I have gone through one of the most intense experiences of my artistic life the previous week. It took over one year of grueling work to create that moment and it was a sight I will never ever forget. It was like seeing history being made: A starry moonlit night, the mesmerising sight of 30 icons and luminaries dance and music swathed in paintings walking to the beat of gooseflesh creating music, heightened by poetry and sahitya…It was a sight fit for the Gods, by artists who constitute Indian culture as we know it.
Let me begin from the beginning. I have always been a firm believer in the overlapping of the arts and the fact that a multi-disciplinary approach is the only way to grow. And one of my deepest desires is to see art as a part of life and with my latest multi-disciplinary work Ehsaas, I took many steps forward by taking contemporary art off the walls to create works of wearable art.
Ehsaas, was envisaged as a unique a multi-media presentation of art, design, music and dance, where the four forms converged. And converge, they did. For the first time in recent history, Ehsaas brought together nearly 30 top dancers, musicians, painters and theatre who walked the ramp at this inimitable event. The multi-media confluence was presented under the aegis of Ekaya.
About 50 paintings of some of the most respected contemporary artists Shridhar Iyer, Niren Sengupta, Manisha Gawade, Sanjay Bhattacharya and yours truly, were the link that brought them together. The paintings were designed and juxtaposed on specific places of the sarees, stoles and ties and transposing them on to hand woven fabric to create contemporary couture. The core of the Ehsaas series are stunning and dramatic limited edition sarees and rare and spectacular accessories including stoles, ties and handbags. “In this case, combining art with fashion is indicative and representative of modern aesthetics that as much define the maturity of a people as art,” says Deepak Shah, Director Ekaya.
When Kabir, the nirgun bhakti poet wove cloth, he likened the human body as the ultimate “chola” and the warp and weft the inseparable part of life’s journey. When Draupadi was being disrobed in the Kuru Sabha, she prays to Lord Krishna to come and envelop her and save her honour. The philosophical dimension of the clothes as the ostensible outer covering has had several layers of meanings in the Indian spiritual context.
The project was of the biggest ever, first-ever serious attempt to use contemporary art to create works of wearable art for a larger audience. All the artists dug through their works, excavated earlier catalogues and long forgotten images to help me find the perfect paintings that would lend themselves to what I had in mind. The selection had to be on the basis of it working as a saree – an unusual one at that. Then came the unanimous observation from all the artists to create something the men could also wear – we settled for unisex stoles. I added ties and leather handbags as an additional dimension. Obviously such a project couldn’t have happened to such amazing results without all of us working in tune with each other. Impelled by my own song, which found an incredible echo in Bharat Shah and Deepak Shah’s, who took keen interest in each detail of the project, gave valuable inputs, unstinted support and most importantly, belief in the project kept our spirits on a sustained high. Raghunath Haldar did a splendid job of handling the technical design development and translated my ideas and designs into doable forms.
It is my conviction that all arts have a shared heritage and need to be perceived as a composite whole. Which sculptor can say that dance does not move him, or which dancer can say that music does not affect him or her? And the painter who hears and sees both pours out this rasa-anubhuti on canvas. This shared heritage of all the arts converges seamlessly in Ehsaas. And that is the reason why I requested top classical dancers and musicians to give this very important figurative component to our static art and make it a moving installation as they had very distinct personalities and it was as if our canvases had found a figurative dimension.
The artistes who lit up the artistic firmament and walked the ramp in wearable art included the veritable epitome of dance Pandit Birju Maharaj and Vidushi Yamini Krishnamurthy, the firebrand Uma Sharma, the gentle and committed danseuse Madhvi Mudgal, the dancer with a sunshine disposition, Shovana Narayan, breathtakingly beautiful and deeply knowledgeable Sharon Lowen, the dynamic Prathibha Prahlad, the charming Bharati Shivaji, effusive Ranjana Gauhar, vivacious Vijaylakshmi, effervescent Kaushalya Reddy, the graceful dancer, competent lawyer and actress Rashmi Vaidialingam, the affable and amiable Sharmishtha Mukherji and the young and charming gen next dancer Arushi Mudgal. These women have kept the flag of the saree flying high and have continued to sport sarees in virtually every situation.
The musicians who happily agreed to be a part of this unique confluence include the mellifluous and handsome vocalist Madhup Mudgal, the stylish santoor Pandit Bhajan Sopori, the witty Dhrupad exponent Wasifuddin Dagar, the gentle metro sexual sitar exponent Shubhendra Rao, the graceful cellist Saskia Rao de Haas, the singer with an amazing repertoire of ghazals and old Bollywood songs and a silky voice Radhika Chopra, two very pretty vocalists with golden voices Savani Mudgal and Meeta Pandit and the very talented santoor player Abhay Sopori. I am delighted that the elegant multi-faceted theatre and television artiste Suneet Tandon, my dearest friend and cartoonist with a wicked sense of humour Sudhir Tailang, the virtual encyclopedia of photographic documentation of the arts for five decades, photographer Avinash Pasricha and the dashingly handsome hotelier Oliver Martin too were part of the show. Poet and writer Sunita Buddhiraja who was the sutradhar of the event delved into the reservoir of poetry and sahitya and music. Binding the visual look with continuity was special jewellery that I created for all these women who are larger than life. Even in daily life, they sport very noticeable jewellery – the aesthetics of which have been honed over the years with the personality itself. I worked with many options and finally narrowed down to painting mini canvases to look appropriate with the sarees. The idea was to create pieces that were as unique as the women sporting them. Ehsaas is ephemeral experience, but we wanted to capture the many moments of Ehsaas so that we could savour them yet again. The result is Ehsaas, a publication brought out on the occasion. In real terms took one year for the Ehsaas team, to create Ehsaas, but the wonderful ehsaas of Ehsaas, will linger in hearts long after in many more ways…

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com