There was palpable excitement in the rarefied air of the National Gallery of Modern Art as two well-known singers – Subhadra Desai (Hindustani) and Sudha Raghuraman (Carnatic) walked in to hold a conversation with visual arts. “I have never thought of analysing music – as a conversation with visual arts,” said Subhadra. “Ours is a performing art, something that is born, processed and dies all in the course of a performance,” remarked Sudha. Prompted and facilitated by The Hindu , the artists decided to conduct the experiment, quite appropriate for celebrating World Music and Yoga Day.
While cultural traditions factored in International days have their own critical historical discourses, the unprecedented impact of social media has convinced many artists, engaged in serious arts, to negotiate their creativity in the competing global market. To mark the day, the articulation in the unknown territory by the two knowledgeable and talented classical artists yielded fascinating facets.
Theirs was a repertoire rooted in the Indian ethos and their interaction was with eight artworks from the world of contemporary Indian Art, much of which emerged from within the frame of the colonial context. To three artworks defined by abstract content, their response was re-imagining the paintings as nayak- nayikas (psychological emotive categorisations of heroes-heroines in Indian aesthetics). In another three, where there were actual forms. Subhadra and Sudha matched the essence in imaginative, impromptu patterns of formless melodious sounds of alaap, and taanam. The first is a series of notes strung together to display the development of the raga and its melodic arrangement and the second a form of impromptu improvisation.
The NGMA programme called the ‘Artwork of the month’ featured a stunning painting titled “June” by Neo-Tantric artist – Biren De (cover photograph). To which Sudha Raghuraman responded, “It is full of energy – catching the red and orange of the afternoon sun; the 16 division markings in the middle correspond to a cycle of eight beats. Normally, in Carnatic music unlike the Hindustani, we do not follow the time of the day, but the afternoon raga Vrindavani Sarang in Carnatic music is apt for the occasion.” In her singing, one heard the strokes patterned first as ‘chalan’ and then by taanam. Sudha’s tonal variation yearned to align the male-female energy intended by the painter.
Decoding the movement
Painting by M F Pithawala
Soon, the waves of the four strings of the tanpura (drone) served to open the ears and drive the consciousness to another awareness. Subhadra’s resonant voice proceeded to decode the movement of energy seen in the neo-tantric painting. Woven in Raga Bhairavi, she chose to design the flight by presenting three mantras from the philosophical text of Taittiriya Brahmana. “The painting represents Indian colours – the vibrancy caught in yellow, purity in white, and sacred in ochre. I hear the sound of India and resounding essence of the energies encapsulated in Agni – Fire, Surya – Sun and emerging from four directions . The energy of fire resides in speech, the speech is lodged in the heart where reigns the ‘I’. The ‘I’ turn dissolves in the Brahman or ultimate reality. The energised sun is in the eyes, the eyes in the heart, the heart swims in nectar (amrit), and the nectar is intrinsic to Brahman. The energies in the ‘directions’ are lodged in the ears that reside in the heart, that dissolves in the nectar to be found in the ultimate truth – Brahman.”
Putting the visual art in perspective, art historian Roobina Karode said that Biren De “…was interested in the concept of energy and its potency captured in luminous effects, painting subtly its dispersion and diffusion. A generation of visual artists in the 20th Century moved away from formal/figural representation, inspired by music which was considered to be in a ‘state of pure abstraction,’ communicating directly with the soul by evoking emotional responses. There are visual rhythm and reverberation of cosmic sound and light in De’s paintings. Artists such as Roerich and others evoked the same mysterious and metaphysical states of being through their painted landscapes.”
The warmth of the day energies of the Neo-tantric painting was replaced by coolness and night as the singers proceeded to respond to the apotheosis of the tangible Himalayas by the Russian painter Roerich. The silhouettes of the mountains and lakes amidst tinted blue and brown some against ghost-like homes and mystical energies of a moon provoked a tinted conversation between the two singers through aalap in Raga Bhairav by Subhadra and in raga Shubhapantuvarali by Sudha. They aspired to capture the sense of a primordial mystery, of oneness, boundlessness, and peace. The paintings of the mountains (both painted and sung) are as Kapila Vatsyayana once described was “about exploring (since) there can only be circumambulation of the mountain in its landscape. The experience of the mountain itself is a revelation, a darshan a vision, a consecrated mandala of the yogic journey.”
From form and formless
Raghuraman and Desai proceeded to interact individually with selected paintings. To the representation of the “Tree blown amidst a storm” by Rabindranath Tagore, Subhadra imagined in Raga Shudh Sarang – the appearance of a beautiful moon bodied Nayika shaken and struck by cupid’s arrow “Albeli Naar suhaave…Chandra badan dyuti kundal dal ki, madan kamaan chalve…”
Sudha, on the other hand, encountering a painting titled ‘Mallan’, a gardener by M.F. Pithawalla reacted by singing a Padam. Her lilting voice spoke of a Nayika telling her sakhi (friend) of her disappointment of her lover not turning up despite making sweet promises. The oil painting depicted an ethnically bejewelled ‘native’ woman.
