Natasha N Displaying her works before presentation
Diaspora plays a significant role for many critical and
creative minds. Artist Natasha Narain who spends several years away from her
homeland and working across the geographical boundaries deals with emotional
issues connected to her subjective feelings in a distinctive manner. On 26th
December 2015, she presented her works, memories and developed a dialogue with
a bunch of contemporary artists and art enthusiasts at Nine Schools of Art, New
Delhi under a program named as 'Dialogic'.
"Preserving Secrets" Artist's Book
Natasha N is an Indian-Australian artist and researcher engaged
in exploring how interdisciplinary practice can inhabit a space between
culturally designated art forms, linking traditions as shared psychological and
social conduits. Her process is an eclectic reawakening of personal and
cultural memory, turning both inside out, as a means to engender cathartic
healing whilst crisscrossing geo-political boundaries.
Art Work with everyday objects
"My art one have to touch and intimate", "Preserving Secrets" Artist's Book
This Indian-Australian artist spent over twenty years in both places
and then some in the U.K. Her work thus traverses past boundaries set by geo
political maps, painting in colours from
her heritage and drawing on memory of
places, patterns, events and issues of the past, that continue unresolved
amidst enforced migration and trauma
faced by women and children, today.
She started making artist books when she chanced upon a copy of E.M.
Foster’s Passage to India in 2011, in Brisbane. In attempting to re-read
and appreciate the visual imagery and
thoughts just as she had in my sixteenth year in India, she failed and found herself
questioning what now came across as a colonial looking from ‘above’ instead of
and from the people, albeit with beautiful
prose.
Work on Canvas
In her presentation at Nine Schools of Art she displays a traditional
Kantha from Bengal and narrates the process of making the quilt or Kantha. She
also goes through a visual presentation with art historical evidences. She
focuses on the physicality of involvement of rural women, collective conscious
behind the motifs and also explains how the Kantha or quilt is just a part of
their everyday lives. By the process and uses Kantha weaves out not only torn
cloths and threads but also memories. At the same time it also refer to a
sustainable practice where old and torn cloths get a new life along with
warmth. From there onwards she adopts a method of weaving out her own visual
memories and starts making her own art works. She also makes some memory books.
Those are visually rich with colours and textures. She feels that art is for
touch, and not aloof from everyday life. Thus she makes artist's book which are
meant to be picked up, overleaf and feel the textures. In her works it is not
written- 'Please do not touch the art work'.
Artist's Book
Though she takes inspiration from a traditional practice like Kantha,
Natasha makes her works with her own idiom, also innovates new methods, making
it a contemporary practice. Her visual experiments go with paintings on large
scaled canvas, photography, collages and artist's books. Her paintings also use
collage. The artist's statement says, "The images I collage in, refer to
humanitarian issues that confront our world today. In particular, I seek to
nurture the lives of children within displacement, conflict and social
hierarchy, in an unequal world".
Natasha N at 'Dialogic', Nine Schools of Art
Likewise, Photographs play a crucial role in her practise. She takes
as well as gathers images that can address migration, families and communities,
that are stateless, narrative, sometimes of the body, or within bodies the
x-ray images that connect us. In her words, "The microcosms within larger
macrocosms".
Natasha N at 'Dialogic', Nine Schools of Art
"I found myself circling words and masking others, soaking pages
in tea bags of memories and then painting over to find myself gently tearing
out, reconstructing, questioning simultaneously my own identity and heritage
within the passages" Natasha says.
Natasha N at 'Dialogic', Nine Schools of Art
"I continued onto other books, selecting ones that were beautiful
objects but devalued and discarded. In transforming them into artist’s books, I
sought to heal by rejuvenating their loss of place, identity and voice. The
methods employed were violent in the cutting, tearing, and sewing but mirrored
assimilation, loss and renewal".
Natasha N at 'Dialogic', Nine Schools of Art
On her own involvement and enjoyment she also says, "The books
allowed me play, within pages kept secret, extending my skills by allowing new
marks, accidents, collaged in solutions
that carried themselves over to the larger paintings, seamlessly connecting the
whole".
Poster invites for Dialogic
'Dialogic' at Nine Schools of Art is a monthly session with creative
and critical minds. The artists' presentation followed by discussion, debate
and conversations open up newer dialogues into the contemporary discourses.
Understanding histories of representation and understanding the art-historical/ theoretical terminologies within their context.
· Engaging with debates around body, nation, desire, power and gaze
· Looking through the epistemological and ontological origins of the concepts and terms.
· Cultural and material understanding representation in contemporary historical context
· Bridging the gap between theory and social/political/artistic practice.
The sessions are based on three broad thematic divisions: History - Philosophy - Politics
O 25th June - Day 1 – Introducing the questions, concepts and metaphors
O Session 1- the philosophical understanding of the word 'representation' and the multiple notions around it
O Session 2- debating through images
O Session 3 – Classical theories
O 27th June-Day 2 - 4- 8 pm - Looking at the representation , appropriation and re-appropriations in art and popular culture across a historical timeline;
O There will be 3 sessions focussing on case studies, activities and concept analysis
O 28th June - Day 3 -11- 3 pm - Problematizing and politicizing representational strategies and its understanding.
O Case studies from contemporary practices.
