Lot 182: N.S. Harsha (B. 1969)

N.S. Harsha (B. 1969)
Running Around the Nectars of Time
signed and dated 'Harsha 98' (lower center)
acrylic, gold foil and varnish on silk
74½ x 136 in. (189 x 345 cm.)
Executed in 1998

Brisbane, Beyond The Future, 3rd Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, 1999
Mumbai, Anticipations, Fine Art Resource, December 2004

Beyond The Future, 3rd Asia Pacific Triennale of Contemporary Art, Exhibition Catalogue, Brisbane, 1999, p. 50, illustrated
Anticipations, Exhibition Catalogue, Fine Art Resource, Mumbai, 2004, illustrated, unpaginated
A. Jhaveri, A Guide to 101 Modern & Contemporary Indian Artists, Mumbai, 2005, p. 116, illustrated
The Artist Lives and Works in Baroda Bombay Calcutta Mysore Rotterdam Trivandrum, Exhibition Catalogue, Galerie Mirchandi + Steinrueck, Bombay, 2005, illustrated, unpaginated

Q. This painting was made over ten years ago. Where do you think this work fits into your journey as an artist?
I had a very expressionist way of working during my formative years - 1992 to 1995. My focus and interest later shifted towards multiple views, repeated forms, incorporating drawing qualities into larger formats and experimenting with new materials in unconventional formats. During this phase I had intense thoughts about globality, knowledge and their relationship with culture-specific issues. One can see the shift in this work as a kind of transmuting visual language, which connects to several cultures while at the same time reflecting my thinking proces.

Q. What is the relevance of the title Running Around the Nectars of Time? Could you please tell us a bit more on the subject matter of this work?
One can say it is a 'knowledge map'. It is an attempt to unfold a cultural location by using individual portraits of social icons, poets, politicians, cultural workers, dancers, artists and scientists. We all have our own 'knowledge map' and we act accordingly! It was exciting to work on a map which doesn't deal with time or geography. It is a space that is less inhabited. I referred to these individuals as nectars that are framed inside a honeycomb, a form that is usually seen as one for communal living. One can read this as a cultural map or one's personal cultural platform. While I was making these work I almost felt like a 'cultural bee' collecting these social icons and bringing them into my studio.

Q. You have worked a lot with children, often encouraging them to contribute to your paintings and projects. How did this project come about?
I enjoy the idea of sharing and learning with children, it is enriching and fresh. This work was quite a lot of fun for them. I had asked children from the neighborhood to come and run around a mysterious object - leaving their footprints around it. The book in the center had been covered so that they don't know what they are running around and once their footprints had been made on the Silk, I opened the cover to reveal the book. In a way it was a very perfomative manner of painting. I like such interventions in my works. There is an element of surprise and risk which I feel is an essential activity in the creative process. Most of these portraits are from school and college textbooks so there is already a relationship with innocence and knowledge established in this selection.

Q. The work is painted on silk, that's quite an unusual material for contemporary art. Where there any particular influences or forms of art that you were looking at?
Silk has an interesting history in visual culture. It has been used for scripting sacred texts, images of gods for worshipping and also for cultural communications. I felt it was an interesting material, corresponding well with the thought.

Q. Your works, both installation and painting have a curious relation with size. While you tend to miniaturize the figures and details within the works, the canvas is invariably very large. Have you always played with size?
I enjoy sitting on a hilltop watching life flow by. I like panorama, it gives an amazing amount of freedom while looking at events and their context. It is very hard for me to isolate issues from their larger context. Likewise most of my works have a vast visual field within which hundreds of encounters take place simultaneously. At the end, I hope I achieve a sense of abstraction, void and a no-meaning situation, which interests me a lot. It is like visiting a library. I feel a library on its own is an abstract space that collects multiple meanings.

Q. You have repeatedly painted busts of famous philosophers in this painting; repetition often occuring in your work. What is the relevance of this?
Repetition in my work started as a simple tool to stop my expressionist way of painting. Later it grew into many different forms of expressions and thinking processes. One could say it is a form of chanting life mantras or an activity of making socio cultural garlands?
N.S. Harsha (in dialogue with the artist)