Artist Seema Kohli on the India Art Fair 2022: 'Art is alive, physical and raw'

Welcome to the world of Seema Kohli, a spiritual artist, dreamer, painter, and poet. For Kohli work is like meditation, her religion and truth. On the India Art Fair going online after two years, Kohli  says, “I feel the world was longing for this opening up, this getting back to the physical world than existing in a virtual one. Though we as a human race are resilient to changes and accordingly adjust to the circumstances, we had also started to see the merits of virtual existence. But somewhere getting back was inevitable. I love  physical shows and meetings back into our life. The art fair is the hub of all art activities, we were waiting for it.  ”

Art helps Kohli  explore religious iconography, world mythologies, philosophies, literature, narratives, oral histories, and myths, which ultimately find expression in my creations. She says, “Sometimes, while narrating stories, I want to move beyond paintings and sculptures as I feel it is not enough. So, I perform. While I create a certain artwork, I feel at times that it needs something more, perhaps another dimension. If it’s a three-dimensional image, a sculpture, that needs more detail, I transform it into an installation, and then if it still needs to “move,” I perform with it, for it, and animate it through videos.”

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Kohli was always drawn to painting and saw herself as an artist. She comes from   a spiritual family and discussing different faith was not a taboo. Her journey as an artist has had its own path twisting and turning, unassuming and full of uncertainties, sometimes rudderless, rough and bumpy, while sometimes windy and wild but she wouldn’t have any other which way. for her the journey has been mysterious and unplanned and maybe that’s why she accepted everything, without judging anything coming her way with and wide-eyed awkwardness, excited for the next turn to unfold.

In the late 1970s Kohli studied at Miranda House, Delhi University. She says, “I studied European philosophy was “like an explosion” for me.  Then I took my fidgety fingers to an applied arts course at South Delhi Polytechnic. This is the closest to formal art training that I have comes to.  I found the exposure to different media and the training in design helpful and some of the techniques I acquired learned - calligraphy, the use of pen and nibs – are still central to my work.  But it wasn’t long before I realized that I couldn’t be a graphic designer or an illustrator.   I had too many stories of her own and was not interested in meeting their deadlines.”

It is difficult to be a woman sculptor in India, but Kohli doesn’t feel bound by the concept of gender, as a female sculptor. “I would focus to be a sculptor. Though we cannot negate that there are discrepancies that we face as women in every field. I do face the same problems of space, storage, exhibition, foundry, and very labour-intensive medium as anyone else would. On the positive side, the fact it’s a collaborative medium is what I feel humbled about. It could be my concept, my story but it’s brought about by a team.”

Her bronze sculptures are prayers to Shakti, to knowledge and wisdom, and to achieving liberation by freeing the mind from the web of Maya. It’s in essence a flight from darkness to light, on wings, the most potent symbol of freedom. ‘A storm in my teacup’ is her first artist’s book which captures the intimacy of conversations over cups of tea. The artworks were created during the Covid-19 period when we were facing numerous challenges and coping with the loss of friends, and loved ones. I was stationed around the Western Ghats for a period of time. It was a tragic time. As artists we work in the seclusion of our studios, but in this period, I got time for myself… in an isolated space, to contemplate my work: About the Golden Womb, about the Tree of Life, the Cycle of Life as well as the feminine aspect of my work.

Describing her art work at the IAF, Kohli explains, “SoHamsa (Soham in Sanskrit means I am that, the ever-eternal Brahmn) is wrapped in the wings of eternity, representing the spirals of galaxies and whorls of planets and stars. While inhaling, I become the Universe and while exhaling the Universe becomes me, the sculpture SoHamsa is my tribute to Saraswati in her final flight of liberation where she takes us along on to the path of moksha. Created in dull, shining bronze, she is one with the hamsa, body breath, and soul merging in the universal consciousness, contemplating the heavens, a part of the universe, peaceful, eternally blissful.”

Kohli is fascinated by the feminine aspect of creation - the vital feminine energy. The Goddess of learning, Saraswati, is a living embodiment of knowledge.  That’s why she has been creating sculptures of the goddesses Saraswati, and of Kali. This sculpture depicts Saraswati on the hamsa or swan, symbolic of Soham (I am That), which is the mool mantra among spiritualists and those seeking liberation. The goddess of learning playfully caresses the slender, elongated neck of the swan, which could also be interpreted as her divine musical instrument, the veena. The swan’s wings are sheer poetry, every feather dispelling the darkness of ignorance. Saraswati herself sits on the Muladhara chakra with an erect back, all chakras aligned, meditatively, lifting her serene face towards the sky, almost as if she is gently nudging souls towards heaven for the final liberation, moksha.

Desirous of exploring the cycle of light and the continuation of life, she was once compelled to perform the Unending Dance of Light, at the ghats of Varanasi (it was an experiential performance, unscripted but not unintended) between Assi and another ghat that’s not considered “auspicious” and does not invite too many people. She chose Varanasi because it is the city that never sleeps, it belongs to Shiva, it is the city of the burning ghats where life and death go hand in hand, where bodies burn beside a river that has been flowing for eternity.

Pandemic was  a tough time for all the artists. Artists, not performance artists, love working in solitude. She says, “This was not the solitude we had during the pandemic. It was disturbing to watch helpless the world collapse around us. During the pandemic the world was closed, everyone had isolated themselves in the most inhuman way and were helping each other in the most unusual ways. Everything was unpredictable. We could see life collapsing in front of us. For a lot of unestablished artists, it was tough to maintain their economics. But I was grateful for the art which I was able to create in this turmoil. None of us were spared, but the privilege to be an artist to see the positives and recreate the pain and anguish in images is our prerogative. I think most of the artists did create a body of artworks during this hard time of two and a half years. Nature had given one of the most unusual lessons, it was the worst of times and it was the best of times.”

Despite all the sadness, Kohli  felt that this period was a time of revival, rejuvenation, and peace that is experienced in stillness. She has recently created another video titled ‘Entering Stillness’. It was shot during periods of isolation due to the  pandemic at her studio and at the banks of the Yamuna. She says, “I have, in this piece, focused on removing the clutter, the dead roots from my brain and moving ahead, and opening the chakras. Some concepts that I study, explore and research need a more elaborate rendering… and have to move beyond the stillness of sculptures. There is movement, there are words uttered too to communicate my thoughts and feelings to those who want to understand art and my work. Art is alive, physical, and raw. It connects souls, visually and through all our senses.”

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