CHENNAI : The distinction between art and artist slowly dissolved as Thasil Suhara Backer began his solo performance. An alumnus of Intercultural Theatre Institute, Singapore, Thasil made each move with the flexibility of a dancer while his face narrated the turbulent journey of an artist through his own memories and the collective memory of the society.
Titled The Manifesto, Thasil’s performance marked the culmination of a group show named Landspaces held at the Art Houz studio in Nungambakkam from July 5 to July 10. Curated by visual artist G Vignesh, Landspaces focussed on the interwoven connection between land and life. “Before humans breathe, Before the cities were born from the civilisation’s womb, There was she to mother them all, The land as was called,” read the introduction to the show. It included paintings, sculptures, woodcut prints and photographs by ten artists hailing from different parts of the country.
The Manifesto
As the performance progressed, religious chants like ‘Jai Sri Ram’ and ‘Allahu Akbar’, and political slogans echoed in the background. The artist picked up a bundle of papers and threw it at the spectators. The papers were copies of one of the earliest art manifestos in the world — Art and Swadeshi — penned by Ananda K Coomaraswamy, the famous Sri Lankan-American philosopher and art critic, who contributed immensely to bring indigenous artworks of Indian subcontinent to the attention of Westerners. An art manifesto is a public declaration of the intentions and views of an artist or an art movement.
“Coomaraswamy talked a lot about indigenous artists and their importance to the Indian society. He took pride in the rich art history of the Orient. Coomaraswamy saw artists and their works beyond any religious or communal divide. Through my performance, I wanted to express my anguish at the way artworks and artist are being labelled on religious and communal lines in India and across the world these days,” said Thasil, who set the stage for his performance in between the spaces where works of the ten artists were exhibited.
As the performer made his move across the gallery space, the background score changed between his own thoughts and political and religious slogans. The performance came to a climax when the artist blindfolded himself and walked out of the space amid a background of loud sloganeering.
The curator’s note
With his first independent art show just getting over, curator of Landspaces, V Vignesh plans to take the show to other cities in the country. “I have been planning this show for the last one year. Land is the underlying theme in all the works we showcased here. Nowadays, we are seeing the land being glorified for political purposes while the farmers owning the same land struggle to survive. The participating artists of this show attempted to tell their own experiences about land in an audacious way,” he said, adding that Thasil’s performance on the ‘land’ where the other artists exhibited their works, synchronised well with the theme of the show.