Hieroglyphs
God is… Design
Once a student asked Ramkinkar Baiz , "What is God(Bhagawan)?" He paused for a while and answered "Design".
I heard this anecdote from Neel Da long ago. Whenever I see his drawings on the matchboxes and the cigarette packets, it reminds me of something about meditation, something contemplative. It is like alphabets, perhaps more like hieroglyphs and has a repetitive mode like chanting.
Why I selected Baroda to show his works has multiple meanings. One reason why it is important for me to bring out his works for a western Indian viewership is, me being one of his earlier associates now working and living in Baroda, part of the artist fraternity of the city could now have the opportunity of threading them both together.
The desire of showing his work outside of Assam, the thought of which germinated in my mind long ago, perhaps years back when I was involved in one of his earlier solo shows organized by a pharmacist friend of Neel Da in the State Art Gallery of Assam. In those days of my early career as a free lance artist in Assam, I was closely associated with him and his art educational involvements. There are a lot of young students coming from various regional backgrounds to Baroda among us. For the benefit of these younger colleagues, it is important and at the same time interesting to look at the unusual process of his art practices and to look at the diverse involvement of an individual (He has an impressively diverse range of interests and experiences....) He has great attachment to the kind of materials he chooses, to know his physical involvement with it than to get influenced by his own process and use of materials. The Exhibition attempts to get a much wider viewership. Personally the artist here is more with the dedication of a yogi....an ascetic who does not bear high ambitions to get a big name, but ambitious enough to carry on ( a life time) for a creative pursuit. In these terms his works are more contemporary for me.
My own observations display his appropriation of the traditional Sattra culture of Assam of which he is an integral part, in a more subdued manner. There are a lot of intrinsic elements from the historical / cultural backdrops of his childhood, and these elements from the Sattriya wood carvings, Vaishnov manuscript painting etc. get diffused within his language. At times I see a kind of biomorphic representation in his works, a few surrealistic elements basically a diffusion of styles.
Many of my observations about Neel Da's works are gathered from those invaluable chatting sessions over long course of time. It is difficult to encapsulate the relationship with an elderly / senior artist friend in a short text.
Though he never taught me institutionally but always he had a great impact in shaping my own artistic endeavors.
When asked about his rendering and about the use of decorative elements in his work, which I feel do not disturb the images, he answered...that he works till the moment a design element appears and satisfies him.