The standing water can at the back, and her leaning against the wall communicated her lonesome disposition which was caught by Sudha’s rendering. Pithawalla is remembered for the album commissioned for Queen Mary on her Indian visit in 1911.
As the journey progressed, it was intriguing that while the bhava (emotion) dominated the rendition of the Hindustani singer ; intricate patterning of mathematical designs characterised the thought of Carnatic vocalist who expressed, “the encounter with paintings provides a fascinating stage to innovate. I bring the brush of my music to create painted sounds and it’s thrilling that I can reconfigure mathematics in the journey of swaras (notes).”
The painting by Jyoti Swaroop had Sudha singing a Korvai which in the Carnatic music is based on organising the notes as complex mathematical combinations of threes, fives, and sevens. The phrases are some long, some short. Swaroop’s art reflected geometric, cubist shapes presenting an effect of polychrome metal foil incorporate angles that serve to capture light, lend tone and energy to the mathematical forms.
Subhadra interpreted a formless image on seeing the ‘Bird’ by N.S. Bindre. She sang a verse by the Yogi Gorakhnath – “Sidha Bhajo” – “O Yogi Sing the glory of Omkar, the eternal constant sound since the body is but ephemeral. The Atman (soul) is a witness to this churning day and night. Hold the five elements, let go of the three gunas (modes of existence), and submerge the eight senses in the Triveni. O! Hansa bird, the symbol of rational thinking, drink that water of confluence.
The experiment by the two singers illustrated to provide an audio representation of the artistically vivid embodiments captured in the paintings. Their singing mirrored a process of unfolding the tangible form as an intangible experience.
From the temporal to naad brahm (sound reality of the truth). The melody of the seen performed through the imagination of two minds and two genres of music. The meditative pondering by the performing artists was Yoga. Yoga – emerging from the root word yuj (to join) joins the body with the mind through breath – and then to perform as re-painted audio canvases.
Sound of image, resonance of space
Seasoned sculptor Adwaita Gadanayak, director of NGMA, chose an experiential space called the Meditation hall to interact with the two classical singers. The space forms a seminal part of a forthcoming exhibition on the art of Upendra Maharathi. Gandanayak introduced the singers to the artist and to the space. “Maharathi, along with other artists like Nand Lal Bose, were closely associated with Mahatma Gandhi. On one occasion, like a true painter, Gandhi coxed the artists to respond to a query: ‘How do you sweep the floor? Does the broom make circles? Does your broom move in long strokes on the ground, or in short brush strokes?” Gandanayak narrated that Maharathi, along with others, engaged as a creative community with the National movement. For example, they worked with the Bavan Booti weavers of Bihar and contributed to the cause and display of artistic skills in the 1940 Congress session in Ramgarh (Bihar). The director, bemoaned, that today there is a difference and discrepancy between those large number of artists perceived as ‘craftsmen’ and others as artists. “Maharathi, like any ‘craftsman’, worked with all materials.” In Gaya, on the occasion of Gandhi’s shradh (an offering made to the manes of any deceased person, on an appointed day after his death.) Upendra Maharathi created a special installation an image that represented enfolding energies of the evolved soul.
The anchoring exhibiting intention of the meditation hall was strategised to capture the evolved mature artist. “Towards the end, Maharathi engaged with Buddhism and became almost a monk,” said Gandanayak. The installation was located at the entry while the three walls of the hall had paintings on the various experiential images of the meditative Buddha.
An epiphany provoked Sudha Raghuraman and Subhadra Desai to communicate the inner sound of the images seen and resonance of the space experienced. The vastness, strength, softness in raga Bhairav by Desai, and the idea of contrasting existence and sublime energies encapsulated in the Panchakshara Strotra by Raghuraman. Said Roobina Karode, “This exercise is an interesting one and an ongoing pursuit with more art forms inter-relating and intersecting with one another; and worthy to examine how varied art forms communicate with each other.”
There were no formal audiences, no percussion, no sounds or light. Yet one felt the spirits of Gandhi and accompanying him on one side it was as if there were the spirits of the master musicians Kumar Gandharva, and O.V Subrahmanian (of Thanjavur Bani); and on the another side some members of progressive greats of the contemporary Indian art – F. N. Souza, S. H. Raza, M. F. Husain, and Tyeb Mehta. As the voice of the singers faded, a tingling breeze blew, one could imagine the vibrations of the spirits applauding and the ears reported the invisible!
