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‘No Longer a Memory': An artist's recent photo performance series relives his childhood memories
With an upturned moustache à la Salvador Dali, a nattily clad gentleman in a three-piece green suit and bright blue shoes greets visitors to the exhibition, No Longer a Memory, at Gallery Sumukha, Bengaluru. This is none other than the artist-photographer Shivaraju B.S., better known by his moniker, Cop Shiva. In this latest avatar, he looks as if he has just stepped out of the frame of one of his photographs.
Curated by Joshua Muyiwa, a Bengaluru-based poet and writer, this series of photo performance works features another character alongside Cop Shiva— his mother Gowramma. Long fascinated by the idea of masquerade and the roles essayed by people in their public and pri vate lives, the photographer decided to train the lens on his own family. The idea for the body of work was sparked by the recent realisation that mother and son did not have a single photograph together. The closest Shiva had come to getting one was as a youngster, when his maternal grandfather decided to take the mother-son duo to a photo studio, but then abandoned the idea because it was too expensive. He consoled his grand son with some sweets instead. Shiva, 46, grew up in strained circumstances in Bannikuppe, a village in Ramanagara district in Karnataka.
Gowramma and he were not just mother and son but playmates and companions. 'She was my favourite companion and I was hers; we needed nothing else. We were very happy and together we made the most amazing memories," the artist reminisces. This often took on the form of play-acting, when both of them would essay characters such as cops and robbers, gods and goddesses, and heroes and heroines from the movies. Acting came almost naturally to Gowramma as her father had been a theatre actor, essaying mostly mythological characters. Shiva has vivid memories of his maternal grandfather taking him to the theatre at night to experience the excite ment backstage as make-up was slathered on and costumes donned.
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It was the support of his mother that enabled him to join the Karnataka police department in 2001. 'All of her efforts were focused on giving me a chance to break the fate predestined for someone like me. And she made it possible for me to cross this invisible bridge; she was the strength I needed to take a leap of faith," he says. After leaving his village, it was serendipity that led Shiva to the alternative arts space, 1Shanthiroad Studio/Gallery.
A chance meeting with Suresh Jayaram, founder-director of the space, and his childhood dream of becoming an artist, led him to taking on the role of a project coordinator while still juggling his job as a constable. It was here that he gained exposure to the work of artists and photographers, embarking on his own artistic journey. He finally quit the police force in 2019 after 18 years of service as he was unable to manage both roles.
His work so far has focused on street performers, urban migrants and people navigating the rural urban divide. One of his most memorable projects is the documentation of the life of a rural schoolteacher, Bagadehalli Basa varaj, as a Gandhi impersonator. The present body of work, which began in 2018, takes a trip down memory lane and restages those madcap moments Shiva shared with his mother during his childhood. The gallery walls have intentionally been painted in bright colours, which impart an over-the-top aesthetic and make the 133 images on display pop. 'Lime green is the colour of his house so we wanted to bring his space into this space. Cop's work is really maximalist so I wanted to push it and see what happens," says Muyiwa, who has known the artist for 15 years and has a deep understanding of his practice.
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In a nod to his job as a policeman, there are photographs of Shiva playing the convict and his mother a moustachioed policeman. In other photographs, both are astride a Royal Enfield bike, brandishing rifles. In some images they appear like crazy travellers carrying television sets on their heads, elsewhere they pose stiffly as benevolent royal rulers. There are pictures of the artist masquerading as Hanuman and Yama, or posing as a hero on a bicycle with bright yellow pants and out landish goggles.
The family's love of animals is reflected in images of mother and son cradling goats in their arms or posing with don keys, regarded locally as a symbol of good luck. The artist recalls that in his childhood he enjoyed playing with these quadrupeds, despite the stern admonishments of his mother. Most of this masquerade is set against floral backdrops or painted scenery provided by the Vinayaka Drama Scenery company.
The photographs are a palimpsest of memories, as Shiva reveals. For instance pictures depicting him and his mother covered from head to toe with white flowers recall the Muslim weddings in their area, the jasmine flowers his mother used to lovingly tend in his youth as well as the jasmine he planted on a plot of land he recently bought. All through the series, one senses the special mother-son bond in the bonhomie and camaraderie on display. 'One of the things with most of these works is that they are little in jokes between him and his mom," says Muyiwa. 'I wanted it to be funny but not comedy. That is what I was curating in some ways." With this humorous yet poignant show both Gowramma and Shiva can finally make their memories real.
At Gallery Sumukha, Bengaluru, till 28 June, 10.30am-6pm, Monday-Saturday.
Meera Menezes is a Delhi-based art critic, writer and curator.
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