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Articles
Landscapes within your mind
The contemporary artist Archana Hande who recently visited Ladakh, Srinagar and Bhuj, all areas dominated by landscape and marked by a heavy military presence, recounts the experience of traversing through conflict-riddden regions and bureaucratic red-tapes, and the encounters with interesting people.
From the day I joined the art school, to the present day, my relatives, far away relatives, my relatives’ relatives, then my parents’ and brothers’ friends and my non-artists friends, always have a question for me: “Oh! how lucky you are an artist!
what kind of artist? Oh! you paint?
No?
You sculpt?
No?”
Then I try and explain and use all words like conceptual, installation, political, though my mom does it better than me. But whenever I try and update her or correct her, she turns, looks at me and says:
“But the last time you said something else, what, the art theories change so fast?”
After they listen to all the history and geography of what I do, they have a last question:
“So do you paint portraits or landscapes?”
I am sure most of the artists in this world face the same question. But I am definitely interested in painting landscapes after I photograph them.
Studying in Santiniketan which is surrounded with total red Santali landscapes with rash and tadi, witnessing to all the immense documentation by Nandalal, Ramkinker, Binodbihari, KGS and many more through their work…. maybe this was the root for watching and recording landscapes for me.
My recent visit took me to three landscape-dominated places: Ladakh, Srinagar and Bhuj (Rann of Kutch), and interestingly all three are surrounded by interesting conflicts and borders.
Ladakh:
I divide Ladakh into 2 parts:
Ladakh I: Towards Tibet/China (2008)
&
Ladakh II: Towards Pakistan (2009)
I will concentrate on Ladakh II – Leh to Kargil to Zanzkar valley, though this year Ladakh I was/is more in conflict. When I asked a local travel agent about the Pangong Lake, is it safe to go and what about the Chinese invasion, he blankly told me, “Oh they are been doing from years, last year when you guys went there the situation was the same so it is very safe to go.”
Kargil:
Ramzan time in Kargil: the best time to go.
We reach in the evening 6.30 just when the sun is set, and the roads look deserted. I thought to myself it must be time to break the fasting, so people are at home. Our group had all pre-convinced thoughts, looking at the deserted street with all young boys hanging in all small corners staring at us and with huge hoardings of Kumani and the street also named after him. Many questions were raised:
Q1: Oh it is Kargil (association: Kargil war) Muslim zone (as Ladakh I is more of Buddhist, so got used to the monks)
Q2: Why they are all watching us? Is it because we are Hindus or we look outsiders or what?
Q3: Why Kumani here?
Q4: Early morning at 3.30 adhaan started, is it Namaz time? Oh, again, at 4.30 ? Oh noooo, again at 5 am. ? (the group got irritated) Is this a daily routine?
Q5: I think I saw few people came to investigate who we are? They were all standing near that gate at 8.30 pm?
And many more like that. I have answers to all –
What do you expect, Kargil should be filled with monks or Hindus?
What do you expect, young teenagers locked in their house?
So what do expect, young men not watching women?
They were all watching because we were 3 women and one man, all women wearing smart trekking clothes, me having my SLR hanging around my neck, and we all came in an Air Force jeep. So the curiosity was, are they journalists as we didn’t look fit to be in the Air Force.
Why Kumani – Kumani fans are all around the world even in Calcutta so why not dedicate one street to him?
3.30, 4.30 & 5 am in Ramzan period – people have to getup and cook and eat before the morning Namaz which is at 5 am so the mosque acts like an alarm with nice verses sung in the form of: Azaan or adhaan (I don’t know is it called azaan or adhaan? This question arises when you become one of the minority after being one of the majority).
And ultimately it is either real or reel, but lots of pre-conceived ideas help people create a narrative.
Kargil as a landscape is not great quite grey blunt dusty. I am not sure how much was my expectation and so I got disappointment.
To Zanzkar:
If you notice the roads are fantastic, that means the Army is been installed there and operates quite well. So the road towards Zanskar (Zanskar is south of Kargil) is very very bad which means no Army, is it good or bad? You have two choices – Army with good roads or no roads but more relaxed atmosphere, but difficult to travel. Common to both are fantastic landscapes. Reached Rangdum, a small village surrounded by valley. A small J&K Guest House with no water and electricity, but ice-chilled water coming from the hand pump (self service) and in the evening for few hours there is solar light in the rooms. You are in the middle of a deep valley with very less recourse, but there too Maggi 2 Minutes Noodles has reached.
What I found funny in this deep valley is that there is a Doordarshan tower which has lot of solar panels but the village and its surrounding villages are so poor and with no electricity and NO TV, so what is it doing there? And no Army too.
