When at first he envisioned his idea of artistically exploring intimate, one-on-one conversations with nine contemporary, diverse citizens of Bengaluru through Channapatna dolls, bangaloREsident and German artist George Demir both expected and did not expect that they would turn out the way he did.
“I didn’t think about putting on real hair, I thought they would just be restricted to being wooden dolls. They look familiar in a way I could have imagined but it turned out that I was stuck in the very traditional format that I was looking to experiment with,” says George, who conducted the final presentation of his residency project at the 1, Shanthi Road gallery space over the weekend.
“The colours that the doll maker used, the materials he incorporated have brought forth a more contemporary representation of a traditional craft.”
The Channapatna dolls, highlighted in the centre of the room were set against a backdrop of quotes from George’s conversations with the nine Bengalureans who mostly work in the arts spectrum. But the dolls themselves are not identified, to maintain the privacy and sanctity of the conversations, which revolved around the life stories, social positions and issues based on lifestyles and gender identities.
“The conversations also took off from the similarities between their lives and my life, their experiences and my experiences and the issues we share in common. I feel that I have become so close to these people that I now consider them as friends.”
Since he, too, has opened up and made himself vulnerable in these conversations, George has also represented himself in one of the dolls.
Following his interactions with the people, he invited them to send in photos depicting the way they would like to be represented through the dolls. He incorporated their perspectives into the design and collaborated with a Bengaluru-based Channapatna toymaker to make the dolls. “It was exciting to see him so involved with the project. I felt that perhaps it opened up his horizons on a traditional craft, which he has been working with for years, and transformed it to to make way for the contemporary times in a pluralistic India.”