Mallika Das Sutar & Bhabotosh Sutar

Colette Copeland
May 2020

The seventh in a series of conversations with artist couples delving into how they are
surviving the pandemic times.

White Cube project, organized by Chander Haat, 2020

Email conversation with Mallika Das Sutar and Bhabotosh Sutar

CC: Tell me about the artist community that you live in. How did you get involved ? How many artists reside there? What is the mission of the community ?

BS: We had a dream during our student years. We wanted to have an art space for ourselves where we could work together. Since then we started planning to create this art space. Tarun Dey, our mentor and teacher was the one who showed us this dream and he was the one who taught us how to stick to this dream for a long time. Over the years, some of us joined art colleges and after graduation, we immersed ourselves completely into the process of fulfilling our collective dream. Finally, in 2008 we bought a 30,000 sq ft. plot of land in our locality and started building the collective art space which we fondly named ‘Chander Haat’. (author note–Chander Haat roughly translates into the place where the moon and people meet–I interpret this as a magical place indeed.)

Since its inception, artists from Chander Haat have been organising various art projects within the community and locality.

Recently we did an interesting project named “White Cube[s]” right before the covid-19 outbreak. It was a one day project curated by artists from Chander Haat and a couple of artists from Spain and Romania . We made 33-35 cubicle-like structures and covered them with white cloth. These cubes resembled police kiosks where only one or two people could enter at the same time. We carried the cubicles to our nearby village Bagpota. The concept of this unique project was to bring art to the community and to bridge the gap between the artist and viewer. This project reflected an amazing collaborative spirit between artists and the viewers, fully engaging the viewers in the work.

White Cube project, organized by Chander Haat, 2020

MDS: For the last fifteen years I have been living with my fellow artists and family in Chander Haat which is a community of artists who practice art in different media in their own individualistic way. The place is a unique combination of both urban and rural life situated within the heart of the metropolitan city of Kolkata, India. We have residential and five working studios within the Community, which is surrounded by greenery all around, maintaining the flavour of rurality. We also have an artist residency program for artists from around the world. The guest residents either collaborate with the artists of Chander Haat or work on their own projects within this quiet surrounding. Currently, 15 artists are working together in Chander Haat .

We as an artist community support art which is innovative and experimental in theme and execution. Some of our artists engage themselves in the annual public art festival in form of the religious occasion of the “Durga Puja” in Kolkata. We indulge our unique artistic senses in creating our own artistic spectacle in form of huge installation works within the Pandals (where the Hindu Goddess is installed and where people come to worship) that are displayed all across the streets of Kolkata. These artistic exhibits are seen by millions of people who come from all over the country. It is almost like road carnival. Bhabatosh Sutar is a pioneer in this scope of work.

CC: How has covid-19 and the quarantine impacted your artistic practice both conceptually and technically?

Druga Idol (Public Art Festival 2018), rice straw, paper pulp, rope and bamboo

BS: Watching the global news on television, we could guess that Covid-19 would soon impact India as well. Eventually we were quarantined like the rest of the world. Since then, we have been in lockdown, confined to our homes.

As an installation artist, it is good to have free time for myself. I always complained about not getting enough time to read books, listen to music or write down my thoughts regarding work. For more than two decades, this time of the year is the busiest when I am heavily preoccupied with preparing for the annual Durga Puja Public Art Festival. Now, that I am confined to Chander Haat, I find comfort and solace by reading as many books as possible and also exploring newer ideas and themes through my art practice.

MDS: My artistic practice has changed a bit during this time of lockdown. I am a teacher and spend most of my time at school. Amid this quarantine, I have a lot of time to work on my own art practice and also explore new media. I am also spending more time with my son, helping him with his school work and studies.

Social Distance, Mallika Das Sutar, dry leaves, ink, thread on handmade paper, Lockdown 2020

For me, the meaning of lockdown is quite different. Being surrounded by greenery all the time in Chander Haat, I very rarely have the feeling of actual confinement. I am utilizing each and every minute of this “lockdown” to observe nature up close. I have time to see how birds gather dry grass, sticks and other materials to build their nest where they lay eggs. We have a tree within the campus where bees make their honeycomb and we collect honey. I am trying to capture these activities on camera. I have seen on television how animals are reclaiming the world by walking fearlessly on streets. It seems as if nature is finally relaxing after centuries of human atrocities.

