Living in metropolitan cities can be a disorienting experience. With the constant construction and destruction of our surroundings, these cities that we inhabit come with evolution, changes and the corresponding feelings that are hard to document. Artist Sudhir Patwardhan has captured these incessantly altering atmospheres through out his life with an understanding of class, caste and identity.
As he showcases his new exhibition, ‘Cities: Built, Broken’, at Vadehra Art Gallery, we talk to him about the city of Mumbai and on his attempt at showcasing lives in crowds and transformations.
Your work often delves into the human condition, particularly through the lens of class struggles and social tensions. How do you approach portraying these issues through emotional and psychological depth?
I think the starting point is the empathy one feels for the people one sees around one, just for the way they are. Understanding their life through the lens of class, caste, identity etc follows this initial attraction. Hence the portrayal of the social aspects of their life and their struggles, even if foregrounded, is always underlaid by an emotional involvement.
Your exhibition includes a wide range of works, from large-scale canvases to smaller drawings. How does the scale of a piece influence you and your decision to make a certain art piece?
There are various things that influence the choice of size and medium. At times one just wants to do small works, at others, one feels like doing something big. This is apart from the subject in mind. But more often, the subject will dictate the size. The subjects of the larger sized works in this exhibition have demanded that size. Some of the smaller canvases could have been larger – the subject suggested a larger size – but I felt painting that subject in a smaller size added something to the image. The intimate sketch book sized pencil drawings could not have been any other size or medium. But one can surprise oneself by just doing something in the wrong size. So, I think it is a rather fluid situation with size and medium. Not like one always knows for sure what size and medium one should work an idea in. And then there is the simple thing of want you have at hand to work on and with, and your studio size!
Given the recurring theme of alienation in your work, how do you see art as a vehicle for addressing or reflecting societal disconnection in the modern world?
That’s a tricky question. Do I see alienation as a theme in my work? In interpreting my own work post facto I could use the term ‘alienation’ just as others use it to describe aspects of my work. Similarly, I can see ‘art as a vehicle for addressing or reflecting societal disconnection’ as you say. But do I set out to depict ‘alienation’? I would say no. I set out, each time, to find the painterly equivalent of some particular experience. It may happen that these experiences fall into a recurring pattern, but for me they are particular. So the question is difficult to answer as an artist. The artist does not see his work as a vehicle, but as an end in itself. But accepts that the work can have ramifications. On the other hand, as someone thinking about art in general, one can read recurring themes in any artists work and interpret the state of that society or the human condition in terms of these themes.
As someone who has spent decades observing the changing landscape of Mumbai, how do you envision the future of the city? What do you think is lost in the process of its constant transformation?
Right now Mumbai seems to be undergoing exponential change. Parts of the city are becoming totally new and different, very high tech and jazzy. For most people these are experienced as ‘things’ descended from above, not as organic growths. To some this is thrilling, to others it is disorienting. But many parts of Mumbai will mostly remain the same or benefit only trickle-down changes. For people in these parts the sense of ‘this city’, ‘our city’ will continue. For a new generation of ‘haves’ the history of this once industrial city and its social fabric will have no meaning. The experience of the city is so different for different classes of people that it is not easy to generalise. For me it was possible earlier to imagine ‘our city’ and its problems, as inclusive of all citizens and migrants. That has become very difficult.
What do you hope people will take away from 'Cities: Built, Broken'—both about the city and about themselves as individuals living in it?
In all these flyovers and metro lines being laid, and it seems to take forever, I hope viewers will see and recognise the present that is trampled in the name of the future. Not that one wants to propose another way, but a note must be made of this present experience. Most works in ‘Cities : Built, Broken’ are rooted in Mumbai, but the exhibition is not just about Mumbai. The contrast between the hype and euphoria that is created around extravagant development and the nightmarish destruction of cities in other parts of the world strikes one hard. One can’t and should not keep these two apart. The anxiety this generates needs to be held on to. Lastly, the portrayal of people, as in the drawings and in ‘Just People’ is a reminder of who we are – caring, uncaring, hating, yet carrying on.
Words Paridhi Badgotri
Date 07.02.2025