“…Through my work I like to
question, for instance, a human ability to handle ugliness; and why it
shouldn’t? To what extent a human being could digest ugliness?”…
An upcoming talent from Mumbai, Deven Bane has a
free flowing, gushing energetic creativity that he projects through his
sarcastic and critical yet thoughtful visual and wordy comments that he makes
in his mutilated figures; the higher version of Doodling. For Deven Bane, Doodling
turns into art and his art represents current global society. Let’s review his
energetic start of career through his interview.
JK.: Doodling basically projects care free attitude,
what inspired you to develop it as a serious art?
D.B.:
Earlier I did only portraits. Though the overall body of work was ugly and
in that sense beautiful at the same time to me, I did call them heads, as they
ended up with two vertically parallel strokes to give a feeling of neck or a
tilted face. But I felt some blankness in them as they did not actually
resemble any human being; I just thought those should. And they were just mere
doodlings, I thought maybe I could give it a try, working with softwares and
converting this absurd game of finding faces in doodles and using them on
photographs of any person. And the result was quite wonderful , so
I kept on making them, doodling just happened and it became
prominent when I started working on magazine covers , I thought I might
get sued for working on their copyrights, so at first attempt
I just ignored them or rather just deleted them from my work, but
in that process I thought I could just use these titles or may be convert
them into comments ,or use them as my own subjects, the subjects which
just strike me randomly.
JK.:
Do
you personally feel your creations are buoyant/ cheerful?
D.B.:
To a certain extent yes, they are; but it all depends on the type of
image I am working on at a particular of time and whatever I work on them.
They are all taken from my past experiences or the conversations
which I had or read or just from the mere cracking of jokes that I
remember while chatting with my friends just instances that come to my mind at
that point of time. I present them or sometimes play with them or sometimes
the result is absurd with no connections whatsoever.
JK.:
Do they have any message or are they
just visual treats?
JK.: Which personalities have influenced you?
D.B.:
Many…Souza was the first and the biggest influence. Initially
I was not able to understand his works but definitely was amazed by
looking at his body of work, so I just read whatever I could find
about him in books or on internet, then I also liked the works of
Duchamp, Frank Auerbach, Glenn Brown,Chad Wyss, Rosemary Cronin. I have
this stubborn approach for searching artists on net
when I come and stop at a certain phase of my work . Whenever I
feel that my works are taking a slight turn in visual sense, I do read about
them or do some R&D if I find them interesting, but whatever is the
result I continue my process. Such R&D just makes me aware of my
contemporaries or gives me a direction ahead.
JK.:
Do you like any of your contemporaries?
D.B.:
Yes, there are many like, Sudarshan Shetty, Manjunath Kamath, Atul
Dodhiya, Yashwant Deshmukh, Nasreen Mohmmedi,Nikhil Chopra, Rashid Rana, Valson
Koorma Koleri, Ritesh Meshram , Sreyas karle, Prajakta Potnis,Tushar Jog and
even most recent artist almost of my age if u would ask , I like few
works of Ubik, Vikas Holle, Pratap Morey and Bhuvanesh Gowda and
many more.
JK.: Tell us about your creative process.
D.B.:
I work on canvas, lenticular prints,
magazine ads and their cuttings. It all starts by taking an image and then working
accordingly using their scripts and compositions. I try to create some
kind of link of my past experiences and actions, I try to memorize them which
might be even foolish sometimes, or some kind of jokes shared at any instances.
I match them with the image or sometimes overlap them on the picture or even tease
or make funny comments on it. I try to destroy the basic pattern, once I feel that
the image had enough of it I stop and try to have a look on the next day
.the next day even might add something to the work I also try to play with the
scripts or the writings that are there on it, I just shuffle the alphabets;
sometimes they are absurd or even sometimes a comment.
JK.:
Have you ever had any compliment or
critical remark on your work?
D.B.:
Yes, I met and showed my works to a few artists. And some said
that the works were quite women centric, or it should have some political
or racial stand , I can’t just say that how it would turn out next or to
what extent it will go , but yes I am still working .
JK.: Which genre of films or book do you prefer?
D.B.:
I like to watch all kinds of films and same is with books. Books with lots of
experiences in it and also non- fiction types are a fun to
read.
JK.: Any big
bang plans in near future?
D.B.:
Still working…just getting to know few things every day.
JK.: Do you believe in becoming guiding star after
50 years?
D.B.:
I’ll b happy if I live that much, I am 27 now, and then I will be 77. Just
awesome!
JK.:
One liner- Your approach towards
life.
D.B.: Just trying my best to be outstanding