Is art a part of life, or does it, in certain ways, stand apart from other forms of expression? Though sometimes challenging to categorize, broadly and philosophically- speaking, artistic expression deals with constantly evolving notions of aesthetics and rasa (taste), that is, varied ways of seeing and perceiving life and the surrounding world, but always with creativity as the central axis. More specifically, the distinction between art and craft, or between fine art and design/ fashion/applied art is equally disputed. All creative endeavors, in any form of visual art or the performing art or literature, epitomize a given time and space. Artists of all genres and designs- painters, sculptors, designers, illustrators, craftsmen, architects, fashion designers and new media practitioners, individuals or groups, in a juxtaposition of art and artifacts represent the vision, vitality and plurality of the cultural matrix in which they exist. Resulting from a cross fertilization of ideas and experiences, immersed in aesthetics as well as some form of functional value- may be just visual or sensual stimulation, each art form with its distinct characteristics, in whatever genre, color, style or media; involves cerebral and emotional inputs as well as skills, materials and a play of creative energies as a complete human activity.fine arts magazine  

The Indian Context  

Intrinsically rooted in classical, tribal and folk forms that have traversed everything from the sacred to the profane, the decorative to the functional; Indian art in all its kaleidoscopic variety continues to engage life and society. Drawing on sound philosophical principals of Shilpasatras (the study of arts and crafts), expressed in both sacred and courtly terms, it has retained its aesthetic appeal while maintaining its functional role. Artists continue to perform important roles as communicators and harbingers of change, providing both guidance for those who pursue the arts purely for enjoyment, while also rendering works that illustrate popular ballads, epics and love stories and producing functional objects, including garments and other adornments. Arts add colour to Indian life, serve as a document of our history and enhance the cultural environment.  

Shringar (preparation for the day) to evoke one of the navrasa (nine juices with corresponding moods or feelings) is depicted with finesse in ornately-adorned sculptures and temple deities, or beautifully painted manuscripts and miniatures. They reinforce a tradition and illustrate how fashion has been integral to Indian artistic practice. Historical accounts and literary texts of the past describe in captivating detail the rustle of pure silks as the rich pass by. Renowned for their colors and patterns, Indian textiles, in fine muslin and handloom fabrics, received royal patronage, while also being accessible to commoners, who wear them in elegantly-folded, often unstitched, fashions such as saree for women and dhoti or pagri for men. Elaborately embroidered and embellished costumes, intricately designed jewelry and decorative patterns on hands, face and body, have been an integral part of Indian culture, cutting across all socio-economic strata, regardless of region, age, sex or community. Each distinctive style serves a specific occasion.  

Re-fashioning Art  

In this constantly-evolving world, nothing remains the same. India is not exempt and, given its prominent role in the global marketplace, its art and culture have also undergone an unprecedented transformation. The resulting free-flow of materials, styles and techniques has generated a refreshingly-hybrid style of art. Clearly impacted by all-pervasive Bollywood films, pop culture, kitsch and an explosion of material available through the Internet, Indian art in all its forms, from fine art to performance and installation art to design, fashion, architecture, photography, video and new media seem to have been refashioned as a new Avatar. Going well beyond decorative and spiritual themes, wider issues of human interest such as sexuality, feminist themes, regional identity, corruption, violence, world events, environment and human rights issues are being addressed and re-shaped in forms that can be either beautiful or beastly. In terms of scale and ambition too, Indian artists exude a new vigour and confidence. There is daring, depth and glamour in contemporary Indian art, offering provocation, reflection and pleasure. In an inclusive approach, the old and the new co-exist as canonical texts. Vastu shastras (architecture), Silpashastras (arts and crafts) and Kamasutra (art of sexual pleasure) are studied and practiced with as much fervor as ever, while innovation and experimentation, brought about by digital technology and new media, continue to open new doors for ancient practices.  

