‘THE FLYING CARPET' AND OTHER WORKS

‘The flying Carpet’ and the others works is a new chapter in my art practice. My artistic journey is full of many voyages I have ventured on discovering new islands. Like Columbus, I perhaps discovered islands I did not intend to discover. Sometimes I thought I discovered an island which later I realized was not an island at all! Nevertheless the voyages are fascinating and full of adventure and bliss.

I have a fascination for new materials. I have always experimented with various mediums and materials. I tend to use materials as vehicles to convey my ideas. When I create sculptures with old wooden canoes, I incorporate the story of that canoe in my works. The history of that boat becomes the medium of my work! The memories of nets laden with fish pulled on into the boat leaving marks on wooden planks, the divine textures created by the sea on the body of the boat, the songs of the fishermen lingering in the belly of boats, the adventures, anxieties, fears, joys and sighs imbedded in the tar covering the boat..... all this becomes a part and parcel of my creations.

When I plant mussel shells on the beach to depict the ocean, there is a beautiful blending of the theme, medium and canvas. The ocean becomes my master and my muse! When I use glass in the shape of fins with lights on the sand, the lit glass appeared like water. The fins remember the ocean and the glass tries to seek it's ancestry in the sand! Materials have stories embedded in them. They are fossils of memory.

So, it was not a surprise that I embarked on my new romance with a new medium, old tyres! My encounters with the black tyres began in the pink city of Jaipur!
I was invited last year to be a part of an artists camp in Jaipur. Usually when you go to these 'CAMPS', you churn out a by hearted work of art within three four days. Camps are essentially concentration of art activity, in letter and spirit! I decided not to plan my work. I decided to explore Jaipur.
While walking on the street next to Hawa Mahal I came across the most incredible shop I have ever visited. The shop was selling some products created out of used tyres! The material made my thoughts roll on the highway of imagination. I had seen a lot of camel carts on Jaipur roads. I decided to create a camel foot with truck tyres. The idea behind it being, on the roads of jaipur both the truck tyres and the soles of camel feet get worn out. That was my first work with the tyres.
The idea lingered. I did not get tired of thinking tyres!

Ever since John Dunlop made his first rubber tyre for his son's bicycle in 1887, the world has more or less moved on tyres! The tyres have left their 'Tread Marks' on human history.
Like the tyre which is made in different layers, my creations with used tyres
can be interpreted in many layers. Many layers of thought processes, historical, mythical, social, political and environmental become building blocks of my works.
The Flying Carpet is an ode to the tremendous contribution that tyres have made to human civilization. It is inspired by the flying carpet in the Arabian Nights which can take you to your destination instantaneously. The beautiful princess Jasmine falls in love with Aladdin when she gets a ride on his carpet. Perhaps, every young girl all over the world seeks her Aladdin in her flight of fantasy.
I created my Flying Carpet using skins of used tyres adding some textures with a mixture of powdered rubber and glue. All this was stuck on to tarpaulin, again a material used to cover trucks!
Hema Nagvenkar, the well known designer created some Arabic veils for me. Along with Hema and another friend Carol Fernandes, I set out on the Calangute beach with a video camera. We requested girls sunbathing on the beach to wear a veil and pose as Jasmines! I thought, this video which will be played alongside my carpet adds another dimension to the work.
The Tortoise is a work which draws its inspiration from the famous Panchatantra story of the hare and the tortoise. The work also incorporates a subtle paradox, creating the slow tortoise out of fast tyres! In this era of economic speculations the sculpture also incorporates a reference to our economy especially with the book on corporate financial management juxtaposed with it.
Amongst various pollution problems facing the world, sound pollution has attained astounding pitch. I am a Tagore fan. I remember Tagore's description of his boyhood days. He looked out of his window and enjoyed the view of the fields and the trees. He loved the sounds of the chirping birds and the cattle bells. I visited his home in Kolkata recently. There were no fields, no trees and no chirping birds. The house was surrounded by ugly concrete buildings, overflowing gutters, garbage covered roads, rattling of old vehicles, honking of horns and occasional croaking of crows!
Babies of city dwellers go to bed and wake up to the 'melody' of traffic sounds. In cities like Mumbai many dwellings are sandwiched between the sounds of trucks and trains.
My work 'Sound Pollution' is a narrative on traffic sounds. I have used old loudspeaker funnels covered with tyre skins placed in a room filled with traffic sounds. I am attempting to create a music track based on traffic sounds with words inspired by graffiti on Indian trucks.
Another work in this series is a phallic symbol created with rubber from tyres and tail lights of cars, a contemporary Shivalingam!
A few other sculptures lend themselves to various interpretations. They appear erotic, insect like and sometimes mimicking a spacecraft.

