Shine Shivan
Nirupak (detail), 2022, Graphite, dry pastel, and charcoal on paper, 30 x 22 inches
Shristi Sainani speaks with artist Shine Shivan about his practice, influences, and recent exhibitions in India, South Africa, and beyond.
Shivan recently presented a new series of works called Nidhivan, showcased at Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai, Stevenson in Cape Town, Art Basel, and Frieze. The series is a personal and intimate exploration of retelling and reliving past experiences. Shivan spent several months in the spiritual towns of Awadh, Ayodhya, Bundi, Brindavan, Mathura, and Govardhan, surrounded by nature, which he captured through grand and theatrical illustrations.
What were your first memories around art? Was there a moment of epiphany where you thought you had found your calling?
Growing up in Kerala, there was a river near my house where my grandmother took me to bathe. Often on my way there, a Sitar (a stringed instrument originating from the Indian subcontinent) player would sit with her students, playing the most beautiful tunes and singing to them… I remember plenty of such moments quite clearly. At the age of four, I had written a letter to my father, which my grandmother helped deliver. I remember his appreciation for it. My memories of the Champa (Magnolia) flower and its leaves. And a school art competition at age five, where the teacher asked me to draw a rain scene. I took it up as a challenge which sprung a will to show my capabilities. I remember plenty of such moments quite clearly.
Before enrolling in school, I was asked to draw as part of the entrance test. I recall sketching out a cricket bat, flowers, and a snake. The snake has stuck by me, recurring as it swirls over trunks of coconut trees, holding its head high or bowing as a consort. These instances made me realize my attachment to art and music.
Nandan 1-8, 2019—2022, sanguine, charcoal, and dry pastel on paper, 34 x 23.5 inches each
What have been some of your most important references over the course of your practice? Are there texts, images, memories, materials, scribbled notes, or maybe musical tunes that you revisit from time to time?
Indian mythology drives current practice. My aunt’s narration of tales from the Hindu scriptures of Mahabharata, carvings of South Indian temples, the traditional dances of Mohiniyattam and Kathakali, as well as ragas of M. S. Subbulakshmi playing in their mandapas (central pillared halls of temples) at four in the morning.
I can spend hours in libraries, skimming through books. When I was in Cape Town for my show with Stevenson, I saw their splendid collection of books. The gallery kindly offered to take all I wanted back home! They offered to courier them to me. I had to decline politely, saying I had a collection for a lifetime on my shelf already. The Gita (the most revered Hindu text) is comprehensive enough to keep me occupied. I force myself to read and re-read the Vedas and Upanishads (religious texts originating in ancient India). I believe you must read, then visit the places with links to these texts. It’s important to go in-depth.
Kusum Sarovar (detail), 2021—2022, sanguine, charcoal, dry pastel, and graphite on paper, 128 x 300 inches (set of five units)
Previously you have called the Aravali Hills (in Northern Western India) your playground, a special place where you spent considerable time as a child after you moved from Kerala. In what ways did they influence you or your practice? Please share some recollections of the time which you hold close.
I remember sleeping on bare grass, not bathing for days, and running after peacocks and with monkeys. There were beautiful flowers that grew in the Aravali Hills. Blooms of Dhak (Butea monosperma) painted the terrain red. I would plunge into the Badkhal lake of the Aravali to pluck lotus flowers, taking back a bouquet home. My father would scold me, worrying that a python may find me someday.
You have moved through several cultural fabrics — from India to Belgium to South Africa. Contextually they are so different. Is there a major shift in the response you get for your work?
The saint, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, said, “we should be able to see the world but also empty our mind of it.” I manifest my works from a place of love.
It is interesting that in Cape Town, too, I found people studying the works of ancient Indian scholars Vivekanand and Adi Shankaracharya. They understand diversity in culture and appreciate the roots from which my works stem. There is a story by Chaitanya Mahaprabhu of pundit Nimai, who tossed his hefty manuscript, which he tirelessly put together, into the flowing river for his friend Raghunath. This was a means of giving up his name and fame for a friend. When there is love, you can attain… even God. Whether in India or South Africa, my work remains the same.
Yugal kishor (detail), 2022, graphite, dry pastel, and charcoal on paper, 39.5 x 23.5 inches
You have also maneuvered multiple mediums, from manifesting elaborate, fantastical sculptures to immersive performances and installations; now, in Nidhivan, we see works in dry pastels on paper. If at all, do you have a preferred medium? What dictates the choice of your mode of expression?