At that same time, I see news of how the daily wage labourers are getting stuck in different states of our country due to this sudden lockdown. They have lost their jobs and are unable to return home. Some are walking 200km-700km with their family. It is strange how a microscopic creature in the form of a virus has shaken the whole of mankind and pushed them to the brink of an extreme existential crisis . It is time we rethink and cultivate our work. Faced with this crisis I wonder ,what will happen to our artistic expressions?

CC: What’s been the most challenging part of the quarantine time for you ?

BS: Even before lockdown, my life was confined within the walls of my studio. I enjoy staying and working for long hours within my studio. As a result, I do not feel much change in my regular life. Having said that, I must mention that just before lockdown, I started working on a huge installation, which required a team of workers assisting on the project. Now that no transport is available, they are unable to come and as a result I had to postpone the entire project.

Threads Work on Coconut Husk, Mallika Das Sutar, Lockdown 2020

MDS: Like other artists, quarantine is a difficult time in terms of procuring art materials from shops or ordering them online. As a result, I decided to make some organic paper for drawing. Whatever I picked from our garden, I used as the medium in my art work. Initially it was challenging for me to make paper from rice straw, banana husk , grass etc. as this was the very first time I tried to make use of the natural world in my work. We have several coconut trees in our garden. I collected the coconut bark husk from those trees and started to work on them. After few days of exploration, I finally made appropriate use of these natural materials and started to work with them. Though these felt like challenges in the beginning, I ultimately feel very happy and comforted to have worked with nature and been able to redefine my artistic expression. This might be the beginning of my new journey to explore art in different manner.

CC: What are you strategies for staying sane and not getting on your partner‘s nerves during these time ?

BS: Now that we both are at home in Chander Haat all the time, we are getting to spend lot of time together. We have the time and space where we can share our very different thoughts with each other all the time.

MDS: Mornings are the best time of the day to share our thoughts, desires and activities with each other. We have always believed in discussing each and every topic with each other. However, when it comes to any heated discussion or any argument, I choose to keep quiet.

Where the Mind is Without Fear, Mallika Das Sutar, thread on organic paper, Lockdown 2020

Mallika Das Sutar completed her Bachelor of Visual Arts from Rabindra Bharati University (2002) and Masters of Visual Arts in 2004. Since the year 2003, her works have been regularly exhibited in solo and group exhibitions at different galleries in India. Her work was featured in the 18th Asian Art Biennale 2018, 5th Bangkok Triennale International 2019, “Pushing Boundaries”Germany (Bonn) 2015.

She is the recipient of Best Painting Award from Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata 2014, Best Painting Award Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata 2010, Best Painting Award from Rajya charukala Parshad, 2014, Best Painting Award titled Reflection of Another Day, Kolkata 2005, 2006 & 2009, Certificate of Merit from Academy of Fine Arts, Kolkata 2008, Nirod Baran Memorial Award, Rabindra Bharati, Kolkata 2004, Bhutnath Mukherjee Smriti Puraskar, Rabindra Bharati, Kolkata 2014. Her works are in collection in India and abroad.

Bhabotosh Sutar graduated from the Government College of Art & Craft, Kolkata. His works have, been regularly exhibited at different galleries in Kolkata, New Delhi and Mumbai. He has participated in the group show organized by the High Commission of India in Dhaka, Bangladesh where young artists from both nations displayed their works on the same platform.

He is the recipient of the Best Sculpture Award -2008 at the Annual Show of the Birla Academy of Art & Culture, Kolkata. Among the other distinguished accolades, he has received the Academy Award and Sukumar Das Award at Annual Exibition of Academy of Fine Arts for painting, Best painting award of Paschim Bongo Rajya Charukala Pradarshani, Kolkata. He was given a scholarship from the National Academy of Art, Lalit Kola Akademi, New Delhi in 2002. His works are in collection at a wide range both in India and abroad. He has actively involved in making pandal architecture/temporary architecture.

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Colette Copeland is a multimedia visual artist/writer whose work examines gender, death and contemporary culture. Sourcing personal narratives and popular media, she uses video, performance and installation to question societal roles and media’s influence on enculturation. Her experimental videos employ absurdist humor to explore the landscape of human relationships. She loves all things Dada and Fluxus with a big splash of subversive humor.

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