I suppose every exercise of drawings leads to new points of reflections. I am adding 4 drawings in this blog entry. They represent my thinking behind the way the drawings shaped out to be.
Visual in head. before making the work.
I want to have the warli figure all over the train. I should be at a train station, about to leave the station as my train to Delhi, mumbai approaches. I recall the actual station filled with the Warli art. So I am replicating that moment.
Start of Drawing
I start to draw, and i think of perspective. A train receding into the back.
Progession of drawing
I discontinue after some time
end of drawing
I can not draw beyond this point. As i draw the warli figures on the train boxes, I lose interest. The work is not going in the direction I want. It lacks something
Drawing Process
Through pure memory only. As I am recalling my visit to a town called Dahanu which I did two weeks back. It was an important trip which left a strong impression on me. Strong feelings I developed of lots of moment being there.
Visual in head before making the work.
Now I want to incorporate the Warli world somehow in the 2nd attempt. It didnt happen in the train station drawing. So i feel i need to maybe draw warli people more ?
start of drawing
i start to draw the warli drawings from my mobile. It is a photo i had taken of warli art at the train station. I dont know what will happen next?
progression of drawing
I draw myself and with the dog and the text pops up in my head. That I am getting stuck / obssesed with Dahanu and i need to come out of this.
end of drawing
I end by writing the text and putting a bird in the sky. I wanted to have something in the sky. But the work fails. The reason I give to myself that It is copying the warli art and it doesnt say what I want to say. The lines are mine yet not mine.
Drawing Process
Direct use of a photo and then I am habitual of drawing myself and the dog. The Warli art is a copy from the photo.
Visual in the head before making the work.
I want to again go back to the station in the 3rd attempt. Some how I want to capture the departing from the station. I think of myself or that moment when i was waiting for the train. but in this the train has just arrived.
start
I try again. I draw the front view of the train and then follow the same route of the depth of the train, the perspective element. But I wish not to create the Warli figures.
progression
I reach to the point of creating fences on the other side and the work fails. The flow of drawing halts. Is it the shape of the train, or something which is incomplete. And I say to myself, I have many more memories. I should not be leaving from Dahanu in the series of drawings on Dahanu, and that this should be the last sketch.
end
The work fails. I am having flashes of what I saw in that moment and what I am seeing now.
Process
From Pure memory.
Visual in the head
I shift from the train and a thought comes of the cafe visit, the only cafe in Dahanu in my 4th attempt. So Now I want to capture that moment of visiting the Cafe. For me, capturing that feeling of the moment is the most important. I wasn’t allowed to sit as the City of Dahanu was facing Curfew due to COVID restrictions. Everything was shut. Only take away (PARCEL SERVICE) was allowed. It was a nice moment to be in. I wanted this niceness in the drawing. It can not be something else but that moment only. Something which a photograph can not capture, but conveys, at least to me by drawing it out. By now I was tired of the train station sketches and happy to be back in dahanu in my memory that is.
begining
I start with the food display equipment. That is that main thing. without this there is no narrative as I remember so clearly watching things on display and hearing of the Jaggery as being the most healthiest of cakes they had.
progression
I draw the girl and the food. And while drawing the food, i experience the concept of NEAT LINES, or CLEAN LINES. Neat lines are exactly what u wish to say in the most neatest fashion.
end
The works comes to an end. And it gets the ambience of me being inside the cafe. The window is where I was told to come and collect the PARSELL (PARCEL). So i draw the side window. This work finally works for me. It some how matches the visual in the head and the drawing. In reality there is no visual in the head, but multiple visuals like a movie, I should say, a recorded conversation in my head.
Gagan Singh 