Chili is one of the Founders and Director of the prestigious October Gallery, which has been responsible for raising the profile of experimental South Asian art through London, and beyond. Established almost forty years ago, and based in the trendy area of Holborn, this extraordinary institution has been “instrumental in bringing to worldwide attention many of the world’s leading international artists.”
These include Lakshmi Shankar, Hindustani classical vocalist of the Patiala Gharana and sister-in-law of the late great Ravi Shankar, and the creator of the Indian dance form, Bharata Nrithyam, Padma Subrahmanyam. “It was tough getting started,” Chili said of the inception of the Gallery. “No one was actually doing what we were: nurturing artists of different ethnic backgrounds, who were showcasing vibrant visual arts from across the world. It was hard terrain. However, continuing to work with talented artists, who were not afraid to express themselves, we began to see the Gallery flourish. We became the home of Indian performance in the city!”
Together with a lover of contemporary music of the time, Sri Varadarajan, October Gallery formed the joint events venture: Nadabrahman. This was a regular series of South Asian visual arts that exhibited the creation of a chosen individual each month. “The audience would sit on the floor in front of the performers. We would have Indian food to be shared out too.” Indeed, reminiscent of other famed underground cultural movements, such as the Beats who challenged social conformity in the US, Chili’s artistic project has authenticity at its very heart. Advocating cosmopolitanism in the West, the Gallery has not only provided a platform, but given a mutual authority, to the artists it has extensively works with.
“We co-ordinated our projects with the former Music Village (Cultural Cooperation) to really bring the message of South Asian artistry to the urban fore. Over the years, our audiences have gone organically from being simply Indian, Sri Lankan, Nepalese, or Pakistani to wholly multicultural.” The Gallery’s artists passionately promoted their events, creating an engaged and increasingly varied audience as London was, in turn, changed by them.
Interestingly, October Gallery also coined the term, ‘Transvangarde’, which further intellectually acknowledged the Avant Garde, as “a strictly western term,” which needed to become less Eurocentric. “Novel, challenging art was very much limited to Western culture in 1979 when we started, and we wanted to open it up.”
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Chili elaborated by talking on current expressive artist, Vena Ramphal, whose dreamy performance, The Shape of Stillness, will be showing, this Wed, 24th at the venue: “take the artist, Vena, for example. She takes Bharatanatyam, the classical Indian dance, to another level. Highly trained, she can incarnate – meaning making the vision come into the flesh – actually bringing down the Gods and Goddesses, who are central to this dance into her space. It’s astonishing. She also channels her own background in Yogic mediation and counselling to explore geometry as well as the message of wellbeing.”
Dancer, Vena, commented: “I’ve deliberately never trained in anything other than classical Indian dance. My own style has developed out of the tradition and is part of it. It is constantly updating itself from within. No external influence is needed. I’m passionate about making this known far and wide because there is a misconception that Classical Indian Dance doesn’t have anything new to offer.”
Here, Chili emphasised the special, evocative power of Bharatanatyam dance: “All dance is physical, but Indian movements use this more deeply, having the ability to really transform. The dancer can inhabit another world; perhaps even go into what could be described as a trance, occupying another emotional plane altogether.” Vena added: “Dance is prelingual. It speaks to the audience’s full consciousness without being restricted by specific words.”
Tapping into her modern training then, “this specific piece explores yogic cosmology,” to holistically promote health. “After the launch performance,” she told us, “many people in the audience spoke of being emotionally moved. One lady even said she ‘left feeling whole again’. It is an unforgettable experience: a visual feast!”
Vena’s adept performance then directly transmits the benefits of practising corporal calmness to those watching through an almost primal magic. Chili elaborated on the intrinsically complementary relationship between fitness and Vena’s rapture: “Classical Indian dance is very centric, based in the raw, lumbar area of the body. It’s similar to martial arts that way.”
Vena further stated: “I created The Shape of Stillness in response to the need for wellbeing in our modern world. I want to give out hope. More people are asking for it and the time is right. Stress and burnout are too prevalent and we need to tackle them. The piece intimately shows the explosion of Creation from a still point into complex patterns of vibration, falling back into stillness. There are fast rhythmic sections and meditative sections of dance.”
Indeed, this strikingly reflects our recent socio-political climate which appeared to be settled, but has been thrown into great flux. Now, as mirrored in Vena’s piece, the public consciousness is inevitably moving back towards the uniform state. Here, Chili offered some beautiful insight: “Everything that we see on the outside is also inside of us: we tend to project onto others. Coming from deep within the wellspring of the human body, dance can then help us recognise what we’ve had no way of expressing, but always knew in the unconscious.”
Using a most visceral art form then, Vena is helping people form a hugely beneficial, clearer connection within. One which could also eventually inspire new, more honest relationships with others in a multifarious society: “The title of the show came to mind during meditation. I didn’t know what it exactly was but it was clear and vibrant. My work aims to support people in finding their own Shape of Stillness: their own peace.” As well as through performance, Vena is spreading her Yogic wisdom through corporate workshops, and various keynote speeches. “It’s becoming my brand in a way.”
And so, untangling the constructed from the organic and the confusions from reality, Vena’s work radiantly epitomises the motto in the evolution of the October Gallery itself: ultimately, human truth lays not so much in a simple break away from, or return to, the old as the bigger, expansive idea of the unbounded inner self. As opposed to a circle, life is an upward spiral in which we as individual vessels timelessly persist. The illusion of surrounding politics may change, but pulsing, our nature stays the same. Chili concluded: “I’m only ever drawn to the revelation of the inner life of man. I don’t get distracted by the technicality of performance. This can leave one feeling cold. I want to know what is behind it: who is that person?” Why not come to the Gallery’s upcoming show to discover how this philosophy speaks to you?
The Shape of Stillness is an evening of Dance and Conversation. Tell us more?
The dance will be followed by a conversation with Vena, in which she will explain a few movements, the link to yoga, and discuss the ideas brought up. But you will see in the dance, what you will. You’re taken into a higher state, and that’s an individual experience.
Describe the arc of the movements in the piece?
Fluid movements are juxtaposed with linear shapes. It’s a solo dance where the dancer’s body expresses a cosmic story.
The Shape of Stillness will show this Wed, 24th at the October Gallery
T: @VenaRamphal<https://twitter.com/VenaRamphal>
W; http://www.octobergallery.co.uk/
W: [email protected]<mailto:[email protected]>
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“Classical Indian dance is very centric. It’s similar to martial arts that way”
