Jayesh Sachdev to Young Artists: Break The mould, Think Differently, Have The Courage to Take Chances & Risks & the Will to Fail If You Must

Jayesh Sachdev is a painter, sculptor, designer, creative entrepreneur, TEDx speaker, and Design Educator. Jayesh is also the founder of the Multi-award-winning label Quirk Box, and Branding Agency Quirk Box Design Studio. Jayesh holds the National Record for having painted India’s largest concept artwork and continues to practice as an internationally exhibited artist. In an interview with the editor of Abir Pothi Jayesh talks about his Journey as an artist and how he perceives art and design.

Iftikar: All right, so from a fashion brand to murals, I would like to know more about your experience at Ukaddam.

Jayesh: I got reached out by St+art India, the Delhi-based guys who did Lodhi the Art District, etc., to be one of the artists doing an art district in Ukaddam in Coimbatore. I mean, it’s a no-brainer; I’d love to see my art at that scale. You know, to see something that I’m typically doing at six feet, which I think up until then is big painting, but suddenly you see it at 60 ft or even larger, there’s an overwhelming experience both as an artist and a creator to see your work in a community space, where every day people are going to walk past that street in thousands and see that large canvas you put up there. It was a really wonderful experience.

So, I’m not a muralist, you know, but I’m an artist again who is looking to put my work on every medium possible. I’ve done cars, mugs, books, fabric, fashion, paintings, digital, spaces, restaurants, and carpets, so literally if it’s tangible, I would like to put my art on everything, right? So, a mural was just one more such thing that I was very happy to have my work on. It was a really wonderful experience; the people at Start were wonderful.

More so, just every day when we were painting along with the team of other artists that were part of this, on the walls or in that community space, creating a community project, just to have them stand by you and interact with you as you create a work that is relevant to their space, their language, their geography, their storytelling, it’s very interesting and fulfilling to see how they respond to it and how it makes them feel.

That’s very fulfilling as well, you know, because as artists, we’re used to working within our studio, in a confined space, in our solitude. But suddenly, when you’re out there in a public space creating openly with thousands or hundreds of passersby every day, it changes the way we do it, at least for me, because that’s not my general space of work as an artist. So, I thoroughly enjoyed that experience too.

Iftikar: Tell us more about the themes that you explored in the murals, and any specific incident that you would like to share from Ukaddam.

Jayesh: The people of Ukaddam were wonderful, though language was a huge barrier. Communicating with them in Tamil was a significant challenge. Many of the team members involved in the Start project were not local to Coimbatore, so all of us faced a certain sense of challenge. It’s also a rehabilitated slum that’s now being built into an apartment complex for former slum dwellers. It’s a utopian concept they’re trying to create for the common man in the city. Asian Paints, Start, as well as the local community or municipality, were part of propagating this whole project and putting it together.

The curiosity of the people every day was very exciting. Some of my paintings are whimsical; there’s this elephant which has tiger stripes, and there’s this Bharatanatyam dancer. Bharatanatyam, being the Tamil form of performance art, was one of the storytelling elements. She’s dancing with sneakers, about taking that community and moving it forward. The idea was to show how it’s evolving as well, what we typically perceive, but also how we see it in the future, how things evolve and go into the future.

There were these fun elements, like a girl playing on a swing, and everybody wanted to come and ask about her. Interestingly enough, there’s a cat that is part of the painting, this green cat from my Utopia and Dystopia painting. You see this cat featured in a lot of my works, and there’s an element of this large cat on the mural. I remember these two kids walking past one day, arguing with each other, saying, “This is my cat.” One kid says, “No, but your cat is brown,” and the other says, “Your cat is white.” They’re both arguing, saying that it is their cat. I was fascinated because this cat is neither brown nor white; it’s actually green. They’re arguing about whose character I’ve drawn. That’s just going to stay with you, how something as small as that is relevant to their everyday existence. It was beautiful to eavesdrop on or have somebody translate what they’re arguing about as well. They must have been around seven years old. That’s the beauty of public art, which, in my own confined space, I don’t find. So, that was great.

Iftikar: Do you hope your art will have a lasting impact on the art world and beyond? Do you see that happening?

Jayesh: I can only hope, you know. I do believe it has the potential to be. I do back myself as an artist who creates interesting and exciting works. Sometimes I feel I may have been ahead of my time. Sometimes I feel that even today. That’s both a blessing and a curse, you know. My work is not conventional; I’m not a conventional artist, even as an artist myself. So, the way I think, the way I create, the way I speak of art is perhaps very different from how most may do. I may even be disliked for it, for all I know. But that is what makes it authentic to who I am, and I believe that is a voice that will stay.

I know that I made an impact with Quirkbox, with such a simple concept of making art democratic through fashion. I know I made a significant impact in the fashion world and as an artist. And I know that my design studio does some exciting work, you know, with packaging for all kinds of exciting brands, big and small. So, I’m quite confident that as an artist in this space as well, I will perhaps, hopefully, most likely be significant too.

Iftikar: And what does success mean to you as an artist? How do your personal experiences and worldview reflect in your art?

