By Ila Ananya
“I always knew I wanted to be an artist, I was just waiting for something to say. Something I wanted to discuss. Something I wanted to address,” says Smruti Gargi Eswar, an artist based out of Bangalore and Delhi, about her journey into art. Eswar’s striking photography and graphic art has been shown in Delhi, Budapest and New York. Her series Sister Misfortune has been shown in Cochin and Mumbai. Sister Misfortune along with an addition to the series, Seasoned (for the designer Ritu Kumar) is interesting not only in its use of colours (mostly cool reds and blues), but in the connection it seems to establish between tradition and the present. Her goddesses can’t be ignored — they are women, much like us. They’re not shown from a distance that comes with tradition, but can be seen as placed in the here and now. It’s not difficult to look at some of these pictures and find yourself looking back at you, goddesses who once seemed distant no longer are. The exhibition is set to take place on Friday, 25th April at 33, Khan Market.
Tell us about the journey that brought you to the Sister Misfortune series.
I studied art in school and always knew I wanted to do something in design and art. Eventually I went to Baroda and I studied fine arts there — I wanted to train in fine art and then move into design. But I quit, because I wanted to learn through experience, on my own. I worked with photographers and graphic designers and learned on the job. After years of doing graphic design I feel a need for this kind of artistic output where I have a space to talk about what I want to talk about. And I realized that I had to create an art space for myself and that’s when I started graphic art. I started with photography and moved into design. In that sense this project is extremely true to me, this does kind of bring together all the things I have explored. It makes sense that I’d do a series on the goddesses, it allows me address everything I want to address: the universe, gender, humanity.
From the Seasoned series (Click to enlarge)
What’s the story behind the idea for this project? How and why did you come up with it? Is there something in particular that you want people to take back from it?
Sister Misfortune is for me is a way to reclaim mythology. At the core of these stories lies a basic truth that these stories are told and retold, and over time change, revealing the era they come from. I have gone back to the matriarchal tellings before the patriarchal and sanskrtised texts took precedence.
I had spent around 5 years outside the country; I stayed in Ghana for two years, and Philippines for three. There I was asked repeatedly (and with good reason) about the disparity between the sexes in India. This got me thinking about this duality. I wanted these images to work as a platform for us to address gender, religion and our relationship with both. These images are playful and to me that is important. How we perceive and live with our world with that sense of joy and humour for me is key.
Would you call them women or goddesses?
I wanted to create a series in which the goddesses aspire to be more like us. Like a reverse deification process where they are complex and layered like real women are.
Both Seasoned and Sister Misfortune use a lot of blues and reds. What made you choose these colours?
Blue, red and brown are all colours of the elements as in water, fire, and earth. I was hoping that the colours would lend that tone to the works.
What connects Seasoned and Sister Misfortune?
Seasoned is like the next step. I have completely made these goddesses up. The Sisters represent an earlier time just by being who they are while in Seasoned act like they belong to that context, to live out who they are. Seasoned is more from a space for fantasy gaining a sense of realism by placing themselves within mythology. That to me tells us a lot about how real mythology is to us.
Perhaps this is just me, but in Seasoned, I found myself looking at the clothes. In Sister Misfortune, there was one distinct thing that would catch my eye in each of the pictures before I went onto looking at her, like Saraswati’s glasses or Ganga’s jewelry. Is this intentional? What does it change in terms of what you’re trying to do with the pictures?
How you see them is linked to who they are. You have context for the sisters, so the details you enjoy come from how I am changing that around. But Seasoned is light hearted, you are free to build your own context.
This question is specific to one of the pictures. In the Lakshmi and Alakshmi picture, both their expressions are the same. Everything around them is also in twos — the leaves, the part of the lotus above and below water, the orange flowers. Everything is almost the same for two goddesses who are considered very different. Is there any significance of this?
The name Sister Misfortune for the series comes from the Lakshmi Alakshmi piece. Alakshmi was once worshiped as her sister was. The negative was part of the picture. Misfortune is the constant companion fortune. There is no real understanding of one without the other. The piece displays that mirror identity and shows them as very similar characters.
From the Sister Misfortune series (Click to enlarge)
Ila Ananya is an intern at The Ladies Finger and a student at St. Joseph’s College of Arts & Sciences, Bangalore.