We travelled more towards south and reached Padum, visited a palace Zagla Raja’s Palace. You have to climb the small hill to reach the palace. We didn’t find any proper road, so crawled on a rumble to reach. Few of my friends couldn’t, as they had knee problems. After sometime we saw an old man climbing through some other way. Hhe looked at our friends and said:
Old Man: Hello do you want to visit the palace?
Friend: Yes
Old Man: Come I will take you via human road, as I saw your friends went up in the animal route.
Friend: Do you live here as you know the way so well?
Old Man: I am the King of Zangla.
Friend: You must be joking?
Behind them there was 3 more people coming and they whispered in her ears : no he is right he is the king.
So the king opened the palace for us, couldn't imagine the royal treatment. As I enter, I come across a site-specific installation, intact in one piece. In that deep valley, to find an art installation in the center of the landscape, was an inspiration to live there and do an art work.
It was a cosmic wheel. With computerised feeder data of the research done by Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. You can read about the installation: http://csomasroom.kibu.hu/en/description. It works like a prayer wheel with a small screen animating the data when you revolve the wheel. Done by a bunch of Hungarian architects/artists.
Quote from Sujoy Das (a trekker and photographer) via email:
“The once glorious royal palace is in ruins with the exception of the monastery building. While staying in Zangla, Alexander Csoma de Kőrös lived in this multistoried, Tibetan style, flat roof building. Rows of weather-worn chortens and walls marked with "OM MANI PADME HUNG," the sacred mantra lead up to the building.
In the discrepit interior, one can easily find the room of Alexander Csoma de Kőrös. It is a little room, blackened by smoke, opening from a large hall. The tiny room is marked by a tablet with an inscription written by Baktay Ervin, who found the room in 1923 following the information received from the people living in the village. At the time of his visit, there were many village people who still knew the name Csoma, or at least heard about it. The room itself is not bigger than ten square meter and the door is so low, about 130 cm, that one has to bend low to enter. To many visitors, the bowing of one’s head when entering the room, takes on the significance of a symbolic salutation in front of the greatness of Kőrösi Csoma. During the cold winter months, Csoma was compelled to work without fire because the room didn' t have a chimney (following Tibetan custom) and Csoma would not have been able to work in the dense black smoke. Lama Sangye Püntsog, the Tibetan teacher, recommended to Csoma by Moorcroft owned a house in the village. Kőrösi Csoma arrived to Zangla on June the 26, 1823 and stayed through October 22, 1824.”
This installation has inspired me to do a work which I am now working on.
Srinagar:
As I went around the city it was clear I am a foreigner in that land. Local people were very hospital, welcoming, humble but also convey a message you are an outsider.
Three people followed me to Srinagar: India’s Prime Minister, India’s Congress president and the Rail Minister. For two days I witnessed a total shut down of a city for the security reasons. How a city can come to stillness within minutes is what I could witness. It is also normal to witness a normal Sunday market on the left side of the road and on the right side, Army protecting or stopping the stone throwers. It reminded me of my visit to Kabul. Both the cities share the same feelings same era of music (Hindi films songs till 70s), has less entertainment programs, the same hospitality, warm and cosy, and same security hassles. Though people there argue that the tension in Srinagar now is just 10% of what it was. Kabul and Srinagar also share similar weather, food and the vast beautiful mountain landscape. Yes, Kabul is more dry and cold.
From the driver to the shop keeper informed me : “Bahar ka PM araha he na, iseliye yeah tension he,” translates to: Outside PM is visiting our city so this tension.
I took many photographs, exactly acted like a tourist, the landscapes are still beautiful but many objects added to it, like the Army security force. Not a surprise to any of us. But the Center and the State are always in denial.
Three photographs were submitted to the sponsor of my trip. That evening, the CM visits us, the national artists and checks what we have done in Kashmir:
Works are displayed along with their older collection, security people all around turning and twisting all the canvas to find any kind of explosive. They come near my photographs which were lying on a table on top of a canvas, they pick up the canvas and throw the photographs to the ground – was it necessary? Anyway the idea of art works being delicate or to be handled with care didn’t matter, for me as being in Kashmir, looking at the security hassles, the art works were the most unimportant element, so it was fine with me.
Description of my three works (check photos):
Photo 1: A Muslim family taking a family photo in front of the Pari Mahal landscape.
Photo 2: While photographing the Dal lake, 2 army men came on my way and my camera captured it.
Photo 3: Pari Mahal landscape in background, an army gun point and security barbed wires fence.
It is not a new notion that Army is now part of the conflict landscapes, as the journalist/media has been capturing and reporting this. Interestingly as an artist tourist though I am not focusing on the conflict, by default the camera is capturing it. So many images looks like an approach of a journalist. These places, unfortunately, has been a victim to good and bad photography. The landscape is almost ripped into pieces.