O Case studies from contemporary imagery from popular culture and politics
O Escape and Enter
Special sessions –
Day 2 | Ruchi Sharma will conduct a session on Body, women, morality, prostitution and public spaces.
Day 3 | Saher will present on – Social realism and Contemporary Cultural practices.
Day 3 | Aditi Chitre will Present on – Imagining a feminist narrative – Representing the past
Key concerns and key-words:
·Classical theories: Mimesis and other stories;
·The politics of representation: Non representational: is there anything that cannot be represented?
·Absences: what is not represented: the subaltern and identity politics
·Presences - representation and hegemony maintenance,
“representation has no fixed meaning until it has been represented” Stuart Hall
"Representation_ escape and enter" is a multidisciplinary workshop that engages with diverse cultural material to understand representation in contemporary historical context. Focused on the issues of seeing, imagining and showing this 3 day workshop is designed to combine theory and praxis to create and re create the concept of representation for young academicians and artists.
Method and Madness is a workshop series devoted to aesthetics, visual culture and critical thought. It has a special focus on Art History and it's methodologies, including the politics of labour, gender, ethics and pedagogy.
Our times need focused discussions on contemporary philosophy, taste, and knowledge generation, we invite friends to instigate and participate in discussions. Nine schools of art is creating unique workshop based models for contemporary art, critical theory and praxis.
a 4 day workshop based course on Art Appreciation Methodologies.
20, 21, 22, 23 November, 2014
On Art Education for Children
an
interactive conversation session with Sanjeevani Chitre; 23, November, 2014
Axomiyat Lekha Mela,
a workshop
on Assamese Language and Literature, 19, 20, 21 December, 2014
*
Art and Public
Sustainnine , 14 Feb, 2015
Bringing
out a Thela across Shahpur Jat and
Hauz Khas village on Valentines Day with art objects and craft materials as an
outreach program by NINE members and friends.
Dialogic@ NINE
Dialogic with Heike
Presentation
of works, artistic journey and performance by Heike Fiedler, 26 March, 2015
Dialogic@NINE
is a series of events to initiate dialogues with artists and thinkers from
various fields.
Nine MOBILE venture with Method in Madness series II
Questions with & around Art history
A 2 day workshop on Art and Visual Culture, 29, 30 April 2015, Rachna Sansad, Mumbai.
Method in Madness
A 4-Day Residential Workshop-based Course on Art Appreciation Methodologies, 2,3,4,5 May 2015, ShilpShala, Khopoli, 100 Km away from Mumbai.
Making and Reception:
A 2 day workshop on Art and Visual Culture, 7, 8 May 2015, Sudarshan Kaladalan, Near Ahilyadevi School, Shanivar Peth, Pune
NINE_For Young Creative Minds:
Regular
Classes+ Monthly Workshops + Special Events + Festivals:
Nine
Schools of Art offers regular Classes for young artists which nurtures the
possibilities residing inside the individuals. The teaching module is developed
to support the creativity within the kids in the best possible way instead
giving them a tedious routine.
The
Premium Workshops bring contemporary practitioners and resource persons time to
time, as well as seasonal festivals like Summer Groves and Winter Groves offer
exciting memorable moments for the young participants.
Image and Text
On
Storytelling, Scroll Painting, Narrative paintings, Book Making, Illustrating
stories from Panchatantra and Jataka Tales, January 2015
Map and Cartography
Mapping
and Measuring, Visually describing spaces from everyday, From bedroom to
kithchen to the city to the universe, February
2015
Sculpture making
Understanding
Forms, Kinetic Sculptures, Mobile Sculptures, Forms out of Found Objects, March
2015
All About Textures
Touch
and feel objects and surfaces, Draw and Paint closing your eyes, make textures
out of objects found in your kitchen, April 2015
Who am I
Self
Discovery, Self Portrait, Myself and Nature, Still Life, Faces,Making of a
Family Album, Discovering the self and the relation to the world in everyday, May
2015
*
Premium Workshops with Special Guests
Playing with word and image
Heike
Fiedler is an author, multimedia poet, performer, sound and visual artist born
in West Germany (1963) and living in Geneva, Switzerland, 26 March, 2015
Kelaidoscope Making with Desna
Desna
Sharma, founder of The Rainbow Kaleidoscope, conducts a Workshop for Kids on
Saturday 11th April 2015.
* Special Camps
Winter Groves: Creativity Camp for Children
Film
Festival; Aadan Pradaan: Give & Take - make things and learn the art of
exchange; The Joy of Making - with recycle materials and found objects make
something new.
5,
6, 7, 8 January 2015.
Summer Groves: Creativity Camp for Children
Handmade
toy; Painting on Different Surfaces - Understand materials and use the
accordingly; Storytelling: Make your own drink and draw; Yo Yo; Dream-catcher ;
Finger Puppets; Story Time... 17, 18, 19 May, 2015
*Nine
Schools of Art is a discursive work-out space initiated by
Abha
Sheth, Rahul Bhattacharya, Samudra Kajal Saikia, Moumita Ghosh and Ravinder
Sejwal
It
is a School of Art and Creativity devoted to create new directions in Art
Education and Outreach. It came to materialization after efforts from a number
of Art Historians, Educationists and Contemporary Art Practitioners. The
driving force of the schools comes from creative engagement in diverged areas
and understanding the needs in our times.
