When Dr Subodh Kerkar creates a piece of work, there is a deeper meaning to it, which
evokes different emotions. His new exhibition is awe inspiring and will be span
generations, continents and various artists. The key hero in the ‘Reclaiming
Gandhi’ exhibition is none other than Mahatma Gandhi.
The first memory Dr Subodh has of Mahatma Gandhi was as a six
year old, when his father, Chandrakant Kerkar was commissioned 20 portraits of
national leaders for the old Secretariat building. His father called him and
the children of the locality, and asked them to join their hands in front of
Mahatma Gandhi’s portrait. During his student activist days in college, he
along with Adv Satish Sonak, placed a painting of Mahatma Gandhi with his eyes
closed with a black cloth in front of the Goa Assembly.
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“I have been going around the country for the past six months
documenting, Gandhi created by different artists. Mahatma Gandhi took up
different issues and if he was alive now, what issue would he take up? Then I
thought of the act of littering, which is an act of violence. I worked with
3000 students on a project called ‘Carpet of Joy’, for which 1,50,000 plastic
bottles were collected. The bottom of the bottles were cut and painted in different
colours, in the shape of flowers. The artwork took up 2000 square meters in the
village of Saligao, and almost 2000 people came to see it every day. Because of
this project, every home in Goa knows me now,” says Dr Subodh.
After the monsoons, he plans to create an installation called
‘Head of Gandhi’, which will be 20 meters tall, using plastic bottles which
will be dismantle-able and taken to different parts of the country. In
Champaram, he will be creating a statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Indigo blue.
“Mahatma Gandhi belongs to the world, and he believed that freedom is
indivisible, and the oneness of the soul,” he says.
Subodh’s exhibition ‘Reclaiming Gandhi’ is an evolving
exhibition which will be formally inaugurated on October 2, 2017 at Museum of
Goa. “In collaboration with our digital partner, Dmytro Dokunov, an Ukrainian
computer engineer and co-founder at PO –Pixelated Realities, I have made an app
which can be downloaded from October 2 onwards. With the app, you could point
your phone to any currency in the world and there appears a 3D Gandhi on your
phone. The visual will be accompanied with a quotation of Gandhi in the
language of the currency note.”
Currently in Delhi, Subodh is still learning more about Mahatma
Gandhi and is constantly searching for new information on the Father of the
Nation. “I recently visited the Brazilian Embassy to speak to them about
collaboration with Brazilian artists in Goa, and to have the Reclaiming Gandhi
exhibition at Sao Paulo. They were very welcoming. I also visited the British
Consul to discuss the same. This is more of a pilgrimage for Gandhi,” says
Subodh.
He further adds, “I recently visited the National Gandhi Museum
and I am overwhelmed to see the Electric Cardiogram of Mahatma Gandhi. I was
accompanied by Dmytro, who informed me that through the cardiogram, we can
re-create the sound of Gandhi’s heart. I also found his medical reports in the
museum, including his blood tests. Through this project, I have come across
fascinating stories which are hardly known.”
The first exhibition will be held at Museum of Goa, in Pilerne
and Subodh feels very proud to be a Goan who will bring Gandhi to Goa for the
first time. “When Mahatma Gandhi was alive, he didn’t come to Goa, as it was a
Portuguese colony. He met with Portuguese officials outside the state but never
set foot in Goa. Through Reclaiming Gandhi, he will be visiting Goa with the
collection and memories,” says Subodh with a twinkle in his eye.
The project is not just one exhibition, but a series of exhibitions
with documentaries, poetries, sculptures, theatres, videos and performances.
Subodh has also partnered with Banglanatak dot com, who will be contributing
with over 100 tribal artists, musicians, dancers and theatre performances
focused on Mahatma. “I also met an interesting filmmaker who is based in
Mumbai, Chennai and Los Angeles – Bharat Bala. He has videos of world
personalities like the Dalai Lama, Nelson Mandela, Yasser Arafat and Barack
Obama talking about Mahatma Gandhi,” he adds. Bharat Bala is the director of
the short film, ‘Hari Om’.
Though Subodh has plans to visit and exhibit ‘Reclaiming Gandhi’
in every city that Gandhi visited, it is an endeavour that will require a lot
of financial support. “From October 2, 2017, we will be starting with the
package exhibition, which will include a box of artworks that can be displayed
anywhere. I can send this entire exhibition via email to a museum and they can
just print and show it anywhere in the world. This is a global exhibition and I
am hoping to have a talk with Google and Apple about the same. I wouldn’t say
that it is the biggest project because Gandhi was a humble man, and words like
grandest and largest were not in his vocabulary,” says Subodh with a smile.
To
conclude, Subodh was posed the question, if ever he came face to face with
Mahatma Gandhi, what would he do? “I would hug him and tell him, please don’t
go back,” says Subodh, who feels that we need the Mahatma now more than ever.