Alankar or embellishment for the self and one’s surroundings is a natural human desire. It is an essential element of visual language and an inseparable component of aesthetics. By analyzing costumes, decorative tradition, motifs and iconography used by a particular group at any given time, art historians can reconstruct a stylistic progression that traces the changes in a cultural milieu. Though often criticized merely for its glamour value, the evolution of fashion, in fact, is a creative endeavor akin to the study of fine art. Fashion artists work with colour, material, texture, form and design while painters, sculptors and other visual artists work with similar materials and concepts, often in an abstract realm. In a significant judgment, the Bombay High Court recently ruled that fashion designers are, in fact, artists. Fashion artists add beauty and visual appeal of garments, enhancing the utility, look and value of what they create–a decorative piece of clothing or a functional object. In turn, visual artists create to articulate their own and others’ dreams, fears, ideas and to catalogue events, with the similar result that our cultural environment is further enhanced. All artists take forward the age old concept of working together in groups and across disciplines, learning from each other in the process, as did the sthapatis or architects who excelled in building design, or the master artist who worked in karkhanas (studios/workshops) with the rangamez or colourist, calligrapher, framer and binder.  

Convergence  

Both creative domains, though inextricably intertwined in their search for aesthetics and visual language, involve certain characteristics peculiar to each. While fashion artists appear to play vigorously with materials and premeditated design and for functionality as required by the rasik or market, artists seem to focus primarily on inner urges and spontaneity to reach the viewer or collector, often relegating the practicality of art to the background. Creativity and their ability to handle material and transform ideas into shapes, seem to be equally significant for artists and couturiers.  

A recent exhibition in Delhi provided a platform with space and scope for artists and designers to cross over the fence and converge experimenting and re-working their creativity with functionality as the goal. Each of the ten visual artists created a fashion garment or object of physical adornment, in addition to creating a work from within their own realm. The fashion artists play with unrestrained creativity making a two or three dimensional or virtual art work and designing a garment in their signature styles. In the process, both groups celebrate the exchange and cross-fertilization of ideas, experiences and practices, free from the pressure of commissions and the market, reliving their early, dreamy days of training and learning.  

Exhibitors include a mix—renowned artists and some younger and cutting-edge—but all straddling the genres to create paintings, photographs, sculptures, installations, videos and interactive art; fashion garments, functional objects and even food complete this inclusive, cohesive forum. This convergence of art and fashion makes a feast for the eyes, mind and body, challenging the intellect and charming with aesthetics.  

Amid the ten visual artists in the exhibition is a large fiberglass brightly coloured sculpture of foot tapping legs of a young girl, My Pavilion, by Dileep Sharma. A symbol of modernity and pop culture, she is seductively poised as her mini-skirt flares in the air, bringing the exuberant pink of the inside out, showing off her yellow panty with precisely painted imagery in place, playing with its own shadow on the shiny plate below. A resident of Bollywood city, Sharma, known by his pseudonym, Kunwar ji, then returns to his roots in Rajasthan to work with craftsmen and get his intricate colourful imagery of provocatively playful female legs, in variable posturing, engraved in woodblocks for the hand block printing of his fashion art piece, the evergreen saree, in georgette.  

In a similar pop and Bollywood streak appears the art of Baba Anand. Shuttling between the East and West, his artwork as an installation of 22 framed boxes that he has worked on since 2004, painted in a glossy laboratory-white. There is a clear imprint of his bohemian, open mindscape and his global exposure in the imagery and form of his work. The ‘Life Boxes’—painted mixed media imagery glued to the wood-threads, grub, wheels, money, luxury brands, advertisements, slogans, wax dolls, photos, etc.—create a collage illustrating the “culture of consumption and consumption of culture…” a clinical examination of westernized society, “an artistic anthropology of the habits of the Global Village at the dawn of the 21st Century”, to quote Jerome Neutre. This trained fashion designer, whose current practice engages fine art works in a kitsch- influenced, heavily embellished oeuvre, comes to the fore in his rock- star- gold jacket specially designed and created for the exhibition as his functional, wearable entry.  

