BHARAT SIKKA

Interview with BHARAT SIKKA

by Marta Casati

2009

  

I would like to start this interview by asking you to tell us when and why the work presently on show in the exhibition titled “Indian Men” at Sara Zanin’s Z2O Gallery in Rome was actually made? In which Indian cities did you create these works? Is it a collection that you have put together over the last few years?

The project was done over 5 year, the project was about Indian Men, as was shot all over the world and not just India

How would you define “Indian Men”? In what ways are Indian men different to the men of any other population? What are the specific characteristics that enable a man to identify with the description “Indian”? This is possibly a somewhat patriotic question, but in any case I would be pleased to hear your answer.

My version of Indian Men came about when I was still in school, in New York. Until then the Indian man was just indentified by stereotypes like the Maharaja, Sadhu, Snake Charmer, or guy from the slums. The “Indian Men” project portray the contemporary Indian men, from a middle upper background. So I have documented them in their environment and try to tell a story about them.

When an observer looks at one of your works and is immediately able to recognize its creator, saying, “This work is by Bharat Sikka”, do you think that there is one specific component that makes this identification possible? What are the technical and conceptual characteristics that hallmark your style?

I am really interested in the environment I place my subjects in, which shows in my photographs. My photographic style is derived from cinema and the use of cinematic lighting the technical characteristics.

India is one of the few countries – perhaps the only country – in the world capable of implementing rapid transformation, while retaining luckily – its most ancient traditions, without emptying them of meaning or falling into the trap of banal, universal standardisation. Could you expand on this observation, or would you rather modify it?     

Our culture is deeply embedded in us, western influences are prominent now more than ever. Economic growth is taking place in our country which will definitely expose us to “western culture”.

Do you think that modernity could represent a danger for your country?

Modernity comes with both positive and negative aspects, and modernity itself is a “western concept”. I am more interested in an evolution of a society.

Often one refers to “contemporary India”. But which is today’s India? Because of the age in which I live, my vision of India is, and always will be, only partial, but as you are Indian, you can give me a more complete picture.  

My version of India is far away from its “stereotypical” portrayal. I can only identify to contemporary India through myself. I come from an upper middle class environment with a western education and outlook and interact with people with a similar background and environment. Which is not to say that the stereotype of the Maharajas, slums, do not exist anymore, but referring to the change India is gone through culturally, economically and environmentally. Today India could be one of the most diverse countries in the world, with a cocktail of modernity antiquity.

What is photography for you? Do you consider it a descriptive tool that provides realistic components of the world that you observe (as if it were a sort of end product), or is it rather a springboard, an initial and partial interpretation (just a starting point) in decoding reality?

Until now I have used photography as an art form to document the world as I see it. Now I am more interested in fiction and use photography as a medium to express and create an image, like a painting, which has more of an artistic value rather than a document.

Details are very important in the narrative that you develop in each work. Is this true? What do “details” represent in your work?

Yes it is true, Detailing is very important to me, as I mentioned earlier, the environment that I place my subject in is very carefully chosen and staged, keeping everything to the miniscule detail to represent the story that I want to tell.

Photography is not the only medium that you are familiar with, because video is also a tool that you use. When do you feel that it is necessary to use video?

Video is a RELATIVELY NEW MEDIUM FOR ME, I am still experimenting and discovering with it.

In what circumstances, or for what requirements that cannot be met by photography, does video represent a satisfactory solution for you?

For me its about being able to express my art through any medium. Video is the closest extension to photography, and therefore im excited about it.

I ask every artist to give me three adjectives describing contemporary art. Some of the descriptions that I have been given include “commercial”, “facile”, “succinct”, “sterile”, and many others. I would be interested to hear yours.

Clinical, Banal, Intriguing.

Could you tell me anything about your next projects? 

My next project is called “The road to Salvador Do Mundo”. It is based in Goa and is an anti-thesis of my last project Space in Between”.

 

(Pubblicata su ESPOARTE di aprile-maggio 2009)