"I started using red marking ink, which was lying in the studio. I was dripping ink on paper; then I connected with the floor, as the studio is full of paint drops. Later Valsan Koorma Kolleri invited a couple of artists to do a project in Kerala, soon after the monsoon. I began seeing fungus everywhere. The paint drop and fungus became the same motif. So that became a part of my landscape."
I find Benita Perciyal a very interesting artist, especially in the way she connects with material and is able to correlate her experiences with her body. In a way, it reminds me of Irom Sharmila, our non-violent freedom fighter from Manipur, who says the only way she can think of a reasonable protest is through her body. Enclose here a part of an interview with Benita Perciyal in The Hindu Arts Magazine, taken during the Chennai Art Summit; ‘Art can come only from personal experience’.
"My father was an ex-serviceman and my mother a teacher. As long as he was alive my father never came to my exhibitions, though I sent him invitations. These he preserved in his Bible and showed his friends and acquaintances and described my exhibitions. Six years ago I organised a camp with a fellow artist for my church. There I made a presentation of my works. He attended the session. When it was over I saw him crying; that moment lives with me even now. But my brothers and sisters make it a point to visit my exhibitions. My immediate family has been very supportive; though the question of survival as a single woman has been a source of worry. But since I am clear about my choice there is nothing more to say. My career was not initiated in a formal way. My artistic process initially was not planned. If I come across something or if something attracts my attention, I get absorbed in it; whether it relates to my work or not. Often I do not work but just sit in the studio. This was the process I went through; now I cannot stop working.
I have always had the feeling of being neglected. So the self occupies a prominent place in my art. Because of this interface with my body, I have gradually been able to understand myself better. Moreover my personality has changed and I have become more open. This is evident in the use of the soft feathery intimate touch of the paper surfaces I now work with, which also extends to the tactile feel of my pet the squirrel that has become a central part of my art and life. So art has led me from a personal restlessness to a state of equilibrium. The role of material came when I began to use the studio space in Lalit Kala Akademi. That was when I did not have money. I had the Lalit Kala scholarship for a year, which was Rs. 3000 a month. I started by using found objects and basic materials like pencils, water colour, poster colour and packing sheets. Since I never wanted or could not connect with the plain surface, I enjoyed these tactile and textured materials.
When I started using rice papers, I understood how important materials were to my process; to conceal as well as reveal. When the colours, particularly tea stains, started to spread on rice paper I was surprised because each time was different; each drop made its own landscape. Later I found everything was silent on the surface. I tore one single piece but left a hole in it. I was afraid to see the hole in the paper so I started to tear the paper separately and dyed them individually and layered them resulting in endless landscapes silently layered in a single imagery. When I was dyeing the paper, the stain penetrated underneath, so I would spread the sheet underneath the rice paper pieces. The result was that so many stains of different days/months layered under the surface that I started looking at the same paint drops or a fungal image into my cycle. Over time it has given me new perspective. One leads into another and that is how my work progresses and develops. I now use kaduka, tea and basic pigments used in kalamkari and materials like seeds, natural glue, handmade paper ... sometimes I work with wood, ceramics, terracotta and fabric.
The colour I use is my body colour; the material has an organic origin like our body. This brown also has negative connotations but when I use it to represent my squirrel or the tree it has a positive energy and makes me feel like I am part of Nature.
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Take a look at Benita's art
I find Benita Perciyal a very interesting artist, especially in the way she connects with material and is able to correlate her experiences with her body. In a way, it reminds me of Irom Sharmila, our non-violent freedom fighter from Manipur, who says the only way she can think of a reasonable protest is through her body. Enclose here a part of an interview with Benita Perciyal in The Hindu Arts Magazine, taken during the Chennai Art Summit; ‘Art can come only from personal experience’.
"My father was an ex-serviceman and my mother a teacher. As long as he was alive my father never came to my exhibitions, though I sent him invitations. These he preserved in his Bible and showed his friends and acquaintances and described my exhibitions. Six years ago I organised a camp with a fellow artist for my church. There I made a presentation of my works. He attended the session. When it was over I saw him crying; that moment lives with me even now. But my brothers and sisters make it a point to visit my exhibitions. My immediate family has been very supportive; though the question of survival as a single woman has been a source of worry. But since I am clear about my choice there is nothing more to say. My career was not initiated in a formal way. My artistic process initially was not planned. If I come across something or if something attracts my attention, I get absorbed in it; whether it relates to my work or not. Often I do not work but just sit in the studio. This was the process I went through; now I cannot stop working.
I have always had the feeling of being neglected. So the self occupies a prominent place in my art. Because of this interface with my body, I have gradually been able to understand myself better. Moreover my personality has changed and I have become more open. This is evident in the use of the soft feathery intimate touch of the paper surfaces I now work with, which also extends to the tactile feel of my pet the squirrel that has become a central part of my art and life. So art has led me from a personal restlessness to a state of equilibrium. The role of material came when I began to use the studio space in Lalit Kala Akademi. That was when I did not have money. I had the Lalit Kala scholarship for a year, which was Rs. 3000 a month. I started by using found objects and basic materials like pencils, water colour, poster colour and packing sheets. Since I never wanted or could not connect with the plain surface, I enjoyed these tactile and textured materials.
When I started using rice papers, I understood how important materials were to my process; to conceal as well as reveal. When the colours, particularly tea stains, started to spread on rice paper I was surprised because each time was different; each drop made its own landscape. Later I found everything was silent on the surface. I tore one single piece but left a hole in it. I was afraid to see the hole in the paper so I started to tear the paper separately and dyed them individually and layered them resulting in endless landscapes silently layered in a single imagery. When I was dyeing the paper, the stain penetrated underneath, so I would spread the sheet underneath the rice paper pieces. The result was that so many stains of different days/months layered under the surface that I started looking at the same paint drops or a fungal image into my cycle. Over time it has given me new perspective. One leads into another and that is how my work progresses and develops. I now use kaduka, tea and basic pigments used in kalamkari and materials like seeds, natural glue, handmade paper ... sometimes I work with wood, ceramics, terracotta and fabric.
The colour I use is my body colour; the material has an organic origin like our body. This brown also has negative connotations but when I use it to represent my squirrel or the tree it has a positive energy and makes me feel like I am part of Nature.
Read more
Take a look at Benita's art
