an exhibition by Papia Ghoshal

Papia Ghoshal’s Tantra Exhibition at London’s Nehru Centre

In November (2022), the Kolkata artist Papia Ghoshal held her solo Tantra exhibition ‘Tantra, the infinite,' in the gallery of the Nehru Centre. That centre is part and parcel of The High Commission of India, in London, and operates in accordance with the Indian Council for Cultural Relations [ICCR], established in 1950.

The Nehru Centre is within walking distance from the deeply spiritual London retreat of Hyde Park, originally bought by King Henry VIII from the Benedictine monks of Westminster Abbey. Across from that park, and down the road from the 18th century Grosvenor Chapel (church), the16th century building situated at West London’s South Audley Street, number eight (acquired by the Government of India in1946) is the de facto Indian cultural wing of the Nehru Centre, engendering displays, performances and screenings of Indian arts and cultures, established in 1992.

It comes as no surprise then that, amidst the innate spirituality of the area, the Indian artist/ poet/singer/actress/performer Papia Ghoshal (based in Prague [Czech Republic], London [UK], and Kolkata [India/Bengal]) should frequently choose to have her works, like ‘Gandhi the Practitioner’ which ultimately celebrates the spiritual in humanity, shown at the Nehru Centre, and in that area of London steeped in spirituality.

Over time, Ms Ghoshal has created a fresh ‘language’ with her works, some harness more figurative aspects, like ‘Tantric Practitioners’, some are reflective and enhance our understanding of rural and tribal Indian art, such as ‘Shavia Shaktis’, while Ms Ghoshal constantly edges towards a deeper understanding of ‘the spiritual’ with ‘Tantra the Infinite’, ‘Shuya’ and Cosmic Energies’ all the time bringing her fascinated audience so much closer to the ecstatic with her insightful intimations of the ancient, the mystical, and eventually with Tantric abstraction reaching out to touch, and reflect, ours souls with mystic spiritual love with intimations and allusions of a Sufic/Baul tradition.

Within that aforementioned esteemed gallery, under the watchful eyes of exquisite busts representing Rabindranath Tagore and Sri Aurobindo, Papia Ghoshal’s artworks, such as her series ‘Tantra Trees’, dig deep into the sacred earth while simultaneously stretching into spiritual heavens fairly scintillated within the enraptured atmosphere of that cultural centre. There to witness her solo exhibition of vibrant, highly personal, yet significantly esoteric Tantric works of art were gathered a coterie of collectors, supporters, friends and art enthusiasts, close friends and art lovers, who were understandably present to be spellbound, intrigued and delighted by Ms Ghoshal’s Tantric works on show. The stage (literally) had been set to welcome artist Papia Ghoshal (aka Papia Das Baul, and a regular at the Centre) to present her solo exhibition of spiritual Tantric paintings, significances and symbology.

Ms Ghoshal, in her artworks, shuns Western nomenclatures such as ‘Modern’ or Contemporary’ art in favour of reaching out past both and forging ahead with Baul inspired sufic Tantra-based visualisations, seen in this solo exhibition as part of the Nehru Centre’s Tantra Festival.

Later, in that Nehru Centre Tantra Festival, there was a second exhibition of artworks held within the two glorious white-coloured (Bharaiv and the Sarang) exhibition halls, which is where Papia Ghoshal curated the group exhibition, titled ‘De-constructing Tantra’.

This fresh exhibition included works by Papia Ghoshal herself, as well as art works by Richard Bagulley; Martin A Bradley; Bijon Chowdhury; Jatin Das; Milada Ditrichova; Lee Johnson; ‘Radha Khrishna’ by Prokash Karmakar; Pablo Khaled; Robin Hydar Khanr; Melvyn King; Robert Lassenius; Jan Mayer; Millie Basu Roy; Assem Al Sabban; Sudeep Ranjan Sarkar; Jan Strup and last but not least one glorious ‘Tubist’ work by Helmut Thoma (1977).

The wall works, in the first white hall, were accompanied by long antique banquet tables (fulfilling the role of display cases within that ‘safe’ and exclusive atmosphere). Those rich, polished, brown, tables displayed a variety of artworks, including delicately coloured Indian scroll works.

In the second hall, other scrolls hung from the walls and were accompanied by a bronze ‘Dancing Shiva’, wall hanging paintings and window aggregations of

Floating dreams smaller artworks. The whole, respectful of the antiquity of the building itself, was reminiscent of those intriguing private collections, or the small museums which London is famous for, in the intimacy of collection brought about by the juxtapositions and placings of the very varied works of art connected to Tantra, in it’s broadest sense.

During the Tantra Festival there were also performances of Papia Ghoshal’s Baul music, and one fascinating Tantra documentary ‘The Story of Tantra’ from The Czech Republic’s director Viliam Poltikovič, featuring the artist Papia Ghoshal.

Ed

Memory of History

“Perhaps it might be said rightly that there are three times: a time present of things past; a time present of things present; and a time present of things future. For these three do coexist somehow in the soul, for otherwise I could not see them. The time present of things past is memory; the time present of things present is direct experience; the time present of things future is expectation.

Confessions, St. Augustine, Book 11, Chapter 20 ,

The stunning beauty of history is not that it is fixed, but that it is fugitive.

Herodotus, (a Greek from what is now Turkey), wrote ‘Histories’ to explain the Greek/Persian wars and was known, by Cicero, as the “father of history”. The much later ‘historian’ Plutarch, however, with his “On the Malice of Herodotus” in ‘Moralia’, named Herodotus the “father of lies”, for distorting history.

