Taking Seed at MoMa

In a career spanning nearly two decades,Singh has preferred to let her works engage with the critics,the buyers and the media. Ever since the prestigious Museum of Modern Art (MoMA),New York,acquired her work Beej Brahmaand/ Cosmic Seeds in February this year,it has been rather difficult to escape scrutiny. The work — an installation of 10 circular prints (30 feetX40 feet) made through the elaborate process of etching — is in the company of Vincent Van Gogh,Pablo Picasso,Salvador Dali,Takashi Murakami and Damien Hirst. The other Indian artists whose works feature in MoMA are Krishen Khanna and Satish Gujral,apart from the Indian-born Anish Kapoor. “Though we never judge an artist by a sale,an acquisition by an institution such as the MoMA for their permanent collection is one of the highest forms of acknowledgement an artist can receive for their work. Shambhavi has always been motivated and committed to her work,and this acknowledgement is a gentle reflection of that belief,” says Deepak Talwar of Talwar Gallery,which has represented her since 2006.

Beej Brahmaand was born out of a four-month residency-workshop at the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (STPI) last year. The medium of the work is organic,much like the idea at its core. “It represents the eloquent dialogue of the farmer and his act of dispersing seeds. The basic idea of Beej Brahmaand draws from the flower field. There are many levels of understanding the work. The seeds viewed together look like stars hanging from the sky. Just like plants burst out of their seeds,so did the cosmos at some time burst out of a certain ‘seed’,or as some claim,out of nothingness. For me,any flowering is monumental,be it the cosmos or the little plant seed,” says Singh.

Singh began her career around the same time as artist Subodh Gupta (also from Bihar),whose stupendous prices catapulted him to fame in a very short time. For someone who has never been part of the number game,it’s difficult,of course,to ignore the significance of the acquisition. “There had been serious interest in my work since my STPI residency. Talks began after the curator from MoMA,Sarah Suzuki,saw the works again in my solo,Lonely Furrow at Talwar Gallery,New York in September last year. I have received the kind of attention an artist longs for. In hindsight,the process of acquisition seems so natural and yet overwhelming at the same time,” says Singh.

As a practitioner,Singh’s ouevre,comprising paintings,sculptures,installations and new media,explores her concern for the displaced,the marginal,the unspoken. Lonely Furrow was pivoted on the idea of labour; in 2008,in the solo exhibition Lullaby in New Delhi,she captured the anxiety and stigma of displacement. In an earlier exhibition,A Bird and Two Thousand Echoes,themes of cultural continuity and ideological and physical movement were fused with personal narratives of self-discovery,following a residency in South Africa. “Being a woman is being marginal. Coming from a state with no employment opportunities,at least till very recently,is being marginal. Being a migrant is being ridiculed and being poor,a curse. We have been a miniscule part of a huge palaayan: forced migration. As an artist,one cannot forget this reality. However,the fact is that one cannot personally change things much,but hope that in one’s own way,address a change that is positive,” she says.

She is,however,loathe to call this engagement a discourse. “Biharis,like all other migrating populations,have gone far in search of livelihood,often for a pittance. It has made me angry and I have looked inwards and constantly sought answers through my art; through my reflections on the migrant labourer — for all those displaced people lost to memory. I too,am one of them. I do not have to consciously think to be a very tangible part of this ‘discourse’,” she says.

Her choices are often simply a matter of expediency. She calls her selection of medium instinctive — “All my work begins with graphite,charcoal,smoke powder and watercolour. I am trained as a painter and like to see the process of the work directly in front of my eyes. I do not follow traditional casting or moulding for sculptures. I enjoy the manual process of folding the metal sheets and cotton pulp,similar to that of the farmer,” she says. In the same way,she arrived at the decision to do more solo shows: “For me,the Nineties were special with numerous curated shows as well as solo exhibitions. In the past few years,it has been my conscious decision to create a body of work specifically for solo exhibitions,” she says.

The affirmation apart,MoMA’s acquisition will not change things much. Her preoccupations remain the same,and the hunger to experiment is undiminished. Like before,her works will continue to engage with the trappings of her vocation. The nature of the scrutiny will probably be the only thing that will undergo a shift,she says. “Most of my peers know me and my art relatively well. And I am glad for the friendships. I have been showing in solos since 1990 worldwide. Perhaps the media views me and my practice differently now and that to them may reflect a shift in my profile,” she says.