Sarita ChouhanSilent, whispering or screaming loud
lines soft, spoken, curvy and bold running linear, parallel and intersecting moving ahead or going back and forth. Touching the corners or penetrating deep inside silent, quiet and contemplating shifting swinging and moving. Stories unearth… voicing the voices joining the dots the lines speak. Corner Story 1 In a small square plot of land, in the centre one could see a tree growing up, its young delicate branches beginning to spread, leaves shooting up and in a few days it will be standing tall and strong, flowering perhaps. Before its beauty could be seen in full bloom, before it could stand proud and confident, it was decided to replace the tree with another tree. A tree more exquisite, producing fruits that would sell for good price in the market. A tree on which money would grow… The tree was cut from its trunk with all its fine textured, tender leaves, tree that was flowering and with little seeds sprouting inside its fruits, it being in the process to expand, explore itself and finally all of it uprooted and discarded in the corner of the plot. For few days, before it was finally thrown away it was lying there seeing a new plant being watered and still not fully aware of why all this happened… The corner was cleared in a few days and the days passed and no one knew till a small little shooting plant emerged from the corner, its roots trying to hold onto earth, that a seed was left behind by the tree, to grow again in that corner. It began growing slowly and gradually. It was decided to let it be in that corner. Corner Story 2 And the crowd dispersed, the lights still falling on the centre of the hall. The corners could see the centre beaming with joy and pride as like other days today again all the spotlight was on the centre stage. The crowds were cheering their leader, screaming at the pitch of their voice slogans and the leader like all other leaders was selling words, bullshitting about patriotism and playing with people’s minds and emotions. All kinds of great personalities have been here from political leaders, religious gurus, big names from TV and Film world, sports personalities, writers, artists, you name it… Who doesn’t love centre stage and all the attention and applause? Even idols of Gods and Goddesses have been kept here for Ganesha Chaturthi and Durga Puja. The center was expanding with pride and teasingly winked at the corners standing in shade, away from all the light and simply looking at the centre. Two of the corners didn’t bother but the center’s audacity shocked the other two. One sulked and the fourth one couldn’t stand there with all the hurt and said, “Have you ever realized because of the corners the center exists. We stand quietly but we are your pillar, we are your strength. If one of us falls, you are not there. You should apologize to us right now and right here.” The center was agitated as it was most unexpected, a voice from the corner. All these years, corner stood quietly and the center was not used to hearing a reply and was perturbed. It was most unlikely; anyone questioning its authority, its space and center would never apologize, never. Center stood there, with lights still falling on it. Next day early morning a group came to make arrangements for an important function in the late afternoon. They couldn’t believe their eyes seeing a huge solid crack on the pillar extending to the entire wall about to collapse. Engineers came to inspect and it was decided to cancel all future programs here till repairs are made. There was today no lights falling on the center. |
Sarita Chouhan
Born in 1968, a self- taught artist, Sarita did her post-graduate diploma in Indian Aesthetics and has presented her works in solos and group shows. She has shown solos in Delhi (Rabindra Bhawan, Alliance Francaise), Chandigarh (Art Folio), Vadodra (Nazar Art Gallery) and Mumbai (Artist Centre, Jehangir Art Gallery, Museum Art Gallery) and participated in several group exhibitions including ‘Inscriptions on the surface of the transitory’ in 2014 in Fine Art Faculty, Vadodra, ‘drawings’ in 2011 and ‘studio practices one’ in 2009 with Chemould Prescott Mumbai. Apart from her studio practice based works, she did a collaborative work “dancing with lines” with a French butoh dancer, Lucie Betz in 2011 and the work has been documented online in a blog http//:www.saritalucie.blogspot.com/ Her Installation “Plea of saffron cloth” was part of World Social Forum, 2004 and audio-visual Installation “Everywhere is green…Even in my dreams” was part of Kala Ghoda festival, 2006 in Mumbai.
Presently she lives and works from Mumbai.
Presently she lives and works from Mumbai.