Multi-disciplinary Indian contemporary artist Megha Joshi Megha Joshi creates installations and sculptures driven by gender, religion, rituals, and nature, amongst other thought-provoking themes. She shares her insights on society, art practice, collaborations and more, in an interview with the Asian Curator.
I believe that religion; its rigidity and fluidity, is one of the biggest influencers of how a society treats its women.
Take us to the beginning of your story. How did your tryst with art begin? What was your first piece? How do you describe yourself in the context of challenging people’s perspectives via your work?
I was fortunate to have art and sculpture at school level. We had great teachers who were practicing artists themselves, so my initiation into fine art practice started early. I even had sculpture as a board subject. By the time I applied to MSU, Baroda, I had a portfolio that few could boast of.
What I consider to be my first piece as an artist is “Sisyphean Pause” – a technically challenging work (because of the texture) in cast bronze that was done in my final year at college. It was exhibited in Delhi in a show titled “Young Baroda”. I have been told my work challenges conventional thinking, but to me, the purpose of art is to raise questions and not accept the status quo. Whether political or personal, art must have a dynamic relationship with society.
What inspires you? Take us through your process and continuous frameworks of reference.
Corny as it may sound, life itself, in all its complexities, is an unending source of inspiration. My interests are diverse and my art practice reflects that. The sources of misery and happiness in a cultural, regional and global context interest me. Gender, religion and nature are themes I work with often.
I don’t believe in an apparent homogeneity in my art practice. I have multiple ways of working. There are works that come purely from inside-out. Then there are curatorial calls that I respond to in my way, works I may not have done had I not been prompted. I am never at a loss because I am interested in everything and always have something to say – except that my language is visual.
A third way which I engage in is in response to a new environment – International Residencies or Nature Art Workshops bring a new perspective to my visual language.
Tell us about the evolution of your practice over the years and your commitment to the themes of gender and ritual and nature as a muse.
The Baroda School of Art has a strong figurative and narrative base. Formally, I find myself moving towards greater abstraction, though elements of the figure and story keep creeping in. As I practiced sculpture, as I lived life as a woman, a mother and a professional in India, I became acutely aware of gender.
I believe that religion; its rigidity and fluidity, is one of the biggest influencers of how a society treats its women. Many of our Hindu rituals have become redundant in modern times and a reformation is required. I do not agree with the argument that women are equated to goddesses – keeping women on pedestals is a way of control – one step sideways and they fall!
I find faith beautiful and necessary, but I find no divinity in the way most religion is practiced. If there is anything divine and worth venerating, sublimating yourself to, it is nature. The mountains, the rivers, the sun, the sky… When we worship them through religion, we end up abusing them. Look at the Ganga, the rivers after religious festivals – we pollute the apparent divine in appeasing an unknown.
How does your audience interact and react to the unexpected vis a vis the work you put out into the world?
I have been fortunate in being mostly understood but often, friends who practice rituals or trolls on social media, take offence. If I call sindoor a ‘line of control’ and you wear it, you will try your best to defend it. If I say the female breast has been overly sexualized in cultures and it should be desexualized and uncensored, I get a “Whaaat?!”
What are you looking for when you look at other artists’ work? Which shows, performances and experiences have shaped your own creative process? Who are your maestros? Whose journey would you want to read about?
I like artwork that are visually striking and appealing, that’s what draws me in. I admire a vast range of works – from masters to unknowns – that either have a strong emotional connect or inspire thinking. Skill and technical perfection is something I admire strongly – though I am more interested in the content of the piece.
I have no particular artists who are my personal maestros, but I admire so many from Ramkinkar Baij, Frida Kahlo, Dali, Mrinalini Mukherjee – the list is endless. I see as much contemporary art as possible and love the contemporary art coming out of Pakistan and Iran.
What according to you is the primary role of an artist in society?
I have a very broad definition of what the role of an artist is. I accept multiple ways – artists as creators of beauty, as conscience-keepers, as documenters and chroniclers of their times, as political voices, as rebels, etc are all ways of being an artist.
How do you balance art and life?
Honestly, this is a big struggle for me. I don’t know what that balance is. The lines are blurred. I never know when that balance is struck – artists are often full of self-doubt and afraid of life lived in half-measures. I am like that.
What is one imperative piece of advice you would give to someone who is just starting out?
I want to say just do your art and forget the rest, but that wouldn’t be true. Every artist wants to be seen, to be gratified, to have an income…it’s tough. I am an artist out of compulsion, not out of choice, so I don’t know how one chooses to be an artist.
‘Success’ is a very relative term and everyone needs to define it for themselves. Personal gratification does not come without some amount of external validation, unfortunately. I realized very late in life that if you want conventional success in art, there is a two-fold formula – keep working and networking!
Are you collaborative by nature? What are the some of the formative collaborations you have been a part of?
I feel I am collaborative, but I find that many of my peers are not. I love people, I would love to do collaborations, but have somehow not found the right artists. Am actively seeking the experience and am currently working out a collaborative project between 6 Indian and international artists in Goa next year.
Tell us about your decade long journey with Quasi-ritual.
The Quasi-Ritual series came to me in a phase where I had announced I am an atheist (since then I have changed to Agnostic). I was rebelling against all the rituals I saw around me that I perceived as misogynistic or regressive. Around the time, I had a profound experience while diving under water and seeing huge coral reefs and that defined what was divine for me. So I took materials of worship and ritual and started doing my own nonsense rituals, making biomorphic forms like coral in a repetitive, ritualistic act. It made complete sense in my head. I got the best of the scientifically positive benefits of being engaged in repetitive acts like jhaap or chanting, without alienating anyone.
How did you deal with the conceptual difficulty and uncertainty of setting out to create something that no one else has aspired to?
When you believe in something, it doesn’t seem difficult. My own conviction is clear and strong and therefore I don’t find it difficult. You are kind in saying no one else has aspired to do so, but I don’t think I am alone in such efforts.
What is the one question you wished people asked you but never do?
“Why don’t you work with one medium and theme like many artists do?”
How does your interaction with a client, curator or gallery evolve from the (brief) initial interface, to the working-involvement-relationship? How would you feel about commissions?
I think there has to be mutual respect. For example, I had been refusing commissions for years because I need artistic freedom after a brief and dimensions are given. I found that when someone is paying beforehand, they feel they can interfere in the creative process – I find that disrespectful. Recently, I did a commissioned work for an ad agency after years because there was a complete match of intent, understanding, creative freedom and professionalism.
I have been invited for multiple shows by the same curators for the same reasons – respect for each other’s practice and vision and professionalism. The rest does not matter.
Way forward. What are you working on now? What’s coming next?
I have just returned from Japan after a wonderful residency and Biennale participation. As my active parenting days are over and I have the time, I want to do a lot more of such experiences now. I am also working on my next solo and starting a residency programme – exciting times!
Before you go – you might like to browse our Artist Interviews. Interviews of artists and outliers on how to be an artist. Contemporary artists on the source of their creative inspiration.