[Reader-list] Is painting a currency note which can not be forged unless you act illegally?

[indersalim]

Dear Taha,

Your very interesting response is  certainly my essay's second part. I
will try write its third part. I wish there are many more reflection
on the subject. The subject ' fake/original' is such that we can
always safely conclude by saying ' to be concluded…'

Earlier, this little essay-piece was triggered by Raza's serious
reaction to his own fakes. But obviously I can not simply stop at
criticizing him for his lack of humour, but we rightly need to march
ahead and touch the deeper issues of identity etc. Today on 26th of
Jan. in TOI we have an interview by poet-bureaucrat Ashok Vajpayee who
also seemed quite bothered by collector's dilemmas, which
intellectually I again see some sort of short-sightedness.  What
amuses me most in all this that the victim artists themselves fail to
realize their own understanding of modern art, which is that art
changes, even after the brush stops, even after the colours dry on the
surface, even after the same set of eyes see it again, even after the
same audience likes and then dislikes it…

 I believe, a time gap of 60 years is enough to make the artists to
see her/his own works in a changed form. If not, I only see
stagnation. We have to move ahead of Dada and Duchamp but I guess it
is futile to continue with a Picasso etc.  What is that which makes
them dismiss the forgery in the first place: if not the money factor ?

But wait; they are perhaps genuinely worried, because they are still
on the same old track of creativity, which is creative indeed, but
something, smog like, has crept into "all the pores" of that
creativity, explicitly, which  we call : conceptual.
Radical thought is a perpetual flux of expression in material and Life
directly.

Unlike in the first part, where I took pains and found Jean
Baudrillard's quotes sufficiently describing the collectors
limitations, but  now, I guess, we ought to intuitively enter  the
word 'conceptualism'.

Meanwhile, can we suggest  to represent ourselves with an image of say
Dodo, or about to go extinct species such as Tiger, tied around our
necks in our National Identity Cards? Will that be too heavy a weight
for the Nationhood to bear? Do we need to realize intensely that
things have shifted radically ?  The Nation State needs a lie to
sustain itself. Even legendry post-Kalinga King Ashoka required some
violence to sustain his hold on power. It is inevitable. Read today's
fake encounter which marked two dead bodies as two terrorists. Now
people know why we need 26th of Jan. and so Identity cards as well. I
am interested in something which takes a departure from that line of
identity which is too obvious, predictable.

Perhaps, the notions of identities have shifted for the younger
generation, and do this younger lot blindly let them impose their ways
of identity on the rest. Do we need to join their anguish against the
fakes, even when we don't paint.  I do paint, as a true amateur, that
is entirely different from what Raza and co. are into, but yes,
'photography' I believe, was free from this ' faking fear'. So I do,
photographs, and would be amused if they are duplicated into anything
else. I have no fears on that account, but I have my own fears.

Yes, there are more bigger traps in the photography, but to grapple
with those, do we need to get rid of those ghosts who are by now
exposed?  The mystery ghosts of Indian Modern art are on sale, and I
have not no interest to buy one, even when I had such a huge money to
invest, but  I do look at them comically, which is not ordinary. They
amuse me, they entertain me, but  I don't see they are radical enough
to unnerve the bigger ghosts of our existing times,  which are much
darker in nature.

If we truly believe "every body is an artist" then we know how
definitions don't work, and we also need to know why there is some
sincere desire in people to identify themselves with something where
money was a minor player, but their inner respective being was ' the
hero . I am not certainly talking about some 'collective
consciousness', whatever that means, but something which is 'singular'
in nature.  I usually write ' singular-i-tease' whenever we talk about
that inner' people's desire', which rips ( Derrida ) anything, both
sacred and profane. People do it, in their own beautiful ways.

Please have a look at my second version of INDER SALIM poster, which
has the very name indersalim ( sound )  written in sausages 'of beef
and pork'.  So, difficult to devour and relish, for those who are hard
core believers of  their respective identities: Hindu and Muslim.
http://sheisalivingchild.blogspot.com ( image in the box )

In practice, I believe, the difference between original and fake is
just a temporary one.  I am talking about  how ' our ways of living'
are road rolling that earlier difference of identity which we held
dearly near our hearts. Gizmos and technologies are rendering that
difference into a mythical one. There is a profound regret, but
perhaps, we don't have a way to go back to the past, but we have all
the reason to see faults with modernity. Something else is happening
right now. I have certainly no big expression to talk about that, but
see, what a chaos we are in. So what is hidden but there, is perhaps
vital for our ongoing ways of living.

