Thursday 27 September 2012

“…Through my work I like to question, for instance, a human ability to handle ugliness; and why it shouldn’t? To what extent a human being could digest ugliness?”…


“…Through my work I like to question, for instance, a human ability to handle ugliness; and why it shouldn’t? To what extent a human being could digest ugliness?”…
An upcoming talent from Mumbai, Deven Bane has a free flowing, gushing energetic creativity that he projects through his sarcastic and critical yet thoughtful visual and wordy comments that he makes in his mutilated figures; the higher version of Doodling. For Deven Bane, Doodling turns into art and his art represents current global society. Let’s review his energetic start of career through his interview. 

JK.: Doodling basically projects care free attitude, what inspired you to develop it as a serious art?
 D.B.: Earlier I did only portraits. Though the overall body of work was ugly and in that sense beautiful at the same time to me, I did call them heads, as they ended up with two vertically parallel strokes to give a feeling of neck or a tilted face. But I felt some blankness in them as they did not actually resemble any human being; I just thought those should. And they were just mere doodlings, I thought maybe I could give it a try, working with softwares and converting this absurd game of finding faces in doodles and using them on photographs of any person. And the result was  quite  wonderful , so I kept on making them,  doodling just happened and it became prominent  when I started working on magazine covers , I thought I might get sued  for  working on their  copyrights, so at first attempt I just ignored them or  rather just deleted them from my  work, but in that process I thought I could just use these titles or may be  convert them into comments ,or use them as my own  subjects, the subjects which just strike me randomly. 

JK.:  Do you personally feel your creations are buoyant/ cheerful?
D.B.: To a certain extent yes, they are; but it all depends on the type of image I am working on at a particular of time and whatever I work on them. They are all taken from  my  past experiences or the conversations which I had or read  or just from the mere cracking of jokes that I remember while chatting with my friends  just instances that come to my mind at that point of time. I present them or sometimes play with them or sometimes the result is absurd with no connections whatsoever.

 JK.: Do they have any message or are they just visual treats?
D.B.: Yes they do have, because when I digitally or sometimes manually manipulate these portraits, the portraits of men and women who are already well powered or famed, I try to create an action which definitely is not adorable or attractive. And yes, through my work I like to question, for instance, a human ability to handle ugliness; and why it shouldn’t? To what extent a human being could digest ugliness? Why does only beauty survive and what is the real beauty? Why such polished faces are hammered for many years and so on…These things just come to my mind while working, also I am still working on them. I think doodling sometimes does give a childish and uncanny or a humorous touch to the work.   wink

JK.: Which personalities have influenced you?
D.B.: Many…Souza was the first and the biggest influence. Initially   I was not able to understand  his works but definitely was amazed by looking at his body of work, so I just  read  whatever I could find about him in books or on internet, then  I  also liked the works of Duchamp, Frank Auerbach, Glenn Brown,Chad Wyss, Rosemary Cronin. I have this  stubborn  approach  for searching artists on net  when I come and stop at a certain  phase  of my work . Whenever I feel that my works are taking a slight turn in visual sense, I do read about them or do some R&D if I find them interesting, but whatever is the result I continue my process. Such R&D just makes me aware of my contemporaries or gives me a direction ahead.

 JK.: Do you like any of your contemporaries?
D.B.: Yes, there are many like,  Sudarshan Shetty, Manjunath Kamath, Atul Dodhiya, Yashwant Deshmukh, Nasreen Mohmmedi,Nikhil Chopra, Rashid Rana, Valson Koorma Koleri, Ritesh Meshram , Sreyas karle, Prajakta Potnis,Tushar Jog and even most recent artist almost of my age if u would ask , I like  few works of Ubik, Vikas Holle, Pratap Morey  and Bhuvanesh Gowda and  many more.

JK.: Tell us about your creative process.
D.B.:  I work on canvas, lenticular prints, magazine ads and their cuttings. It all starts by taking an image and then working accordingly using their scripts and compositions. I try to create some kind of link of my past experiences and actions, I try to memorize them which might be even foolish sometimes, or some kind of jokes shared at any instances. I match them with the image or sometimes overlap them on the picture or even tease or make funny comments on it. I try to destroy the basic pattern, once I feel that the image had enough of it I stop and try to have a look on the next day .the next day even might add something to the work I also try to play with the scripts or the writings that are there on it, I just shuffle the alphabets; sometimes they are absurd or even sometimes a comment. 

 JK.: Have you ever had any compliment or critical remark on your work? 
D.B.: Yes, I met and showed my works to a few artists. And  some  said that the works were quite women centric, or it should  have some political or racial stand , I can’t just say that how it would turn out next  or to what extent it will go , but yes I am still  working .    

JK.: Which genre of films or book do you prefer? 
D.B.: I like to watch all kinds of films and same is with books. Books with lots of experiences in it and also non- fiction types are a fun to read.   

JK.:  Any big bang plans in near future? 
D.B.: Still working…just getting to know few things every day.   

JK.: Do you believe in becoming guiding star after 50 years?
D.B.: I’ll b happy if I live that much, I am 27 now, and then I will be 77. Just awesome!

  JK.: One liner- Your approach towards life.    

 D.B.: Just trying my best to be outstanding