Reliving the nostalgia of ‘mohalla’ culture

With increasing urbanisation and shrinking families, the idea of an extended neighbourhood and friendly societies seems like a far cry in today’s time and age. To bring out the elements of an Indian ‘mohalla’ and the very many facets of a community living on a canvas with cramped colours and silhouettes of peculiar characters from a bygone era, artist Kavita Chopra Dikshit decided to dedicate her first solo show of paintings to the memories of a friendly neighborhood. Her exhibition titled ‘Mohalla’ of abstract artworks opens on the 5th of February, 2019 at the Open Palm Court, India Habitat Centre, New Delhi.The artworks are explored in oil and in mixed media, and it took about 18 months to complete the 80 pieces that are part of this series (big and small) mentions the artist. Speaking about her upcoming exhibition, she says, “For this show, I will be exhibiting about 40 pieces that are created using oils, acrylic, and mixed media. While urbanization seems to be an inevitable outcome of modern living, it brings with it a complete change and restructuring of the concept of ‘private space’. With families becoming smaller and nuclear, the basic social construct has moved to individuals and not communities. Our generation has seen and experienced the concept of the Indian mohalla and closely knit communities (both in terms of space and experiences). This series is a celebration tinged with the nostalgia of a time gone by and cramped spaces within which life unfolded in vibrant colours. It yearns for the romance of lost time, another world where community living was the order of the day. It captures the vibrant, colourful, noisy rhythm of lives that flowed into each other, an interconnectedness that created joy with a layered unfolding of life. I’d like the viewer to be able to make their own interpretation of the work, within the context presented. In this series, the colours used are extremely vibrant and rich – almost fairytale like in some pieces – as they reflect the vibrancy and richness of life in the mohalla. The technique used is one of layering as well as a lot of scraping and textures. This seems akin to the life cycle of life within a mohalla — building, rebuilding, scraping, and a layered and textured experience.”
 
Kavita is also an accomplished portrait photographer and has shot many luminaries including Ustaad Amjad Ali Khan, Kuldip Nayyar, Shahnaz Hussain, Deepa Malik, Laila Tayyabji, Suhel Seth, Shovana Narayan among many others. Sometimes, when the mood strikes her, she is also a poet. Born and brought up in small-town India, she studied Sociology at St. Xavier’s College and Mass Communications at Sophia College. Later she went to Pittsburgh (where she did her Masters in TV Production), and Atlanta, Georgia (where she worked with CNN at their international headquarters). She now lives in Delhi and runs her own graphic design company called the Red Design. Speaking about her artistic sensibilities in different mediums, she says, “As an artist, you should work on stories that interest you naturally and that you are drawn to. I don’t think that art must only address social issues. It is a powerful medium to talk about social issues but I certainly do not think that that is its only purpose. I am personally drawn to a variety of topics and issues. I love iconography as well as the old masters.”

Kavita believes that it is the direct outcome of social media where opinions get amplified and become an echo chamber. Speaking about the creative expressions and censorship in the art world, she says, “People are getting more vocal about all kinds of issues – not just art. And social media enables one to put one’s opinion out in the public domain. People seem to be getting more and more strident in their views across issues. So, I don’t think this issue is related to art or the creative fields only. People feel that once a piece of work is out in public, then they have the right to criticize the same. I do feel that while one has and should have creative freedom; all freedom must come with a modicum of responsibility too. There are some things which are offensive in a common sense kind of way. So unless one is putting such work out for a specific purpose, one should always be sensitive to sentiment. However, I do feel that the state interference in such matters should be minimal and restricted only to very specific issues where the state feels that it is a matter of law and order.”