hemraj

Head to Head  with Hemraj

           1. Art as a profession is still not seen as a safe career option: How will this change ever come about in a country like ours?

 

“Just like a female is born with a particular number  of eggs right at her birth, so is an painter born with a particular number of paintings right at his birth” (analogized fascinatingly by Hemraj). When we know art to be as intense and inevitable a phenomenon as this, the question of art as an unsafe career option bedims. How? Since art to an artist is as much his destiny as heat to fire.

 

To have the pressure to sell a painting is almost a sacrilege, for the passion to create is to overpower the urge to sell: make money. Sounds idealistic ? But come to think of it: the process that an artist shall go through to churn deep and pure art would only be contaminated by the urge to make money: the two cannot co habit. Art isn’t a career at all: it is a way of life; it is a being helplessly and effortlessly expressing one’s self. 

 

And when you are so profoundly indulging into the process of being a spectator to oneself being the fountain to art, there are people who automatically get connected with you and inevitably facilitate the process of the flow. One has to surrender without fear: naturally through being at a place where thought isn’t important: for that is what derails the being from the present, into the fear of the future. To the world that sensibility might present itself as weird, but that’s the most important pre requisite that assures an authentic artist’s survival.

 

No wonder“The only thing I know is that I paint because I need to”, Frida Kahlo.

 

  

2. What facilitated you to develop your artistic sensibilities? Was it inherent or acquired? Can artistic sensibilities ever be acquired? Have you come across artists who chose to be artists and weren’t to begin with endowed with the sensibility naturally?

 

As a student I was not good at academics at all. I was generally first from behind! My father as a result would naturally worry about my future. So during my holidays he decided to award me some sort of vocational trainings like: sitting at a tailoring shop; sitting at an electronic shop to learn the basics. The tailor made me  stitch some petty small odd jobs with minimal progression even after two months. So did the electronic shop owner. I was annoyed and threw the hammer and the other tools in exasperation.

 

But something interesting was happening simultaneously. I happened to show the art file of my friend (who was better than me) as mine, to my art teacher. The  teacher awarded great appreciation to the works. Now I do not know why but my being inside translated it into appreciation for my own self. I came back with multiplied motivation to work on improving my art further, as I knew that I could manage to be that good or rather even better.

 

As a result some time down the line my own art was appreciated with words that charted out the future course of action for my life. He told me, “Hemraj, you should become an artist. Do a course in BFA” That was the time I had zero idea of a career in art and anything called BFA!

 

I believe artistic sensibilities can be acquired. When a person gets attracted towards some piece of art and feels the urge to do it, he takes it upon himself to walk the path to build the skill required. But then again to find oneself being pulled towards art in a manner akin to that has to be born out of an artistic sensibility being inbuilt, is what I think.    

 

 

3. Art plays a huge role in either reinforcing or destabilizing stereotypes, and how we subliminally absorb ideas. Your comments:

 

Normally art, like any other field is bound by stale theoretical ideologies. The stereotypes surrounding it are galore. Art appreciation is not something that comes naturally. Creating a sensibility for art is very significant a requirement, which goes without saying. But art happens when all that could have been learnt and acquired is eradicated form one’s system: like a bedcover or sheet that is dusted with a lot of power. That is how the stereotypes need be flushed out. As long as thought governs and there is a preconceived notion to live up to: there shall always be a falling short of what true art would be. How can it be novel if it be living up to a pre-conceived idea? During my interview for the MFA entrance, I was asked a tricky question on one of my paintings: “Hemraj which corner of your painting emits ‘ras’( creative extract/soul) ? After contemplating for a moment I found myself effortlessly replying, “It is soaked all over dear Sir!” The idea is to understand how art is imbued with intensity when in totality it is an expression of delving into one’s self, and not an off shoot from acquired ideologies. 

 

Painting in totality is an expression of a lot of elements put together: form, color, perspective, balance, space, rhythm etc. Form is only a small element of art which holds a clichéd understanding of art. To destabilizing the stereotypes, there has to be regular exposure to art: to art galleries; to music concerts; to theatre shows; dance recitals etc. “Art ka satsang chalta rehna chahiye” And that is how we subliminally assure absorption of ideas.

 

 

4. What do you think, has the Indian aesthetic really given to the world and where does India fit in the global art landscape today?

I find creating boundaries through abiding by political divisions as a regressive approach. It shall inevitably be constricting its vastness; its magnitude and its universality. Just like, in an expansive arena the impression of a horizon is only an illusion, similarly creating boundaries around art shall be a foolish illusion that shall but stunt the evolution of consciousness that happens through art. Art is beyond divisions. Why create borders, when art, so to say is an expression of universal sensibility. True art anyway invariably has a stamp of timelessness. When I see the art of some of my teachers like Rajesh Mehra sir, I still experience a freshness there. Why?

 

So far as nurturing and enriching from tradition is concerned, an artist should by all means absorb, walk the path, expose himself to the already accomplished, but art like life is dynamic or else it shall putrefy. There has to be constant evolution. Constant rejection, to the illumination of novel perceptions to be captured.

 

 

 

5. What do you think is an artist’s role in society; to his community; to the world at large? How are artists creative contributors?

“An artist takes paints, canvass, brushes…what does he give back to the society?”, is an allegation that an artist faces. Does he really do anything apart from enjoying himself? To that I would state, that to hit upon the point where an artist discovers real joy is not easy to arrive at. For every one such person who bumps into that state is in a state of being infectious enough to spread that.

 

While the rest of humanity is pitifully left at the mercy of entertainment, an artist is the one who discovers pure enjoyment and every such soul is assisting those around them into feeling something closer to that state. For it can only be availed by a sensibility that is capable of diving truly deeply into oneself to the elimination of all fear, for that connect is where the real nurturing takes place. Thus in the very act of his pure self-indulgence, an artist inadvertently enriches his surroundings and his community.