A Circle Drawn by an Incense Stick: The Illusionary Journey of Artist Siddharth.

Prachi Sahasrabudhe

For Siddharth, moving from Sweden to India was like returning from nature to culture. In theoretical terms, culture is built of nature and is an interpolation on the core of what we consider natural. Being cultural is essential because it allows individuals to shift from one stage of physical life to another with changes in mental existence. Sidharth witnessed the actual blossoming of nature in Sweden as he saw people living in accordance with the needs of their environs. However, Siddharth claims that in a country where the Sun does not set for a prolonged amount of time, things must be different. During the long white nights, the Swedish people enjoyed a cultured urban life that was entirely entrusted to the hands of nature. People were completely naked and moved around naked during these nights. They invited one other to have a beer or a cup of coffee, and if they were bored, they could just wave a caravan or automobile down and go with them. This is a sign of the natural state, in which humans cannot compete with nature.

Sidharth resided in Chandigarh after arriving in India. He was surrounded by people from all walks of life. Sidharth had to be exceedingly silent on the inside and, if possible, quite calm on the exterior in order to appear natural. The throbs of a bird’s breast, the bubbling of a stream, the breathing of trees, the whisperings of the forest, and the sounds created and sung by the bus tyres all inspired him. Sidharth knew people in Chandigarh and was able to get admitted into the Chandigarh Art College. He despised the noise of others and desired to be alone and quiet. He did not have any money, though, and his poverty was humiliating. He met a Sikh person in London who had helped him survive as an art student. The Sikh gentleman hailed from an affluent family and wanted to help Sidharth, but he resisted offering him charity. As a result, he hired Sidharth as a night watchman at his farmhouse on the outskirts of Chandigarh. Siddharth took the job and quickly became friends with the midnight intruders, which included monkeys, foxes, mongooses, owls, and snakes. In the courtyard, he made a fire, sang songs,

wrote poems, painted, and grieved. His acquaintance was intrigued by how he was able to work as a night watchman. Sidharth had made friends with many of the local creatures, and his nights at the farmhouse were considerably richer and more exciting than those in the city. One day his Sikh friend arrived with a car full of friends, and the farmhouse became the next meeting spot for Chandigarh’s young and creative men.

Jeth 2- From Barah Masa series by Sidharth, http://johnyml.blogspot.com/

Siddharth was introduced to synthetic colours and materials at an art college and revered them. He thinks that materials have their own lives and existence and that even brushes have a life of their own. This is due to a deeply ingrained regard for earthly elements instilled in him by his mother and the artists of the Buddhist monastery. Sidharth was at ease with the materials because he viewed them as living beings. Sidharth is a painter who believes that hues may lead to specific forms and metaphors. He thinks that the medium and material are essential components of a piece of art and that no artist can recreate the effects of a work of art in a different media or with a different material. Sidharth was always hunting for something in Chandigarh, although he had many friends who adored him regardless of his financial or social standing. During the country’s political emergency, Sidharth thought a lot about freedom, and his explorations led him to the existential man within him. Considering Sidharth’s work, he began a series of paintings at this point.

Sidharth’s Bus Stop Series is a collection of drawings he created while spending time at bus stations looking for individuals travelling from one location to another. He employed expressionistic lines to capture the people’s likenesses but subsequently lost interest in them. He noted that most of the people at the bus stops were motionless, with just the figures of children and dogs adding movement to the pictures in these sketches. Through these drawings, he could sense the essence of life, as if people were travelling yet not travelling, just like in Orhan Pamuk’s novel The New Life (1997), the protagonist travels to bus stops and bus terminals to watch people at their way and accompanies them on their trip to unknown destinations.

He imagines that entering a new world or life is only possible by confronting death through accidents, hence he picks outdated buses as well as bus companies with the highest number of accidents and deaths. When Sidharth left his wife in Sweden and came to Chandigarh, he was experiencing existential agony. He was looking for a metaphor for his life and he found it with one at the bus stop, where people moved like ghosts. This series may be viewed as Sidharth’s first real attempt in his paintings to comprehend the core of existence via the metaphor of humans, which could be abstracted into shapes with motions given by the children and dogs. However, something struck Punjab around this time and Sidharth was not spared. His work and the artist in Sidharth were pursuing a new path, leading him to the modern realities of his hometown, Punjab.

Buddha taught his pupils that the universe is like a fire-drawn circle and that everything is an illusion. Maya Devi, who had dreams foretelling his conception, gave birth to Siddhartha. Shuddhodana, Siddhartha’s father, was obliged to separate himself from the world since he knew Siddhartha was going to abandon it. He saw everything through the lens of illusory bliss until one day he set out to explore the world with his charioteer, Chandan. Siddhartha observed elderly people crushed by age and time, ill people reduced to their bones, death, poverty, and plague while travelling with Chandan, the charioteer, and the veil of illusion was ripped away from his eyes. Siddhartha was conscientious and sought to discover a solution to all of humanity’s problems, yet he found everything absurd.

Artist Siddharth Studio, https://www.youtube.com/

Siddharth, an orphan, was having a good time during his college years. He had battled back with his senses to keep calm and focused and had the opportunity to exhibit with senior artists like Prem Singh and other friends who had founded the ‘Solids’ group in Chandigarh. Participating in the Solid Group event was a windfall for Siddharth because he was the only student invited to join the renowned artists. This event taught Siddharth that the universe was all illusion and that there was a thin veil of vision between reality and illusion that kept either realm divided with wrath. The Solid group was a realistic response to a group of Chandigarh-based artists who wished to show their work to the public. He decided to leave the fort and envision a lovely evening in the village in Punjab, where the sun paints the western sky like an action painter. He is a mixed media artist, and the clouds that pass by are his extra supplies.

Article 30, Mixed Media, 60 X 37 inch, Siddharth, https://scenescape.org/

Sidharth’s ‘Mela’ series is steeped in the 1980s’ reality and illusions, an outcome of his depressed mental state due to ongoing violence in Punjab. Melas were locations where people came to celebrate their joy, with spectacles, magic, circus, dance, singing, and so on. He first painted them as pleasant locations, with people clutching balloons and triangle-shaped paper flags. However, as he progressed through the series, his palette changed and he used darker reds, yellows, blues, and browns. This was owing to the upsetting news of killings and arson throughout rural Punjab. Sidharth’s ‘Mela’ series was a seminal series in his early years as an artist. It featured deformed human figures and loudspeakers with roots or shoots emerging from their ends. The floors were littered with fragments of broken glass and broken bottles. The triangular form of the glass pieces corresponded to the triangular shape of the flags in the paintings’ upper half. Sidharth worked on this series for almost 300 paintings and sketches, and it seemed like he was exorcising himself of unwanted emotions. He was no longer considering life to be a genuine thing, and he was doing it without any logic or justification. He could have faith in himself, his inner whispers, and his quest for the truth. Rest was like a lit incense stick drawing a circle.

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