My work has faced many challenges over time. When I came straight out of art school, at the time, there was Damien Hirst. I was conscious of — What can India do? There were limited means while I was exploring the medium of taxidermy, with barely an infrastructure to rely on. We didn’t have the freedom. Looking at the work of Hirst, we know that one needs assistants and extensive laboratories. Saatchi had the finances to do things on their own. In Mumbai, we had one taxidermist placed at a museum. I learned everything I knew through YouTube.
Over time, I realized that if I continued to pursue taxidermy, what would survive would be either the practice or Shine. Being enclosed in a room full of 4000 chicken heads meant working on twenty to thirty daily while the rest rot. A couple of months would mean flies, smell, and disease. It was a masterpiece, a work at its peak. But unsustainable in context. I feel lucky to have had Gallery Maskara set up the place and space for the work during then.
Dry pastels have been energetic and brisk. I look at the work of K.G Subramaniam; they involve so much study. Those of birds, plants, and animals. I feel helpless when I think of the number of images I can study with another ten to fifty years of a finite life.
Please tell our readers about the Nidhivan series in terms of subject and narratives, aims, emotions, or aspirations.
The forms of K.G Subramaniam are different from mine. The seventh chapter of The Bhagwat Gita states the five elements that create form: Prithvi (earth), Jala (water), Tejas (fire), Vayu (wind), and Akasha (space). Then, there is Jeev Atma, that holds everything like a binder. It is essentially the form you do not see or the essence of being.
In the case of this series, I do not equate form to physical form. Pastel drawings of Nidhivan are comparable to abstractions; for example, those by Kandinsky, Miro, or Klint. The form serves as a way to maneuver line, color, and space, where there is a call for spiritualism and an insight into the cosmos. It is only now that my eyes have opened to what I should’ve realized a while ago. Only now have I started looking closely at scriptures and miniature paintings of India to search for stagnancy and language.
Kalki (detail), 2021—2022, sanguine, charcoal, dry pastel, and graphite on paper, 118 x 60 inches
What are you looking towards next? Are there specific projects you are looking forward to realizing in the near future that you would like to share with the readers?
My interests vary. I look at fashion and think about acting in films. I recently put out some videos on Instagram which caught some attention. I would record snippets, edit them and post them. Not that I think of showing them in a gallery space. But, I would like to work in oils, although there are limitations, and it is hard to adjust capacity. It isn't easy to find storage space. I think of doing large works, but you have to consider how to keep the space sealed while controlling humidity and bringing in just the right amount of sunlight. It all takes time. And it is all kismet!
Shine Shivan (b. 1981) received his Bachelor of Fine Arts from the College of Arts, Delhi, in 2005 and a Master of Visual Arts at Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar University, Agra, in 2008. Shivan has had solo exhibitions at "Galerie Felix Frachon" in Brussels, Belgium; "Sakshi Gallery" and "Gallery Maskara" in Mumbai, India. He is also represented by Stevenson in Cape Town, South Africa. Shivan has participated in several group shows, including "Home Body #2" at FRAC Reunion, Saint-Denis (2022); "Kaleidoscopic India" at Maison Guerlain on 68 Champs-Élysées in Paris (2014); "How Am I?" at the Kastrupgårdsamlingen Museum in Copenhagen (2012); "Finding India: Art for the New Century" at MOCA Taipei in Taiwan (2010) and "Move on Asia 2010" at Tate Modern in London (both in 2010).
Shivan has received several awards and residencies, including the Culture and Education Society National Level Award (2005) and the Ravi Jain Annual Fellowship (2005) from Dhoomimal Art Galleries; the All India Camlin Art Foundation's Euro Art Tour (2007-2008); the Lalit Kala Academy Scholarship (2008) and the Peers residency at KHOJ Studios (2009).
He currently lives between the cities of Kochi and Faridabad in India.
Shristi Sainani is a curator, designer, researcher, and writer currently based in New Delhi, India, where she functions independently. Her interest lies in dismantling and assessing core concepts of exhibition making, specifically focusing on Contemporary Art churned through the diaspora of the Global South.
She also writes poetry, having published three books in the genre, and has contributed to several art and architectural forums. Her independent research focuses on collections and architecture of private art museums. Shristi's paper on inclusivity in museum spaces won the INSC Researchers Award in 2021.
Shristi is a formally trained architect. She completed her Bachelor of Architecture from the University of Sydney and her Master’s degree in Curatorial Studies from the University of Melbourne.
Shine Shivan
@shineshivan
Sakshi Gallery
@sakshigallery
Stevenson
@stevenson_za
Gallery Maskara
@gallerymaskara
Shristi Sainani
@shristi_sainani