Art versus Art : Part Two

Part Two

Even collecting dead insects to create art looks a bit odd to me.  At the same time I respect others’ right to express their artistic sense in any way. There is no point in arguing that then collecting flowers and leaves from the plants for any kind of use comes under the same category.  I know several people even create beautiful art work collecting and drying flowers and leaves.  I am not sure whether we can compare creating an art out of dead insects and other animals. In the past people used to display the head of a tiger [sometimes with the entire skin], deer etc., in the living room which their ancestors hunted. Now one cannot do that [This does not mean that such displays of old ones are removed.  I am not sure what the law says about this].  Even we cannot collect dead corals from the sea [we used to collect them and use them] for any purpose.  But no government is going to ban collecting things from plants. 

Personally I never like to pluck flowers from the plants to arrange in a flower vase.  But when there comes any need, I have done the same.  Similarly I collected flowers from the garden for my mother for her puja.  But when others question me why not I collect flowers to do the same, with a smile I tell: ‘You bring flowers from the plants near to deities, but I tell the deities to go and dwell near the flowers to enjoy freshly all the time.’  When I lived at Mathigiri, several times I collected flowers to arrange a flower vase.  When my mother questioned it as I brought only a few flowers for her puja, I told her ‘if I don’t plug, others will take and use it only for a few hours.  At least by putting them in a flower vase with water I can keep them alive for a few more days.’  I know I have my own logic for life which everyone need not accept.

Using animals and their products for food, commerce is common.  Similarly, using them for research is also common.  Yes, several people use dead animals and their feathers to create beautiful art works [particularly from the peacock].  But when I see some art work even out of dead insects, it never creates an aesthetic sense.  When I watch a beautiful butterfly come and sit on the flower, I enjoy it. Though it flew away within a few seconds, still that scene remains for a long time and even gives inspiration to write poems celebrating nature.  But when I watch even a dead butterfly within a frame in any drawing room, I don’t like it.  A girl will love to receive a bunch of beautiful roses from her boyfriend and not a framed dead butterfly.  Of course when they break then they can exchange such gifts to celebrate their breaking with one winged butterfly to symbolize that happy event.  They can use another broken wing to write down the date of their breaking.  Who knows, considering the modern trend of ‘making and breaking’ a boy or girl would end up collecting more such gifts to proudly show to the future wife or husband, how she or he is lucky to have him or her now as the life partner. In one show I saw both the boys and girls proudly sharing how many girl and boy friends they had so far.  Of course they would say that they are only following our ancient tradition of ‘swayavaram’ [choosing one’s life partner svaya + varan] where a girl will choose her life partner in a stiff competition. When she is not happy with everyone participating, her father [who is always supposed to be a king] has to organize many such events till the girl finds a correct life partner for her.  Of course this is a cruel joke.  But considering the context of such art, this will serve a purpose. 

I never like to visit zoos as I don’t want to watch them in a cage or closed environment.  So far in my entire life I visited only one zoo: the famous Kannan and Nandan in Orissa.  There also I refused to watch lions and tigers in cages.  But putting any animal in a zoo just for our pleasure is nothing but cruel and I never enjoy such cruelty in my life.  When one person requested me to come and watch his collections of fetuses from one month old baby till seven or eight months, I refused to see that.  Similarly I never like to keep stuffed dead animals’ bodies with me.  Unless they are preserved carefully with chemical treatment, they might even produce new kinds of viruses. Now scientific researches warn about keeping pet animals and birds in our home.  I am not against keeping pets as long as they are not becoming a nuisance to our neighbors.

For me the definition of art is different.  Here the contention is not between experiment versus cruelty but experiment versus art.  At the same time I respect others’ right to use their own definition about it.  Yesterday [1^st May, 2023, I watched the ‘banana art’ which fetched 120 dollors.  Student eating a banana in South Korea.  As he was hungry ate it and tapped the peel on the wall. An act of rebellion. Eating is art too.  Rebellion against rebellion and damaging art is also art.  See more Vantage, First post by Palki Sharma Upadyaya, CNN IBN, May 1^st, 2023.