This is only a beginning of a series of work I intend to create with used tyres. I can call it recycling art or sustainable art. I am in love with the material and believe that it has tremendous potential. I am sure the works will not be stuck in traffic jam of new ideas!

‘UNFOLDING OF A DREAM’
created at Vagator beach, Goa, India.

The installation includes Six Hundred Tibetan  Prayer Flags (Lungtas) coming down from  the hill and making a spiral on the beach.  Through his installation Subodh Kerkar talks about the ocean praying for the freedom of the snow.  Two Hundred Tibetans staged a torch march along the flags.

The installation is on view until the 24th March 2011.

“Apart from lovely snow covered peaks of the Himalayas, thousands of Buddhist prayer flags on the slopes are a great visual delight. The flags fluttering in the wind appear like an ocean in the sky. These flags are called ‘Lungtas’, meaning ‘wind horses’. The flags carry a drawing of a majestic horse along with a prayer. The horse is adorned with a flaming wish granting jewel called ‘Norbu Mebar’. The Tibetans believe that their prayers will be answered with the speed of the wind horse, their misfortunes will be changed into fortunes and their aspirations fulfilled.

On my recent trip to Sikkim I was fascinated by the sight of Lungtas on the outskirts of Gangtok. I have never seen these flags on the seaside and thought I could take some to Goa. I am an admirer of The Dalai Lama and a sympathizer of the Tibetan cause. The rational outlook of the Buddhist thought has always interested me. I have been attracted by the spiritual trait in the Tibetan people.

I find them at peace with themselves just like The Dalai Lama. There are traders from all over the country in Goa, trying all kind of gimmicks to sell their wares to the tourists, but the Tibetan jewellery sellers are different. They seem to sit at their stalls not to sell but to meditate! There is a certain tranquility in their whole being. I have never seen them agitated. They remind me of Saint Tukaram in his shop.

It is a paradox that these jewellery sellers do not possess the greatest jewel a man can ever own, the jewel of freedom and that the people of the land which is called the roof of the world have no roof over their own heads.

I bought a few hundred Lungtas in Sikkim and decided to create an installation on the seaside in Goa in support of the Tibetan cause.

I discussed the concept with a few Tibetan friends, with Dr Anita Dudhane and with Kabir who has become a Buddhist monk after securing a degree from Oxford.

A few weeks ago I had an opportunity to discuss the project with the Dalai Lama during his visit to Goa. He liked the idea and requested me to do the project on the 10th of March, the Tibetan Revolution day, the day when there was the first revolt in Lhasa against the Chinese oppression.

I decided to create the installation on the Vagator beach. I will have six hundred prayer flags in different hues of red coming down from the Vagator hill to make a spiral on the beach. Each flag will be uplit. About two hundred Tibetans in their traditional dress will walk along the flags carrying mashals and chanting prayers at 6.30 pm.

I call my installation ‘Unfolding of a Dream”. There is a reference to the ocean in a poem that the Dalai Lama wrote expressing the aspirations of his people. My Installation is an oceanic prayer for the freedom of the snow….the Ocean praying for the snow.

Social and political issues have found expression in my art practice and I hope that ‘Unfolding of a dream’ will help highlight the aspirations of the Tibetan people”.

Subodh Kerkar