Session 96 summary
Saheb is actually from West Bengal, but currently his family is living in Dhanbad, Jharkhand. So, he had spent his early childhood in Purulia and he pursued his higher education in Jharkhand. After completing his matric and inter courses from Dhanbad, he went to Varanasi to pursue his Fine arts course. Pursuing art was not something new he thought of after his 10th but he had wanted to pursue it from the beginning because art and cultural activities are present in tribal society in their works and the younger generation watch their elders producing lots of creative folk arts during festivals and marriages. Saheb was very much inspired from them and he would often observe the elements used by them. But when he entered fine arts he was not sure about the different disciplines in fine arts – the 5 streams/ departments i.e. sculpture, paintings, applied art, pottery and ceramics and textiles. When he was in 10th – 12th he used to think that there are only 2 disciplines- sculptures and paintings and people can only go in those two streams. But on reaching BHU Art College he discovered that there are multiple disciplines. In the first year there was a foundation course (similar to the foundation courses in NID) for 1 year to understand the different disciplines and the approach of different materials to try and understand the colours, forms, and the possibilities and career in terms of different disciplines, etc. During that time he chose ‘specialization in sculpture’ because he felt that painting was something he did earlier and can do even after pursuing sculpture, or in some way he can get skills in paintings in other mediums but sculpture is something very difficult to understand with mediums like stone, metal, fibres, traditional materials, etc. So, he was very curious about these materials and their possibilities and took sculpture as his discipline. After graduating he realised that he should try out different educations like, in design he should try for animation/ graphic animation. So, he applied for animation in NID and joined in 2008 and completed the course in 2011. Upon entering NID he found out that there are so many disciplines, there are so many things to learn apart from fine arts and that the approach is different. In fine arts the artist does it for themselves, they don’t have any clients, whatever one wants to give to the society- any messages or aesthetical approach, etc. it is supposed to be their own. The self-satisfaction motto is there in fine arts. But in design one has to think about each and every step, the cause, what are the solutions one is providing, etc. basically till the end users one is trying to connect it themselves with what they are doing and they have to focus their users in whatever they are doing. But in art it is not like that, artist produces artwork to satisfy themselves, in other words for “स्वान्तः सुखाय” or “joy for self within” (by doing things that give you genuine happiness). They don’t have to please anybody, it is not about selling each and every artwork and that is the actual philosophy of art. But design is different, one has to think how they can sell it and how they can fulfil the client’s utility purposes, similar to giving solutions to the need of the society. Saheb’s discipline in NID was Animation Film Design, so for the diploma project he chose a subject which is very relevant to Indian society. While graduating from BHU he had written a poem which is based on his mother- how she used to struggle to nourish the entire family, how she actually cared about the family and family members, and her daily work. Based on that and through the years of her different phases he had written that poem and made a diploma film with the title “Nayo” which is mother in tribal language. Saheb’s focus was dedicating the entire film to her and the film received many different awards. He also did many other films as part of his college projects both individual and group projects, which also received some awards. These were the films which were enriching his skills as well as thought process, like how different medium works.