In the middle of the town I found a landscape photo painter, he claims to be the only surviving one. An old man who laughed at my Hindi and requested if I could only speak in English, as I spoke Bihari Hindi and they speak Urdu so his ears must have been hurting when I spoke. He explained us the method of how the photographs were painted and it was almost unbelievable when he said they used oil colors to paint on the black and white photographs until later we realised it was a photo oil ink not our normal oil colors used on the canvas.
The director (quite well established Kashmiri, with good political backing) of the local organisation came and shared few things with me. He said:
“We share the same passion of photography.” Then he looked at the photographs and then gave me a look and told me, “If I were you then I wouldn't show these photographs as the CM is very touchy about these issues.”
I just smiled and said: “Sir, unfortunately I am more touchier than the CM.”
Later I watched, when the CM arrived the organisers saw to it that the images were not visible to the CM. I imagined the CM must be seeing these landscape anyway everyday. The CM had nothing to say, he just made a safe quote: I don’t have an good eye for an art, my Dad has. But never seen a young CM so punctual in his arrival to a function.
The facade should be aesthetically clean – so like Clean Mumbai Green Mumbai we might as well have a campaigning of Clean Kashmir Green Kashmir?
Rann (‘salt marsh’) of Kutch: marshy saline clay desert.
We need a permit to go there, because that leads to the Pakistan borders. From Bhuj to Rann the landscape is filled with Babool plants – supposed to be a waste, it just sucks ground water and doesn’t even store them. The Bbritish wanted some green landscape, so this plant was migrated and planted, but now it has spread all over, and has become part of the landscape. It seems it is good to brush your teeth with and also saw camels eating them, so it is not so bad. Of cource ecologists might have their arguments.
After 2 hours 30 minutes, we reached a place called India Bridge which defines the start of the Rann. As this was my first visit and had not really seen a complete desert, I was too excited. The excitement of looking at just white landscape was quite a dream come true. Oh sorry, forgot to mention the hassle of taking a permission:
.....When I went to Bhuj, I realised not going to Rann would be a huge crime. But then, I came to know we have to have permits, for that, identity cards and our mug shots were needed. Then enquired and realised that who ever wants to go have to show their face to the Deputy Commissioner. Then, picked up the form, went and xeroxed everybody's passport/license (there were 14 of us). Then, we photographed ourselves, submitted everything at 5.25 pm, almost before time, as he would stop taking entries at 5.30 pm. The officer was surprisingly humble and well behaved, he suddenly asked for the original identification card – we rushed back to our hotel, found many had kept it in the hotel locker and the manager had gone home. Made the hotel search for the master key, got all the passports except one. After many requests the officer agreed I take the responsibility of that person and that I know him and his family.
The officer looked at all of us, made us sign and at last at 7 pm we got the permit. I over heard the other officer saying, Oh, is this the group of 95 foreigners who want the permit, and I was wondering if they can give permit to 95, then what is the use of the permit? Or the security?...
So ultimately we reached the bridge and jumped out. The driver said the Army guy will come and check your permit. The Army guy took the permit from my hand looked at it, stared at me and said:
“Madam you have no permission, even for this bridge.”
My red hot blood steamed up and said, but then what is this permit for? I suddenly felt like an uneducated who doesn’t know how to read English – he said this permit is only till the last village you crossed (which was 10 km behind), but that we have visited twice and you don’t need a permit – he agrees and says but this permit is till that village, I am sorry you have to go to the BSF head quarters and take a permission. Whatever be the good things or impression I had of the well-behaved officer who gave us the permission, at that moment I would have strangled his neck for sure.
By then he saw my friend walking cooly on the bridge, so he screamed, “Hello Sir, are you a special person in this earth to walk on that brigde?”
We just saw the beginning of the Rann and had to photograph in a way as though we are in the middle of the desert.
In the end I always have few queries so this time my queries are:
Is this Army man a special person in this earth to enjoy this landscape? How far was the borders to make such a mess – 85 km minimum from the gate. So now I imagined how they where actually giving everybody the permits so easily without hassling anybody.
Is there a way to save these heritage landscape from the borders, can we shift them?
But one thing became clear in my head. Yes, I am and always want to be a landscape artist with or without borders.
(Archana Hande is a visual artist who lives and works in Mumbai and Bangalore. She holds a BFA in Print Making from Viswa Bharati, Santiniketan and MFA (Print Making) from M.S.University, Baroda. Her mixed media installation project, ‘Victoria House’ (2006, Act 4, Rethinking Nordic Colonialism: A Postcolonial Exhibition Projects in Five Acts, NIFCA, Finland) had explored the elements of colonialism still found within the five port cities of India which had served as main gateways to India for the colonial forces. Email: archana_hande@yahoo.com )
