Antonio Puri does it subtly by drawing you in to internalise the theme of diversity, and makes you take stock of your own perceptions and prejudices
With his roots in the east and his branches in the west, exploring his own identity and that of the others around him is a passion rather close to his heart. So when India-born Philadelphia-based artist Antonio A Puri says, art is his religion, you know where he is coming from.
“I am interested in comparing connections between my eastern roots and my western experiences. I embrace the possibility that we can exist in a world free from labels,” he says, matter-of-factly.
Currently the artist-in-residence at the popular Woodstock school in Mussoorie, Uttarakhand, Puri has done some fascinating work in India.
His earlier shows in Mumbai, Ahmedabad, and Chandigarh, followed by his work in Mussoorie, all explore that everelusive theme of equality.
It all started with his experiences around the world. Thanks to his travels to 48 countries. “Do you know I found discrimination to be a living entity in 47? I was startled how something like your skin colour, which you have no control over, becomes your identity. Look at the world around us, discrimination is everywhere.” he says.
His artwork in Woodstock School, another one at a “Hawaghar”, a public seating area in Mussoorie; the DNA Helix installation shown in Ahmedabad depicting stacks in different colours (drawn from skin colours of diverse group of residents of the Dhal ni Pol area of Ahmedabad); or the many hands on display in Mumbai, all explore the theme of diversity.
What is fascinating to note is how it all began. Puri, an alumnus of Woodstock was in Ahmedabad in 2014. Though the idea had already taken birth in his mind, Puri’s chance meeting with Shastri Jayanti Panaori (the pandit to Sarabhais) sharpened his vision for The Varna Project. “Shastriji spoke of his deep knowledge of Rig Veda and shared how it was misinterpreted almost 200 years ago. The Varna system in the Rig Veda, he revealed, speaks about four castes or classes in a body and not in an entire society. It divides the body according to its work. The head is the Brahman, the hands and stomach Kshatriya, the Vaishya, and the legs, Shudra. “It was people who misinterpreted this division. The result is for all of us to see even after so many years. This disturbed me immensely and I wanted to share my opinion,” he says.
And share his opinion he did — brilliantly, drawing in many others to internalise the theme of diversity.
“Just mix burnt umber, raw sienna, titanium white and Indian red in different proportions and you are sure to get your colour”, he says with a smile so plain, you know there is more to it.
Prod further and he says, “That’s the work of an artist. You make something beautiful, draw the person into it, and then say what you have to. In my case, I want to address discrimination. I do it subtly, involving people in a way that they go into an internal journey of sorts.”
After Ahmedabad, Puri created a DNA Helix structure again, this time drawn from the skin tones of various employees in Woodstock school. The installation, however, is just one of the artworks. At the Quad in Woodstock, there is a unique mandala artwork. Look up at the ceiling and one notices hundreds of eyes. From brown to a bright blue, big to small and narrow, they are all there. “The eye of a sweeper could be next to that of the Principal or a student’s next to a teacher’s. All barriers of class are broken”, says Puri pointing to the ceiling.
The wall has beautiful designs done with the artists’ own finger prints in golden. What stand out are two figures done in colorful strips, drawn from actual shades of skin colours. For these, shares Puri, he had a large community of the school try to make a skin colour closest to their own skin colour. The various strips were then stuck on two figures, which stand out against the wall.
When Puri notices my eyes veering to the golden couple on another wall, both real with their curves, looking ethereal on a wall in the Woodstock school’s Quad building, he smiles and says, “These are the enlightened beings. How humans are supposed to be, without any prejudices, their inner glow guiding them. When we become one with the world and see everyone as equal,” shares the artist.
Thanks to the diverse crowd at Woodstock School, it provided the perfect platform for a work like this.
As an artist, it’s discrimination of all kinds that Puri wants to answer, even one related to gender. So he did an interesting experiment in public art in the hill town of Mussoorie; he used an old hawaghar as a blackboard, which saw women from different countries (thanks to the diverse crowd of tourists) come and pour their hearts out on discrimination.
“I used nine gallons of black paint to give it the blackboard feel.” He then gave oilbased markers to women to write messages on the walls. The markers are available freeof-cost to all at the nearby Cozy Corner (a wayside shop at which people stop for snacks).
The expressing is on. From Spanish to German to Marathi and Garhwali, the writings are all on the wall — literally. So if there is the beautiful Urdu script on one corner, another one has a sure hand in Punjabi and yet another in Spanish, all conveying the same thing. Women’s need for being treated equal, of not being stared at, of not being made to feel inferior.
A golden couple that the artist had replicated on a wall at the Cozy Corner, was vandalized. But that won’t stop him from creating another one. After all, passing on the message that Puri wants to, won’t be easy.
But he refuses to give up, the image of the enlightened beings guiding him surely and certainly.