“The human brain comprises approximately 86 billion neurons that “talk” to each other using a combination of electrical and chemical (electrochemical) signals. The places where neurons connect, communicate and respond with each other are called synapses.“
On a previous visit to Kolkata, through family connections I found out about the Chander Haat collective. In April 2025, I had the opportunity to produce some new work on a residency at Chander Haat, West Bengal, India.
The word Chander Haat is a Bengali idiom which means a gathering of influential people. Chander Haat is a reflection of how the same sky looks over us in the big city, small town and a tiny village- the only big shots here are the moons and stars. Formed in the late 1980s by Tarun Dey, the artist members moved to their current site in 2008, having bought land in a location which was then outside Kolkata to the south west. On this land, over the years since, they have built significant studios and workshops, and living accommodation used by the 7 main members of the collective.
In August 2024 I made a brief visit to see the facilities, meet some of the members, including the founder Tarun, and see what they were making. In fact their welcome was so welcoming that I decided I would love to come and stay to make some work in response to their practices.
What I made was a response to the work by the main artists in the collective. Pictured above are three of them: Bhabotosh Sutar, Mallika Das Sutar, and Pradip Das. As such, my research and outcomes over this period divided into three main strands: Moulds and casts for the Durga Puja, Autopsy of the missing, and Synapse in action.
Moulds and casts for the Durga Puja.
Now an Unesco World Heritage Event, the Durga Puja in the autumn of each year has become a two to three week festival of arts and religious devotion. Across Kolkata, the Puja sites are cleared and a new concept is created by lead artists such as Bhabatosh Sutar and Pintu Sikdar. Much of the making is carried out in the ateliers at Chander Haat, and there are racks of moulds and casts of deities, animals and sculptures previously used for the Durga Puja tableau. Resembling discarded skin casts of surreal creatures, the moulds can be very evocative.
Autopsy of the missing.
From “The Celebration” by Bhabatosh Sutar.
“Autopsy of the Missing is a profound take on the anxiety of post-partition that Sutar had experienced very early in his life. Resonating with an MRI scan table and the mechanical reverberation it produces, the work scans through the map of divided Bengal, connected by its rivers.
Sometime back, Bhabatosh Sutar had been confronted with a critical life threatening condition. During this phase he had to go through invasive medical procedures where cameras had to be inserted inside his body to give visual to his criticality. During this procedure, Sutar experienced through his body the terrain of the land he was born in.
His body became the zone of battle, survey, markings, aid and destruction that which his land had been subject to for centuries. The river and tributaries which connect one side of the land to another, was flowing through his body as his food pipe, his intestines and his nerves. He assorted curvature plumbing with a commode to develop a sense of palpable resonance, outside his body connecting it with the flow of rivers through the land, finally connecting itself with the ocean.”
The sculptural work, Autopsy of the Missing, resonates with me. I saw pipes as limbs, legs, arms, I saw intestines and plumbing, I saw reflection and shadowing, I saw structures and landscape of the body. I felt compelled to bring aspects of membrane, skin, soft curves and variations in opacity to this hard yet visceral sculpture.
Synapse in action.
Re-engaging with a core idea that the skin is an interface between the person within and the world around us, it means that the skin is a meeting point, of the forces, influences, agents inside us and those outside. It is the result of this collaboration and conflict that we are who we are, and how we seem to be.
I wanted to experiment with this idea by working collaboratively with someone who is different in many dimensions to myself. Mallika Das Sutar, one of the main member artists of the Chander Haat collective, kindly agreed to be the cooperating and opposing forces. She offers difference of gender, nationality, culture and language.
Presentation.
During the my time at Chander Haat, I gave a presentation to members of the collective, residency staff members and their followers. Afterwards Tarun Dey, the founder of Chander Haat, presented me with an award for my work on the residency.
