Write. Precisely the story that was told to Venkat Shyam by his grandfather
Answers
Answer:
Celebrated Gond artist Venkat Raman Singh Shyam talks about his literary jugalbandi with writer and publisher S. Anand in an autobiographical work called Finding My Way . The book is as much about the Pardhan Gonds as it is about his life, and in this interview Venkat talks about his ancestral art and about finding kindred spirits in Dali and Gaudi.
How will you describe your art, and has traditional art been influenced by other forms of art?
I trace my ancestry to the worker-artists of Bhimbetka, the oldest gallery in this part of the world. All of us do. Each of us has indigeneity in us. The indigene is truly universal. Anand often asked me why I showed myself or Jangarh in the book with a tail — he seemed worried. You too once had a tail, I reminded him. Soon, he asked me to add a tail to one of the few depictions I had of him in the book. I do not much believe in ‘traditional’, though the past is always with us. It is mostly humbug, and leads quickly to claims of authenticity, which can become a serious trap. Yes, I am Gond, but I am not just that.