Coming to terms with one's identity

Graphite or the lowly pencil has been one’s constant companion for as long as I can remember. I have filled copious amounts of sketch books, written with it, as it tends to glide over paper like butter. 

Of course, it is also besieged with its own set of problems like smudging even as one sketches and short of using fixatives even during the work I don’t know how to deal with it.  Hence, it was a surprise to see young artist Nandini Hasija’s entire show of drawings using graphite.

This body of work attempts to look at the progress of identity of an individual based on an adoptive mother-daughter relationship. 

According to scholars, an “identity” has many dimensions. While one is a person’s conscious sense of his or her identity, another is a sub-conscious sense of time that the person will travel through. Still another is the maintenance of a person’s solidarity with the ideals of the group to which she or he belongs. 

Identity development is an ongoing process that begins at the earliest stages of growth, comes into ascendance during adolescence, and becomes a guidepost throughout adulthood.

This exhibition focuses on the development of identity, based on the artist’s own experiences and reflects the powerful mother-daughter bond that shaped her. It expresses a duality that grows from the combination of identity rooted in nurturing and nature.

However, I have seen the experiences of many of my dear friends and family who do have adopted children and while these are non-issues in the formative years, by the time the children attain early adulthood, they have dealt with these questions and are ready to move on. 

Maybe it is part of Nandini’s cathartic journey to explore these dimensions before coming to terms with her positioning and identity.  

Nandini says, “This process of (art) making and conceiving allows me a maternal relationship with the art object that mimics the relationship that I have with my own mother. It’s the act of weaving myself through relationships — those which are mine and those which I create, that gives me a secure yet dual sense of self.”

This exhibition features 15 drawings and five sculptures which have been made between November 2015 to January 2017. The art work focuses on the contemporary approaches to drawing in which Nandini has created two lines of work, one comprising of graphite on paper and the other of self-woven sculptures of jute.

The striking feature in this show is the attempt to develop images of intertwined lines and forms from two-dimensional surfaces to three-dimensional surface areas. 

The process of making these drawings is satiated by a sense of immediacy and repetition, which are the two characteristics also maintained in the weaving and making of the soft sculptures. 

The two lines of work are different from one another in their medium and form, but the artist has been able to unify the two contradictory forms by bringing them together. 

In some ways the soft sculptures are reminiscent of Mrinalini Mukherjee’s work in later years where she used the similar “formlessness” in wool and jute thread. These are displayed through three main types of sculptures — pure natural form of jute, secondly in complete dyed jute and then those with a varying combination of natural jute and dyed jute.

Nandini says, “Jute serves as a dual metaphor for the identity of my mother and my sense of self residing within her. Its earthly origin and raw nature makes it my choice for depiction of feelings. 

Jute is also symbolic of the sari, a garment regularly worn by my mother, and a piece of clothing that I associate with her from my childhood years. 

The relevance of repeatedly dyeing every single strand of jute in a mixture of turmeric and milk refers to a fond memory my mother and I shared during my adolescent years.”

The lines mimic human relationships as they intertwine sometimes moving towards each and sometimes moving away. However, she has exploited the visual elements by developing forms and entities that are devoid of formal representational qualities.

However, in some ways I wish for the sake of the parents and the care and love they would have showered on her and the sacrifices along the way, these questions of “identity” could be dealt with in private spaces rather than in the public arena for in some ways it negates everything that they do for a child as the child’s quest for his or her “real” identity takes on a larger than life dimensions, bringing untold pain in its wake. 

The fact is, how many children are lucky enough to find loving homes and parents who chose them and bring them up as their own.  Is DNA really that much of a concern and importance?

Dr Alka Raghuvanshi is an art writer, curator and artist and can be contacted on alkaraghuvanshi@yahoo.com