The austere mood about the artworks at Shibu Arakkal’s new show belies his pragmatic approach to art, the universe, and life at large. “As such, my world view is that every thing ebbs and flows, and one must have a sense of humour and a philosophical take on things,” offers the photographer in an email interaction, leading up to Four, his first solo show in five years.
“We also have come a fair way in wrecking this planet and our ability to appreciate the natural life and a certain natural order to things,” says the photographer, who will be dedicating this show to his father, the late master artist, Yusuf Arakkal. Exceprts from an email interaction —
Does life really begin at 40? How optimistic is your world view now - about life, nature, the art world, people and especially, the language of appreciation?
Life has been a continuous nonlinear journey for me, yes, at forty my life has certainly changed phases. I am someone who always believed that the world that we live in always was a chaotic and in many ways, a dog-eat-dog place. The nostalgic idea of the “old days” is something that we talk about to soothe ourselves from the harshness of the real world.
However, I have always been an extremely positive person, don’t see any other way to live life. As such, my world view is that every thing ebbs and flows and one must have a sense of humour and a philosophic take on things. We also have come a fair way in wrecking this planet and our inability to appreciate the natural life and a certain natural order to things.
I believe that the art world is on a slow upward swing, shaking off a lot of “plastic” art and work that has been seriously underwhelming, with the rise of some really potent and unique young artists around the world. It is also good that the art world is also finally waking up to the true meaning and role of curators and for the written word supporting visual art. Bottom line, life is like art, the more you grow, the more you learn.
Would you like to take us through what your emotional journey of four decades, in a few words? What were the hardest emotions, and were there any redemptive, or reformative episodes to speak of?
My life and I thank heavens for it, wasn’t emotionally an easy one, by a long shot. The basic elements of my life itself were extremely complicated pieces that seemed to hold together by a thread, sometimes.
So, to very vividly remember being this extremely timid, painfully shy and soft-spoken person in my early teens to my father having brought me out of that shell and moulded me into someone ballsy enough to face the world, is a credit to him. The method he used, however, wasn’t easy and it therefore I think, would obliterate the idea that might exist that I was brought up with a silver spoon.
The idea of not wanting to finish a degree and to finally get one in Political Science, Economics and Sociology on my father’s insistence and to give up a Post-Baccalaureate at the San Francisco Art Institute after having got it without a pre-requisite BFA or MFA, have been crucial forks in my road less travelled.
I feel that every time I have done a body of work, it has been redemptive and reformative, certainly emotionally. My work has always been the thing that makes sense, the thing that is sacred and the thing that truly expresses my inner most self. Having said that, it is also the thing that has plunged me into darkness, into unimaginable (to most people) emotional turmoil and to then deal with the everything else life has to throw at you, very much makes one the wiser.
So, the reason I have dedicated this exhibition to Dad is because he truly was my North Star for four decades of my life and he passed away in the year when I turned forty.
It's interesting to note that you studied political science, economics & sociology. How did that help shape your approach? Thereafter, how beneficial was your training with Sudhir Ramchandran and Rafique Sayed?
Although my father didn't care what degree I got, it surprised him when I took up Political Science, Economics and Sociology, especially given that I wasn’t known to be the brightest student. But I actually took that specific degree up because I was genuinely interested in the subjects. And even with my freelancing photography assignments during college hours, I did quite well in my the academics.
I have been later told that I am somewhat equally a right and left brain person, which doesn’t surprise me. And as such, my approach to my work and art, in general, has been a cumulative cauldron of right and left brain ideas, theories and philosophies. Also being adept at understanding the economics of art and dare I say, the politics of it too.
Training with Sudhir and Rafique was what truly gave me that rock solid foundation as a photographer. They are diametric opposites in their styles and philosophies but they are both old-school and staggeringly brilliant minds. And the idea of receiving a good word that came by with so much hard work is something I value to this day.
How did you come up with the term, IPhonography & IPhonographs? How do you experiment with the results, and how, according to you, does this compare to conventional mediums such as giclée prints?
At some point, when I had been experimenting with iPhone photography for a while, I was eager to find a word for that form of photography. I started playing around with the words photography and iPhone and came by ‘iPhonography’. Then I Googled it. What came up was some gramophone kind of device meant for iPhones and I thought, what a waste of a good term.
I, however, started using the term associating it with my iPhone based work. It is only later that I found out that I couldn’t trademark the term as it contained the word iPhone in it. And the term soon caught on like wildfire, especially on social media.
I started off shooting, editing and post-processing JPEGs shot on my iPhone and was stunned by the size of prints I could do with that resolution of an image. I experimented with my signature mirror images to layered composite images and multiple montages, while I still did the stand-alone, filterless, unedited pure stuff just to prove to myself that I can be artistic without the aid of software or fancy gear.
Today and especially after I started working on RAW images shot on my iPhone and with what the latest version of the iPhone, the doors to my iPhonography world just blew wide open.