After completing NID he debated on what to do, whether to set up a studio or join somebody, he also tried applying to different companies but at that time his work was not based in terms of how the industry employs people- they look for the digital artworks, etc. but Saheb’s work/ approach was very much towards fine arts, so all those companies were not sure about his digital art skills and so they didn’t take him in. Before 2013 he had taught in NID for a year for the foundation course which was a learning experience for him also before switching to a company and in 2013 when he again applied for different companies he got into Tata Interactive Systems who hired him as a visual designer for e-learning courses. There he used to design different online learning course, based on science and some of them based on medical course, etc. it was very enlightening for him and a good opportunity to understand how the industry actually works. He worked there for three years and before resigning he got the offer in Cognizant and so they again asked him to join as a senior visual designer. He joined the Cognizant in Kolkata and he worked there for atleast 5 years. In that time they had a lot of better and great works and Saheb thinks that it was the best time in the industry, knowing the designers and artists from Government College of arts, so there were lots of scholars and contemporary artists who all were doing design works in the industry. In 2014 he had an exhibition in the Academy of Fine Arts titled “Renaissance: Rebirth of Santhals” and he had around 46 artworks in the gallery and a friend of his, Guru Charan Singh, he was also participating with him as it was a group exhibition. So, the friend also had a few artworks, around 10. He had the story of Karo and Koili and Saheb presented the myth of santhals- their genesis, their migration, rituals and plots from Karambindi. There he met Ruby Hembrom who asked him if he would like to work in a children’s book project based on the plot of santhal revolt. He agreed and worked for 3-4 months and published a book for which they got a lot of recognition and even awards. In 2018 Saheb had banam workshops which is now taken to the Oslo museum. In between he also got a project from Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology from Cambridge who asked him to do one sculpture based on santhal traditions so that they can portray the journey of Indian indigenous artists. Around 2018-2019 he was also working in different documentaries with Anthropological Survey of India, they went to Purulia and documented different festivals, sohrais, baha and karam festivals, Saheb acted as a source guide/field guide in this project. They had different locations and they used to go there; document, talk with people and at the end of the day they would edit the narrations in those films which Saheb provided, the rituals – they would categorise them, translating each and every song into English, etc. When Jharkhand government was making a tourist spot in Patratu dam, Ranchi, they approached Saheb and asked him to do some sculptures, while doing that he came to know about Isko Rock Cave Paintings. He went there and visited different Sohrai painters who are now internationally recognized and working with Bullu Imam and Sanskriti (Museum). During that time he had visited different villages and came to know that there are lot of wood carvings in the tribal houses and he was very much inspired with them. He had taken their photos and tried to copy those patterns and the designs in his own home and created two doors with those designs for his home. This was his journey in understanding his own tribe and other tribes as well. And in 2019 he joined BHU as an assistant professor.
His artworks during the two years of pandemic shows how as an artist he documented the pandemic. The project includes his artworks since he was in BHU (not all but a few). In the first phase of lockdown- the artworks represents how the government announced how everybody would not be able to go outside because of the increase in the spread of the virus and people had to purchase things which they would consume for 3 days to a week at most. At that time Saheb was living with his colleague in a flat and they purchased many vegetable and purchasing them in a large quantity was exciting for him as he felt that “you are buying so many vegetables, they are colourful and have different textures”. Earlier the same vegetables were bought in smaller quantities but they didn’t pay any special attention to them. So, the colours and beauty of these vegetables struck him and he thought to himself “why not try making still life of them?” so that lot of stories can be shared about them. He tried different medium like dry pastel, soft pastel, charcoal, ball-pen etc. to draw the vegetables. Since the lockdown extended, the campus was devoid of students and mango trees bearded fruits. At that time there were many mangoes but no children or students and so they (Saheb and his colleagues) were plucking and eating them, and Saheb got the idea of making/doing a still-life of them. Later he tried to study the vegetables from different angles with different mediums. He also used watercolour ink to represent/paint brahmi saag. During lockdown people were also not using the boats and in Banaras there was a hug line of boats tied together on the river which Saheb found interesting and drew them. Then he took their wood cut and printed them.
About the Speaker
Saheb Ram Tudu
Saheb Ram Tudu is an Assistant Professor in the department of Plastic Arts (Sculpture), Faculty of Visual Arts, Banaras Hindu University, Varanasi. He is an artist, sculptor, illustrator, animation and documentary film maker and also works as guest faculty at NID and several other institutes. He has specialized in mix media in the field of sculpture. He completed his PG in Sculpture from Faculty of Visual Arts, BHU, Varanasi and completed Masters in Animation Film Design from National Institute of Design, Ahmadabad. He had also worked in IT Industry for several years as a senior visual designer in animation. His keen interests towards the folk art and wood carving has always motivated him and he had participated in few workshop conducted by Museum of Santal Culture at village Bishnubati, Birbhum. His works have been exhibited in Oslo Museum, Norway and in the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology, London. He shows his artistic skill towards the traditional carvings of Santal Banam Instruments and the Doors to preserve the dying traditions of indigenous people. He has created many short animation films as a professional film maker. He has won 4 national and 2 International awards consecutively in 2010, 2011 and 2012 for his animations. He is also a published poet. Tudu ponders the delimitation of the human intellect that leads to spiritual metamorphosis. His art reflects the culture of Kashi, its mysticism and spirituality and the connecting aspects of life and death.