The style of an artist  has indeed collapsed as something lasting. The
National identity too has a limited function in that sense. The word '
conceptual' on the other hand transcends the boarder, and the style at
the same time.  It outwits the market oriented collector, and
simultaneously questions the corporate cultured monster's hidden
sprawl under the national tricolour. Unfortunately, the masses are
helpless, but they deserve better than Nation merely as style, and a
situation where artists are a rare commodity, like a Mercedes car
which they only look at from a distance, for some moon like desire in
their eyes. ( see, how MF Hussain, openly exhibits his hobby of
collecting expensive cars in Dubai )
	
At national level, particularly in North India we have a strong
difference which is based on 1947, and Partition. Both, the post
colonial identity and Hindu Muslim difference is working towards the
formation of National Identity.  Here, again ' our ways of living are
rendering that difference into insignificance.  A time will come when
we don't need fear  to from this lack, of not being a Nationalist;
which does not mean we need to be anti-nationalist for that, but
something which is liberating, truly  for our inner spiritual pursuits
at the core.

Right now we don't have a duplicate to a Mulla ji or a Brahmin ji who
performs an  original and obviously devastate millions of Indians with
his fear mechanism. They even sabotage the strong structures of
Democracy with their deep psychological reaches into the minds of
people. They themselves carry a ritual flag in the name of God. They
rob people and give power to God.   They are intimately seated next to
nation state which robs people to enrich itself.  They were never
originals in their original function in our society . But they had a
style which they sell like our modern masters.  This is where 'the
Nation', if dependant on that style ' of  partition and post colonial
identity' then it performs  as collector which is "impoverished and
inhuman ".

About 'idiocy' of our times:  that we are drowned by the photocopies
of the photocopies of the photocopies of the photocopies. Where is the
original Monalisa stands today, if we were burn all millions and
billions of photocopies of Monalisa ?

Is anybody hearing, Raza  who is too anguished about fakes of his originals.

Nation is on the thorn, Some one is hungry at Seven. Artist is worried
about originals.
Muse is in her Heaven. All is right with the world

With love and regards
Inder salims



On Mon, Jan 26, 2009 at 5:21 PM, Taha Mehmood
<2tahamehmood at googlemail.com> wrote:
>
> Dear Inder,
>
> Thank you for posting a wonderful essay. I look forward to the second part.
>
> I think this essay reflects a lot of issues, questions and dilemmas that I am grappling for last four years regarding the not so clear notion of  identity.
>
> The similarities of debate in the art world, regarding fake and the original, seemingly creative solutions like  Ela Menon's to deposit her thumbprint on her work, and the anxiety to identify the-one-as-the-one, are not that dissimilar, it seems to the current neurosis of many a nation state to introduce national identity cards.
>
> It was interesting to note how the writer of this essay choose Rosset's words to argue,  "The  real is not threatened by its double today it is threatened by its very idiocy". I am curious what Rosset's take would be on the crucial issue of national citizenship because essentially it is about identifying the real from the fake.
>
> To issue a national identity card, any state would have to act as a collector of personal and financial information. Of collectors he states, 'collectors, for the part, invariably have something impoverished and inhuman about  them'. Will he harbour the same opinoin for a nation state as a collector too?
>
> I wonder what prompted him to use such a strong language. As a reader one does not really understand why he articulates the act of collection as impoverished and inhuman.
>
> If for a moment we leave the sensitive nature of politics around the imagination of a nation state and talk purely in terms of politics around the art world, I would be happy to know your views in so far as the debate around the fake and original is concerned.
>
> As the essay suggests, one of the reasons for the existence of this anxiety seems to be money, the other seems to be ownership or maybe authorship.
>
> As an artist and a practitioner of an art form, to what extent, you think Inder, that one could formulate ideas about fake and original.
>
> Warm regards
>
> Taha
>
>
>
>
>
>



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