In contrast is Satish Gupta’s, ‘Shwe De Gong’ meditative creations in the Zen spirit, inspired by his recent visit to Myanmar. The icon featured in the painted canvas is also the central figure in his fabric creation for adorning the body. The shawl, in silk and wool fabric specially created by skilled crafters at ‘INDIA INDIA’, brings the artist’s vision to life in his maroon and black, handmade appliqué-worked piece with Buddha images superimposed, complimenting the painting. Together, the two follow the grid of the Cosmic Matrix series that has engaged and inspired the artist’s creative energies for years. As for the symbiotic relationship between art and fashion, the artist believes, “… creativity cannot be restricted to any one medium. What is expressed is of value through whichever medium the artist chooses for a particular work”.  

Engagement with iconography appears differently in artist Seema Kohli’s painting as a fine blend of myth and feminist energy with poetic elegance. Her densely painted canvas filled with nature, semi- anthropomorphic forms and a sensuous feminine figure prominently placed centrally, recreate mythology associated with the concept of procreation in ‘Hiranya garbha’ and the ‘Golden Womb’. To reflect on a woman’s search and urge for beauty, she presents a complete outfit in her fashion creation influenced by fashion designer Poonam Bajaj. A hand –embroidered, richly embellished jacket, digitally printed silk Lycra body suit, suede embroidered clutch bag coordinate to illustrate a feminist streak in her art.  

In a vastly different mode appear abstract renditions of Paris based artist Sujata Bajaj, whose work remains firmly rooted in the soil of her birth-land, but exudes a touch of the West—where she is based now—in its marked finesse. Her richly coloured canvas completely covered with evocative abstract impressionist markings of panchtatva—the five natural elements—accompanied by calligraphic, textual and textural interventions, looks bright and alive, drawing in the viewer. She complements it with a leather clutch by an Italian designer who has included a small canvas strip, hand painted by Sujata, on its cover. Easily carried and used, the handbag is an interesting companion to the painting on the wall.  

Manu Parekh known for his still life and Banaras series of paintings turns to Lord Ganesha for this exhibition. The painted canvas featuring that god in red yellow and green has orange and pink smeared all over his benevolent face, broad forehead, long winding laddoo holding trunk, pot belly and multiple hands. The bright eyed, generous God presents a picture perfect lovable image with an interesting touch of the artist’s unmistakable signature style. His rendition of the lord in a smaller work on cardboard is beautifully turned into a locket, given his experience as design consultant for the Weavers’ Service Center and then the Handicraft and Handloom Export Corporation of India. The locket strung together as a necklace makes a wearable piece possibly for special occasions, may be for invoking the Lord for good luck!  

Landscape is at the centre of all that Paramjit Singh creates. His gentle exploration in subtle colours with laboriously textured thick brush work on canvas re-calls quiet pictures of silent valleys, flowing streams and water bodies, rising sun or moonlit nights, hills and mountain- scapes, walkways between towering trees, thick forests or streetscapes in autumn, covered with falling leaves. The artist’s painting for the exhibition explores a similar, other-worldly dreamscape, in a haven of its own, far beyond the chaotic urban world. Singh then selects a section of his painting, transposing it into digital imagery, printing it on fabric as a stole, usable by any individual with taste of any age and of either sex. The artist’s ability to work across media and domains is well-exemplified by both of his creations in the exhibition.  

Ravi Kumar Kashi specializes in making his own paper; working with various materials and genres, he has created a series of human torsos of cotton, jute and paper. A reflection of the times we live in, the visual culture of media re-presentations and hype are recurrently featured in his ‘non-linear’ artistic career that encompasses collage, moulded paper sculptures, assemblages, paintings, photography and new media work. The torso or armory of Doubting Thomas’is linked to his fashion art- wearable T shirts, aptly titled Inside Out. There is an uncanny resemblance between the two. The T shirts’ images of inner body parts painted in water-proof ink, and the torso, reveal how we hide by wearing clothes or otherwise covering up. Kashi’s work is also a comment on the human body’s fragility and the concept of regeneration.  

