The Week India – June 30, 2019

JUNE 30, 2019 • THE WEEK 87

palace, while he is still organising and conducting a de-
fi ant campaign of civil disobedience, to parley on equal
terms with the representative of the King-Emperor.”
Th e 1931 photograph shows a fakir standing defi antly
against a violent world. Gandhi was mainly a creator,
and not a destroyer, and hence his image in red is an
invocation of synergies of undying hope, unending con-
versations, continuous learning and experimentation.

Tell us about your other recent projects, ‘Get a dark
cloud free’ (2016) and ‘Dhamma Swaraj’ (2018).
‘Get a Dark Cloud Free’ is a triptych of three 6x5ft
paintings on canvas in oil, the medium I always use. On
the left and right are the half face of a smiling Gandhi,
like a cloud stretched by wind. In the middle, from the
Gandhi face of dark clouds there emerges a surge of
light, of sunset.
Gandhi projects are my experiments with time. Very
explicit and open as against secrets and closures; I sa-
lute Gandhi for being around, as a beacon, warning and
provocation. I want in my expressions the ideational
coalescence and also the ideological confl icts of three
generations before me, in order to get out of the or-
phanhood of my generation and seek new belongings.
I grew up as the son of a Gandhian who was a commu-
nist. My father’s ideals of life and living drew from all
these fronts and it was he who taught me to stand by
truth. People called him “Insha Allah Komukka”.
‘Dhamma Swaraj’ is a conversation. Conceived as a
proposal in the making, it is an experimentation to in-
voke dialogue between individuals, ideas and practices,
various kinds of philosophies and politics.

Give us insights about other major artists

who have explored Gandhi in their works.

I have always admired Gandhi as an extreme

minimalist. He is the most photographed icon

in the world and I like all the photographers

who shot him with great respect and admi-

ration. Ben Kingsley, not much known as a

half-Indian born to a Gujarati father, re-lived

Gandhi on the silver screen with great ease and

grace. I think one of the monumental works on

Gandhi’s legacy is the one by D.P. Roy Choud-

hury in Delhi. A painting by Feliks Topolski, a

Polish artist who spent a short time with Gan-

dhi, almost predicts Gandhi’s assassination.

Nandalal Bose’s lived experience in the Gandhi

era has given his art its minimalist fl ights. Th e

recent work produced by Eduardo Kobra, a

Brazilian graffi ti artist, on Churchgate station

[Mumbai] facing the multitude that marches

every day to the local trains is very symbolic.

Among our contemporaries Atul Dodiya’s

‘Conversations with Gandhi’ through his fl uid

works is a great archive in the making.

RIYAS KOMU

TITLE DHAMMA SWARAJ

MEDIUM OIL ON CANVAS

SIZE 72x54 INCHES EACH, TRIPTYCH

YEAR 2018