Interview with Amartya De
How did you start making art?
! have a memory, of a pile scrap on the terrace (rooftop) of the apartment building I grew up in Kolkata. There was some scrap metal, probably refuse from a construction project somewhere in the building. It wasn’t a very large building and the scrap was modest in size, possibly window material. I remember arranging it, moving it around possibly afraid there would be wasps nests or such hidden beneath the mass. After it was done, I wondered at first perhaps I could have my model car run on it and the realization that it had no specific utilitarian purpose. A thought occurred, perhaps this was art?
When did you realize creating art would be a significant part of your life?
I had become a photographer over time, but it had always been a medium that I felt a sense of capturing a moment, geometry or form. One day I was watching videos on YouTube, I think Jeff Wall was on, slowly looking around the books in my room or the subjects I was interested in, I realized photography could be a mean to study and visually depict anything at all allegorical, literal, imaginative and the simplicity felt appropriate.
Tell us about your favorite medium to work in and why?
I like the book format, it feels like it can be a mini exhibition. However I am enamored by the beauty of a large photographic print. While the print is ultimately beautiful and suffices as a window or an object. My interest in social interactions and relational aesthetics through photography or video is a matter of scale and illusion one which can sometimes use all the visual aids technology can muster while preserving its timeless quality.
How do you start a new work?
I begin with an idea but also a desire to explore how my sight can be transformed through stillness through something that has a quality of tension or relaxation, a sense of a heightened relational association between things, that a viewpoint allows.
Tell us about three artists that have been influential for you
Jeff Wall, Walker Evans, Dayanita Singh
How has your style and practice changed over time. Describe your dream project.
I've become more sure of my position and am more precious with time and materials. I think with that surety comes a relaxation over subject matter through a strong hand. I control what’s in front of my camera less directly while concerning myself with depth and how close or far I stand.
Why is art important?
Art sets you free, if you let it. Materials are not as important…..use anything as long as you can speak.
Describe your dream project.
My dream project would be to make pictures freely with an understanding and trust that it would be visually interesting, id like to work in a large building one with many rooms, halls and a communal sense of sorts, one where its night and day at the same time, a library and a performance space of sorts. If this did not exist I would have to create it, through images made all over the land.
What book do you think everyone should read? Why?
I'm very basic when it comes to literature, I think reading the Fountainhead, The lord of the Rings, Harry Potter or the Odyssey serves the same purpose. I am grateful the made us read Pather Panchali (tales of the road) in school and Shakespeare. I would read stories based on truth from another time, to make us walk a while in another persons shoes.
What is your best studio habit? What is your worst?
If I am able to work fast and with attention I can get to a point where prints or sequences and ideas flow freely. I find it difficult to sustain that over a long period of time, I am learning to be better motivated and more disciplined, by being less intense in short bursts, considering how good a long sustained effort based on good habits feel. I love the ability to be attentive and use four hours in a darkroom productively, while on other days a day would result the same result if one does not feel sure.
What is the best advice you have received in your career?
Patience is a virtue .