Histories are collections of perceptions which alter dependant on a host of reasons, culture, religious/political belief systems, social perceptions etc. etc. etc.. In one view of history the fixed fact which defined an age becomes dislodged when fresh information is introduced. Time frames shift. New findings adjust accepted knowledge. Every ‘confirmed fact’ is nuanced, tentative, a temporary sign rather than a concrete actuality where classifications become misleading, as demonstrated in the notions of memory and time in Proust’s ‘In Search of Lost Time’.

Henri Bergson (in ‘Matter and Memory’ 1991) on the other hand, suggested

“There is no perception which is not full of memories. With the immediate and present data of our senses, we mingle a thousand details out of our past experience. In most cases these memories supplant our natural perceptions of which we then retain only a few hints, thus using them merely as ‘signs’ that recall to us former images.”

In the exhibition ‘Memories of History’, two prominent artists, Milan (Italy) born Giovanni Cerri and Hangshou

(China) born Luo Qi, work within the twin fugitive notions of ‘history’ and ‘memory’. One, Luo Qi, works in such a way that he references the past to (re)create imagery which has much in common with asemic (that is faux) writing. The other, Giovanni Cerri, imagines images of a proposed past, projected into what appears to be a dystopian future. The joint exhibition becomes a testament to the malleability of the notion of history.

Luo Qi takes his visual clues from the minutiae of European Medieval manuscripts. He delights in those frequently overlooked, but nevertheless fascinating, marginalia and illustrations.

It seems only natural that Luo Qi should begin to look at Medieval manuscripts and begin to see the possibilities of making them his own, with his ‘Notes’ series. To do with, and for, them what he has been doing with Chinese calligraphy (writing) to produce Calligraphyism, which is an extension of the notion of asemic writing, or marks which appears to be writing, but are not. With his new quest Luo Qi has turned his attention to Medieval images. They are taken out of context, enlarged, re-coloured and reinterpreted in his customary flatness.

Visually, this new enterprise has commonalities with Luo Qi’s earlier ‘Calligraphyism’, and his fresh look at Pop Art. Now, the subject is not the reinterpreted Chinese character/logogram, but a fresh look at Medieval manuscript imagery with images like ‘Note 7’ (2023), which resembles tapestries such as the French ‘Bayeux Tapestry’(discovered in 1476).

This fresh look, like his ‘Calligraphyism’, makes us see again the original material, this time with unfettered eyes. It is the recognition of the surreal\Dadaist act which had informed Pop Art. It is Méret Oppenheim’s ‘Object (Le Déjeuner en fourrure’, 1936) fur cup and saucer, and Man Ray’s ‘Cadeau’ (1921), the flatiron embedded with sharp nails. Neither object is suitable for its original purpose, and in that negation makes us recall their historical utility value.

Luo Qi’s canvas ‘Note 9’ is a play on green and red. In a bottom right square a monk in red is painted on a green background. An accumulation of symbols ties that painting with its partner canvas ‘Note 8’, presenting an unwavering ‘modern’ painting (across two canvases) which reminds the viewer of medieval imagery. Another series, Note 10,11,12 (2023), projecting Kandinsky yellow, shows a human figure with a head appendage reminiscent of Medieval pictures of bishops. Other canvases which bring to mind ‘The Lindisfarne Gospels’ (c. 700, found at Lindisfarne Priory on Lindisfarne, Holy Island).

Milanese artist Giovanni Cerri gives us dramatic urban and seemingly dystopian canvases of not just an end of empire, but an end of the world scenario. In his largest works, we could imagine that they are backdrops to some chthonian opera, played out by sombrely dressed opera singers mournfully decrying the rapture.

We can further imagine Tomaso Albionai’s Adagio en sol menor, in G minor playing as we observe the mournful colouration, bold expressive brush strokes and the necessary drips of paint running down bold canvases which all add to the careful creation of grim warnings of the future climate change events which Giovanni Cerri’s canvases appear to herald.

For instance, in ‘Climate change, Roma (Colosseo)’ Giovanni Cerri renders an image of the Rome Colosseum. That structure was built nearly two thousand years ago and has remained a symbol of Rome and its empire. In Cerri’s vision, the Colosseum is flooded. ‘Climate change, Roma (Colosseo)’ is at once a reminder of the faded splendour of the ancient world, its longevity, but also a bleak image of an ‘end of times, and a caution for future generations as the ruins are all that is seen in a barren landscape. In Cerri’s more recent work such as ‘Paesaggio sommerso’ (submerged landscape), the larger canvas, with its image of swans (Zeus?), which may be seen as new growth or the beginning of a new golden age, we see man’s centuries-old urban landscapes becoming reclaimed by nature as our planet heals from the wound which was man.

What at first glance appears to be doom ridden and dystopian, may be a rejuvenation as the planet heals itself. Like the Tao’s ‘Yin Yang’, where there is a speck of black in the white, and a speck of white in the black, Cerri observes that what has ruined man has ultimately uplifted nature to its rightful place, not back to idealisation of Thomas Moore’s 16th century satire ‘Utopia’ (which is a man-made social ideal), but to a (tropical) earthly paradise (with flamingoes symbolising balance and harmony) which begins the new ‘Garden of Eden’ as seen within Cerri’s ’Paesaggio sommerso’, the smaller canvas.

At first glance Giovanni Cerri and Luo Qi’s paintings could not be more different. The presented images are, however, tied together by notions of history, or historicity. Cerri looks forward to what initially appears to be ideas of destroyed JG Ballard (Drowned World) dystopias, while Luo Qi looks back to Medieval times and reimagines the imagery there. In choice of subject matter, in method of execution and style chosen there are no similarities, however both artists are referencing notions of time, and creating or invoking notions of the past through memory, its quirks and its misinterpretations.

Ed

Climate change, Roma (Colosseo)