Jagannath Panda, Sculptor
The first time Jagannath Panda, a young sculptor from Odisha, visited Delhi in 1989, the city felt foreign. He remembers,“It was very different from the places I had seen. After finishing Baroda Art School, I had wanted to either go to Mumbai or live in Ahmedabad. Instead, my teacher Raghav Kaneria asked me to move to Delhi. So did my other teacher, Dina Nath Padhi, who was then the secretary of the Lalit Kala Akademi.” And in this city of immigrants, another Delhiite was born. The scholarship from the Akademi helped Panda sustain himself and his art in a small Lakshmi Nagar house. For him, big is real, and he thought his search for studio space large enough to accommodate his huge stone sculptures had ended. He had only `2,000 in his pocket, most of which he spent on buying colours and stationery. “I am suddenly talking about my past. It seems like an era gone by,” he says, voice choking in his throat. But he found he needed more space.
Back then the city offered unknown artists very few opportunities. Gallery spaces were the domain of veterans such as K G Subramaniam, Anjolie Ela Menon and Ranjendra Tikku. “Exhibitions were not an everyday event. I could barely speak Hindi.” Using his chisel on stone blocks in the confines of his house was becoming increasingly difficult. “Eventually Padhiji offered to share his place with me, and I got enough space to start work. But it wasn’t easy going. Many galleries rejected my work.”
Panda feels good about the vibrant and growing art scene in Delhi. But he sees devil in the details. “One thing that hasn’t changed in 20 years is the availability of a platform for artists to sell their work. Survival is still difficult.” He has become one of the fittest.
Curious Delhi fact: People offering to share food, “Aaa jao khana khaalo” but never meaning it
Ideal luxury: Gadgets to store my images and work
Turning point of your career: Japan Foundation Scholarship earned soon after settling in Delhi