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An artist’s touch From Latika Katt’s work

Your 60th birthday coincided with the opening of your show. What has the journey as an Indian sculptor been like?

Sculpture is a man’s world and it has not been an easy journey. They said Indian girls can’t do sculpture. What is this Indian, western? Girls are girls. I remember that I used to work four times more than my class mates simply to prove that I could do it. I have worked continuously for five days and five nights – all the other men and workers collapsed.

Most of your work tends to deal with nature, with the organic or the fecund. Why so?

That was my father’s contribution in my life. He was a botanist. I have observed nature very closely. I have done very little figurative work as I prefer the jungle and forest to people. I just think that the human mind is a little crooked. You might interact with people with a clean mind but they often exploit you. With nature you know there is never going to be an ill treatment.

After my husband Balbir went missing I was treated like trash. It was a second setback. I had made a work “Sati” in happier times which showed that when a man dies the woman does not have the right to live. Then I faced the same situation myself. At least I was educated. Can you imagine if it had been a woman from the village?

In this show we have discovered Latika the photographer. How did the interest in photography come about?

The photographs on show were shot between 1979 and 1999. In 1979, I joined Banaras Hindu University as a lecturer. There was a lot of hostility against me. There were posters, my studios were burnt because I worked all night. I think people were insecure. I wanted to get away from all the trouble and shoot what was happening. I used to pick up Balbir’s camera – a Pentax - and go to the Ganga.

Varanasi has played a special role in your life?

Living in Varanasi meant being closer to death. Death has never scared me. But it has always kept me alert with the belief that nothing is permanent. I think we tend to take ourselves too seriously. When you sit by the river side you realise you are a small particle on this planet.

Do you tend to privilege some things over others and if so which ones and why?

My favourite is bronze as well as the most non-saleable item now - cow dung. I discovered cow dung out of desperation. I had joined the Baroda College of Arts when my father passed away. I did not want to take money from anybody so I sold everything. One morning, I was wondering what to do when I saw a hut with beautifully textured cow dung. I brought a bucket, collected the cow dung and made these huge reliefs.

My all time favourite is bronze because it just takes me back to Mohenjodaro. It tells you about the history of mankind. It has been so beautifully discovered by human beings to transform their ideas into a permanent medium.

You have to fight a lot in the initial years to understand the medium. Working with the medium is like taming a wild horse. I can boast that I can tame any horse – whether they are men or whether they are material.

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