccupation with power and patriarchy, I see myself exercising power in so many ways.
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