 As an artist, Yusuf Arakkal works across media and disciplines, appreciating the bond and interdependence between art and design: “We all know before fashion designing became specialized it was artists who created fashion and designed costumes. For example, Michelangelo had designed the beautiful out fits for the Swiss guards at Vatican that are still worn by them”.  

 Fashion artists and designers, just as many visual artists, work to bring high aesthetics to their creations. Yusuf has painted two canvases with familiar wearable garments: a jacket and trousers. The red hanger and line running through each canvas lend an animating, painterly touch to both images. A light blue shirt in soft denim, paired with a piece from his Child series of paintings, creates a wearable fashion garment with unisex appeal.  

The role that models play in giving the designed fashion wear its full glory is often limited to their appearance in ramp walks and glossy magazines or the advertising world. Young Viveek Sharma features a European model that he met during a recent residency in Germany in his oil on canvas on display in the show. He then cooks a meal and prepares the table showing the model waiting at the window and titling the whole installation ‘Who is coming for dinner tonight?’ This in-your-face interactive art work brings the fashion design and art domains together via a performative mode, a telling comment on the uncertainty in a model’s life. It also reflects the frailty of human relationships in contemporary society. Sharma adds another dimension to his work given, that the Zanana Table Chair, part of the installation, was created by designer duo, Sahil and Sarthak, who used local material and ethnic wear for this ultra-modern luxury furniture.  

 The ten fashion artists likewise play with their creative energies to embody art, beside design and fashion, within its folds. While Ritu Kumar chooses to create a painting in mixed media to feature her love of the fabric and colours, along with an elaborately textured ornate costume, JJ Valaya finds recourse in photography to document his long time association with that form, in addition to his signature fashion creation. In a mix of everyday materials and street culture, Manish Arora, inspired by Warhol and Roy Lichtenstein, creates his own flamboyant, contemporary design; while his name-sake from Mumbai, Manish Malhotra, known for his designs for many of the Bollywood film stars, also showcases a couple of his ornate creations. Gaurav Gupta juxtaposes his garment with an installation to explore “the blurred line between the accepted norm of functional and non functional”. Himanshu Dogra and Play Clan give us “an experiential walkthrough showing different processes and development of an art work from concept to print….as a garment, a painting or a utility item….” Malini Ramani’s garment and installation with video, flesh out the ambience that connects the two within their context. Rajesh Pratap Singh’s sculpture of a meditating man made out of scissors, and his men’s wear suit worn by one of his associates, both illustrate his love for simplicity with substance. Shilpa Chavan, or Little Shilpa, as she is more popularly known, styles a hat and an installation made with humble materials found in a local street market, transforming it into a spectacular sculpture with a feminist thrust (see opening image). In his fashion designs, Varun Sardana uses masks theatrically, turning fashion into a performance: “…the theatre of fashion….a play between wearable garments and their heightened presentation”.  

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 This versatile collection features many new art works across the genres, all aesthetically endowed and technically virtuous. They respond to the concept behind the exhibition, with a fresh outlook, as fashion creations and fine art works coalesce in a free exchange of creative energies. Both domains, influencing each other in frequently varying proportions, now inhabit today’s art galleries and museum spaces. Historically too, both forms have remained current with society, part and parcel of its time. Original patterns, whether painted on canvas or drawn on paper, may be equally creative. Artists patronize fashion designers, as fashion designers have traditionally collected art, as was the case with French couturier Paul Poiret, who collected works by Picasso, Matisse, Dufy and Rouault, among others. Artists likewise design costumes and sets for theater, as did Neelima Sheikh for one of Anuradha Kapoor’s stage productions. MF Husain and Laxma Goud have both designed clothes, and artist Sanjay Bhattacharya began his career as a designer, and Shuvaprasanna, as an illustrator. Creative influence has flowed both ways as fashion imitates art, and art imitates life.  

And life continues to be impacted by both!  

By Sushma Bahl, Contributing Writer  

This article is an edited version of the curatorial essay that was featured in the catalogue for ‘Convergence: Art & Fashion’ exhibition, presented by Art Positive in Delhi in Nov-Dec 2010)