Minutes into the conversation with Sojwal Samant and one thing that I’m already very sure of is the clarity in the mind of the Baroda-based artist. She is so precise with her choice of words, so succinct, so black & white that one’s mind starts racing to the wall at the other end of Gallery Espace where her latest works are on display, getting ready for the launch of the exhibition the next day. On the wall are placed pedestals on which rest 25 different expressions of the human brain, forming the core of her latest work, being showcased in an exhibition titled “Cerebration.” The 25 expressions of brain in ceramic (stoneware), titled “Utpadan 2015,” form a set. “Utpadan 2015” that comprises ovoids of almost a similar size, is just one of the remarkable manifestations she has given to the eternal question that has challenged humanity — how central is the brain to our existence? Along with other elements of “Cerebration,” Samant has not just gone behind the hardcore anatomical entity called brain, but even questioned the hierarchy of brain in the scheme of all things human. Some ovoids in “Utpadan 2015” are apparently plain and flat (but only when seen from afar, as they reveal almost indiscernible marks on closer inspection), while the others are as florid as is possible for stoneware to be. The reference is obvious, isn’t it? Brain, as a part of human body, is one of the most dynamic elements contained inside us and what goes inside it is not just limitless but perhaps, the biggest wonder of creation. You must stand in front of these sculptures to get absorbed in the fascinating story that Samant tries to tell through the neutral-shade ovoids — each expressing one of the myriad emotions and intensities possible in our brains. At the two ends of the spectrum are the sculptures that I’ve written about ahead — an apparently formless ovoid (expressing a rather dormant yet silently functional brain) juxtaposed against another whose top half has been split into waves, epitomizing an agitated, excited brain at a super level of activity. For an artist like Samant — she holds a Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts (Applied Arts) from the Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda from where she graduated in 1994, and a diploma and a post diploma in sculpture from the same institution — foremost is the form. It’s the form that gets her excited, and inspiration could come from a thing as mundane as a vegetable. “It’s an organic process. It happens as I go along. I don’t pre-decide. For the works you see in “Cerebration,” I had a certain idea in mind and I took it as a challenge to carry it forward. But, it’s important for me to know when to stop. Therefore, these 25 pieces,” says the 43-year-old artist. In this context, she mentions it as an aside that she had a few requests to buy some of the sculptures from the set of “Utapadan 2015”, which of course, were rejected as those were created as a set. “I know the constraints of keeping the 25 together but the work will lose its relevance if these are not together,” she says ruefully.When the subject is brain, it is not a surprise (though it is certainly a bold move) that Samant has touched upon lobotomy as well. Encyclopaedia Britannica defines ‘lobotomy’ as a neurosurgical operation that severs connections in the brain’s pre-frontal lobe to treat a variety of mental illnesses. It’s almost like manipulating the brain to function according to rules that a set of people have framed. Samant refers to this controversial subject through her installation in wood and ceramic, titled “Work Table.” It comprises a wood tray, that looks like a kitchen table, with depressions to house small tools, supposedly handy for lobotomy. “I’ve been aware of this whole debate regarding punishment to criminals, where lobotomy could be an option to decriminalize them, so to say. It’s like conditioning the human brain to act in a certain manner,” she says drifting away.While “Utpadan 2015” merges the artist’s thought process rather poetically with the medium, “Work Table” meanders the conversation to the sordid, the controversial. We find our way back to humor with the installation that comprises a mound of sand on the ground, above which at a distance of about a foot or so hangs a sieve of equal dimensions. Talking, we walk towards the installation which Sojwal was in the process of readying when I had entered the gallery. She resumes work at this installation and spreads tiny ceramic sea shells and other objects in various shapes over the sieve. This is her take on the question that she, and most of us, had heard while growing up (especially when we had failed to comprehend something) — “When God was giving out brains, did you go with a sieve?” She laughs while spreading the shells and asks, “Is this what that gets left behind with people who go with sieves?” In “Cerebration,” Samant pays tribute to another scientific study that destablizes the supremacy of brain. That is American neuroscientist Candace Pert’s revolutionary work “Molecules of Emotion: Why You Feel The Way You Feel” (published in 1997) that sought to answer questions about mind and body such as how do our thoughts and emotions affect our health, if it is mind over body or body over mind or body-mind that we need to understand and so forth. Samant’s work is named after Pert’s book, and comprises innumerable ceramic balls, some small and some very small, that are spread in one corner of the gallery. She considers these balls as full stops without a sentence, a reference to the finality of the brain’s functioning, which humans are yet to decipher completely. And not to be left behind is the papier-mache and velvet head gear titled “Ignoramus building castles in the air.” It’s the ultimate tribute to the brain that generally stays idle, and therefore becomes the workshop of you-know-who. It is self-explanatory and a hilarious contraption to wear. But, why brain?Samant, surprisingly, gives a mundane reason to a work with such profound depths. “Facebook!” she says, and elabortes, “It all began with Facebook where you keep coming across these stories on left brain v/s right brain, and so on. It somehow set me on to learn more and more about the brain.” It appears like a work that must have given her immense satisfaction, to the point that she knows she is ready to move on. “I think I’m through with the brain,” she affirms, with crystal-clear clarity. That’s a confident closure to a work which is possible only when an artist is working like Samant does. She chooses her pace and her pre-teen daughter Maya is her priority. “I hope I don’t succumb to any pressure,” she says. It’s this clarity that she inadvertently brings to her art as well. Samant, like always, has chosen solid work over everything else, and that is very much in evidence in her current exhibition. “Cerebration” is on view at Gallery Espace, 16, Community Centre, New Friends Colony, New Delhi - 110025, through January 9, 2016, 11 am to 7 pmFollow@ARTINFOIndia
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