Infusing meaning into everything ordinary

Choiti Ghosh questions hierarchies through object theatre

Object theatre artiste Choiti Ghosh.

In Choiti Ghosh’s world, every object sings out with meaning and magic. Be it a broken hairbrush or threadbare glove, she channels a kind of charm into them, introducing you to an all-new level of ideation and understanding.

The puppeteer and object theatre artiste says her art has a very subjective edge. “Object theatre is all about infusing ordinary things with meaning, it lets the magic flow out of things not typically meant for that. It uses an object to communicate an idea, something totally unexpected out of their mundaneness. There is magic in everything, you just need to stop and look,” she says.

She was in the city recently to hold a workshop for children at the 8 Point Art Cafe here.

Ms. Ghosh says she disturbs hierarchies of importance through her art, adding value to the banal.

“I try to change the concepts of ordinary and premium, matchless and mass-produced, functional and dysfunctional. The simple, routine act of peeling and chopping potatoes can be interpreted in a volley of ways,” she adds, explaining the symbolism involved. As she talks about the tuber’s ‘transformation’ ending up in a fancy chips packet, you can’t help wondering ‘isn’t it too intense for children?’ “You will be very surprised, but it’s not. In fact, children have been more receptive of symbolic concepts.”

She talks about her theatre production

Dhaba where all the characters are vegetables. “It has been just eggplants so far and suddenly one potato enters which goes on to become the ‘other’. And in one scene the potato and brinjal come together changing the menu of the dhaba to include ‘mixed veg.’It was a child among the audience who first shouted

shaadi ho gayi (they got married),” she says.

Trained in object theatre from Institut International de la Marionnette in France, Choiti has taken her art to many places across India.

In 2011, she started Tram Theatre that specialises in object theatre, and “we continue to popularise Object Theatre in India through our fun, experimental style and content.”