Jayesh: I can only hope, you know. I do believe it has the potential to be. I do back myself as an artist who creates interesting and exciting works. Sometimes I feel I may have been ahead of my time. Sometimes I feel that even today. That’s both a blessing and a curse, you know. My work is not conventional; I’m not a conventional artist, even as an artist myself. So, the way I think, the way I create, the way I speak of art is perhaps very different from how most may do. I may even be disliked for it, for all I know. But that is what makes it authentic to who I am, and I believe that is a voice that will stay.

Iftikar: Well, that would be really encouraging to all the audience who are new to the profession and who are students. Maybe you would like to give them a message on how to proceed in their career in the art world.

Jayesh: I think it’s important to find a voice. I feel it’s very important to find a voice. You see a lot of art that looks like each other, a lot of art that’s kind of old school in a certain way. I feel like breaking the mold, thinking differently, having the courage to take chances, risks, being willing to fail if you must. I encourage people to fail because it means you try, you know, and it’s the only way we learn.

So, for people who want to pursue this, there is an understanding that it’s not easy, for sure, perhaps like any other field, even, but there’s a challenge in being an artist, for sure. You need a lot of patience and perseverance, and I would encourage people to have both of those, you know, just to be constantly persevering towards why they started this, to believe in themselves when maybe others don’t, to back yourself and your strengths, and why you do this, what it means to you.

While it is simple as a concept, I understand that in theory and in practice, to actually do these things is a lot harder. But I’d say that I also had my own share of being impatient and times when I felt like I wanted to give up. But then you have to kind of tell yourself why you’re doing this, and would you rather do anything else, and all of that, and a lot of the answers are always right ahead of you.

So, to the newcomers, I’d say find your own voice and just be willing to pursue it for as long as you need to.

Iftikar: One thing I forgot to ask while you were talking about your artistic journey is: What challenges did you face during this journey as an artist?

Jayesh: I think we face challenges every day; you know, that’s just life, right? I mean, it’s not like there weren’t challenges. There are challenges as we speak, and there will be new ones tomorrow. The challenges change; it’s just that. So, when I started off, I did a lot of nudes, and it was very hard to get galleries to accept those as art. You know, that was just one of the first ones. Then there were challenges of not being formally trained as an artist, and some galleries were not excited by the proposition of that, which is weird because in the West or in New York, they like the fact that I’m a self-trained, self-taught artist, and they want to sell me as a self-taught artist. Here, there is this perception of ‘he went to such and such school,’ so, you know, the challenges are always very different. Today, my challenges are different because I’m pursuing larger projects, so I’m running into different challenges, right? So when I look back, I realize like this, I would have not imagined this challenge should even exist, so I shouldn’t see it as a challenge; I should see it as an opportunity, you know? So, I feel the challenges have been this firefighting is part of being an artist, right? It’s like when I run Quirk box. I mean, there are days where you go in wanting to make clothes, but you’re actually firefighting. Your tailor and your master fighting with each other, you know, physically even sometimes. And as an artist, that’s not why you started this brand, you know, whatever it is. But you know that’s the kind of challenge you run into, right? Which you can’t foresee. So honestly, there are abundant, unimaginable challenges that are of all scales that exist and that are going to continue to exist. They’re just part of the process, I think. The sooner we learn to accept that it’s part of the process, the easier it is to perhaps adapt to being an artist.

Iftikar: Right, so what is the current project you’re working on? Would you like to share some details about it? Present and upcoming

Jayesh: At the moment, I am working on some very large sculptures, very large being 8-10 ft. I have something in the pipeline that’s about 20 ft. I have never worked with that scale, so I’m very excited to do it because I know that I will. That’s a work in progress. I’m also painting for my next solo which is at the Tao Art gallery in Worli, Bombay, which is in October. That’s a series of 10 paintings that I’m currently working on. I’m midway through my process, completing that show, the works for the show. I also have a commission project of building sculptures for somebody where we’re creating 180 sculptures for somebody. So that’s another really large project, you know? So, there’s a lot going on. Very, very excited. Six big sculptures and smaller miniatures of these additions of these, but it is a small tight deadline project, so it’s kind of crazy, you know, to manage all of these at the same time. But I think I’m very excited about each of the sculptures that I’m building, the number of commission works that I lined up to as an artist, to sculpt, to produce, and the painting shows lined up ahead as well. This is all in the very, very near future. And then, of course, there are things in the pipeline for as well that maybe too premature to talk about, but let’s say up until October, this is where I’m at.

Iftikar: Well, thank you so much for taking out time from your busy schedule, Jayesh. That really means a lot. We would like to wish you all the best in your creative endeavors with Quirkbox and all the upcoming projects. We would love to see more of your artwork in Delhi, in Mumbai, and all over the world where you exhibit. Stay in touch, and we’ll definitely cover more about your exhibitions and you.

Jayesh: Thank you so much! I genuinely appreciate you having me. Thank you so much. It’s a real pleasure to speak with you, and I look forward to having you at my shows and just speaking with you at length about art and non-art as well offline. So, yeah, thank you very much.

Feature Image: Jayesh Sachdev/instagram