I am fascinated by the idea of taking a basic camera of the iPhone (compared to a DSLR) and creating images on it and turning it into photographic art. And to then mesh that with giclee or pigment printing techniques or even traditional methods like Platino-Palladio Type. It is this clash of two worlds that works.
Then again, could you explain what you describe as "semi-hyperrealistic mirrored montages"? Why semi? We think your works are quite hyperrealistic in themselves!
I would tend to agree that one mini ensemble of the works from Four could be correctly called ‘hyperrealistic’. I tend to use the ‘semi’ because I feel like there is still a lot more I can do to make that kind of work of mine truly ‘hyperrealistic’. And yes the ‘mirrored montages’ part does contribute to the hyperrealistic nature of the work itself.
We're very interested in your approach towards reviving the romance of print. Tell us a little more about this particular interest, your vision, plans, and how you'd like to see things changing.
All art being interpretations of “reality”, a photograph itself to me isn’t real till it is printed. It then not only becomes a physical reality, especially in a digital scenario, it has added elements of tactile texture, a real sense of scale, sheen or lack of it and its physical presence in a space.
About three to five years ago, I believed and vociferously so that film and analogue photography aren't going to die out and with it also, the traditional processes, particularly that of printing. It turns out that I wasn’t wrong. The market for all things analogue, especially film, is truly alive and well even in India.
I have been very seriously experimenting with the Platino-Palladio Type printing, a nearly two hundred-year-old technique, of which there are hardly any practitioners left in India. I would like to see that keenness to create a beautiful print return and I am also quite sure that it will. A great print doesn’t just take art but craft too and as such, in my opinion, it is as valuable as any painting.
How did your travels influence your artistic and philosophical approach? You seem to be missing your Paris sojourn in this new collection.
My penchant for travelling came about when I was still in college and it was also due to my father that I first travelled Europe at twenty-two. I very quickly realised that all the learning I wanted to do about life and my fascination for history came together so well in this one exercise of travelling, regardless of destination. I often liken myself to a dog, in that it is most natural for them to move forwards and not backwards.
To me that is what travel feels like, philosophically speaking. I think it is the best way of feeling life passing by and a realisation that you must live in the moment. I also enjoy taking myself out of my own comfort zone and certainly out of my current context and seeing how I respond to a different one. That not only adds a much wider context to the work I do but also I think, keeps me real in terms of where my work actually stands. Paris, as much of a muse as it was in my work, is still a distant second to Florence, which I consider my second home.
Tell us a little about how your father helped shape your understanding and personal creative language. Are there any words of advice that you hold close to your heart?
The best thing my father ever did, speaking as an artist, was that he left me to myself and didn’t force anything on me. What happened as a result is that I unconsciously imbibed a whole lot of things about art. From the many many books and films on art, literature, philosophy etc. to being present during conversations between some of the most renowned names in art and culture. I narrate this story every once in a while to illustrate what I learned from my father.
When he bought his first car, a beautiful champagne gold Fiat Millecento, it was my responsibility to clean the car. And not like I had a choice but after I did, I would tell him that I had finished doing so. He would come out, look at the car and say, “Clean it again!”. And I would and then again, tell him that I did. Again, he would come out, look at it and say, “Clean it again!”.
This madness happened four or five times in the beginning. I finally mustered enough courage to ask him why he was making me clean the car so many times, to which he replied, “If you had cleaned the car properly the first time, I wouldn’t have asked you to clean it that many times”. From then on, it was my diligent endeavour to clean the car better than anyone else could and thereby do it just once. I teach my daughter the same lesson of doing things with pride and doing them to your best ability.
The idea of reality and dreams meeting in a work of art, or one's creative vision, has been the preoccupation of many an artist, thinker, writer and other creative people. Where do you see this horizon extending for yourself?
On a road less travelled while all things change, the horizon philosophically speaking, in an onward journey has been the only constant for me. It has been the vanishing point of hope. The realisation of two equal halves that split everything and for the balance between those two halves to come together to form a meaningful whole.
In a mystical sense, it is the sense of having taken birth with a certain set of qualities and to connect with the physical world while you give shape to and create something that might remain as a legacy. In simple words, just to be remembered. That I think, is the essence of what every artist tries to achieve with their work but seldom does. That horizon is also what I hope will the line that runs through all my work when I am eventually done.
Would you like to, some day, experiment with forms other than photography? Surely the digital media must have you thinking of various new things to do!
I know better than to never say never but I have been so completely in love with photography as an art form and everything that makes it what it is that I think there is a long way to go for that love affair to end. I am also a believer in trying to do one thing in life and taking a life time to learn it well, even if your life is full of many other passions, as it should be.
Four previews on Sep 3, 4 pm at Gallery Time & Space, Bengaluru. Details at shibuarakkalfourshow.com