From art galleries to social media the evolution of storytelling

[Music]

we

are the stories we believe in stories

make our mundane life bearable amidst

all the hustle and that citizen

happening around the world and in our

personal spaces

in fact we turn to social media to

escape into another reality

the people we follow on social media the

art we see

and the stories we read sort of starts

becoming a part of our daily lives

internet and technology has definitely

changed the way art is perceived

nowadays

it has made art more democratic and

accessible

no one can argue on that in the past art

was something that only a minority of

people could access

one needed to go to an art gallery to

see artworks

an artist had to take his work to a

gallery or get it published on a print

media

for his audience to see them today

internet has made this process extremely

simple

by enabling artists to simply upload it

all on a webspace

you can access it at any point of time

share it with your community

or even sell it this has inevitably

changed

the way a viewer connects with artwork

let me tell you how

when you go to an art gallery you’re

actually ready and prepared to receive

the art

you go there with an intention to see

and enjoy the art

the artist knows that his audience who

comes to the gallery

could mostly be art enthusiasts whereas

in case of a new gene artist who uploads

his work on social media

does not get that privilege his audience

could be from different walks of life

they may or may not be an art enthusiast

they might be seeing your artwork on

their social media feed

at the most unexpected time maybe when

they are in a traffic jam

or stuck inside a lift or in between

work they could be in different

emotional states as well

they could be struggling with something

in their life maybe they just had their

first kiss

or maybe had a breakup the point is

the audience in the latter case are not

always prepared or ready to receive your

art

no one can predict the receiver end of

the art publication on internet

and this has changed the rules of art

perception

in a huge way as an artist who majorly

uploads artwork

on the internet i usually get responses

from people

all around the world irrespective of

language culture or borders

mostly there are positive messages of

love and appreciation

but sometimes i do get criticism as well

about the way i portray things but

whatever case it may be

as an artist and storyteller i had to

invite people

to listen to my stories i had to make my

audience

participate in the story by encouraging

them to think and perceive meaning

in their own way about my art stanley

kubrick once told this

if you really want to communicate

something even if just an emotion or an

attitude

let alone an idea the least effective

and least enjoyable ways

directly it only goes in about an inch

but if you can get people to the point

where they have to think a moment

what it is you are getting it and then

discover it the period of discovery

goes right through the heart when you

started to make art on internet

this was the code that came to my mind

first

instead of telling the story directly i

usually try to give visual cues so that

viewer can think for a moment

and create the story in his mind in

other words by doing this

you are inviting the observer to

participate in the process of

storytelling

my purpose here is to make the window

for a viewer

to look at and encourage them to figure

out its meaning themselves

let me explain this with few examples

human is the best way to start with so

here is a backstory

in 2016 when the state demonetized the

find rupees note overnight

people rushed to the atm to beat romani

which resulted in

long long queues in front of atms the

situation

was so for quite a number of weeks and

each time you stepped out you could

always see lines of people in front of

idioms

i wanted to represent this perfect

craziness so i took the image of the old

find rupees

and on the back side i made a slight

change like this

and uploaded on my profile i connected

the dendiatra

to demonetization just by adding some

quirky thought

without actually preaching anything

directly to the viewer

it suddenly went viral on social media

and it made

people laugh evolution of the social

media era

has also resulted in people documenting

everything in their life

and presenting it on their social media

handles in that context

i read you the same image of dhandyatra

with the title

the revolution will be instagrammed here

i used the same reference image of the

indiatra

but added different visual cues for the

people to think

when we are documenting our life as

often as we do know

we always have this constant pressure of

making everything look good

and perfect we always try to politically

correct on internet

but in real life reaching there is a

pretty big task

i try to represent this dilemma with

this illustration

can’t pretend it anymore social media is

also a place

where you actually get to witness a lot

of propagandas

news we hear are usually fabricated

everything you see on internet

is not true and often they are carefully

crafted messages

which affects the collective

consciousness of the entire society

as an artist this is how i represent

this situation

till the year 2012 i had a corporate job

during that time

every day i had the same routine wake up

get stuck in city traffic reach office

find new corporate ladders to climb

goals to achieve wait for appraisals and

validation etc

soon enough i understood that it was an

endless cycle

this was my inspiration for this

illustration i was fortunate enough to

get

the office job after a while and got

into making art full time

because you know someone had to tell all

the stories right

not just in professional friend

so-called routines follow us into our

personal lives as well

you know the usual things that all of us

get pushed into

due to society pressure like get married

by 30

have kids buy a car and then buy a

thousand square feet home

for an unreasonable price for which you

end up paying emi

for the next 50 years of your life when

i thought about this

i came up with this particular

illustration

in fact social pressure affects adults

and kids alike

we’re constantly asked to follow a path

and be like everyone else and do like

everyone else

which actually ends up being so

stressful that you feel suffocated

to represent this what else can i use

other than a pressure cooker

this one is about most indian parents

they will do everything for their kids

accept encourage them to be themselves

i’m sure

most of you can relate to this too

gender inequality makes the social

pressure even more terrible for women

they put women in different balls and

never allow them to be free

like trapping them in smaller spaces

without allowing them to be free

thinkers

this illustration represents that when

you can’t fit in

when you need the whole sea

i have another illustration series named

unposted letters

where i use the same narrative technique

to communicate different emotions of

love and life the entire illustration

series

are crafted like letters from a boy to a

girl accompanied by a small pros

here’s an example just when i thought it

was a breakdown

we all might have encountered a similar

situation somewhere in life

right a time when you thought it was

downfall

or net but all of a sudden it leads to

something beautiful or unexpected

this illustration shows the absurdness

and ambiguity of life

there are times when things are not in

our control and we can only wait and

watch

how life unfolds in front of us this is

same

for human relationships too in fact

we can write a book about this topic but

instead we can also

encapsulate it into an illustration and

let the viewer

complete the story here is another one

everyone will disappear but not in the

same way

in this one i’m trying to communicate

how insignificant

and trivial the human life is people

will always disappear

no matter what it’s quite a relatable

incident for many of us

you might have had someone in your life

whom you thought will be there forever

but they would have disappeared

somewhere in the middle

such relatable collective experiences

are the backbone of unposted

letters series i have made around

150 and post letters illustration like

this and i believe

people find them so relatable that they

not only connect with it

but also share them with their dear ones

it’s human nature to enjoy listening to

stories

stories make us believe in something

even though

the mediums are changed constantly over

time the idea

remains the same in the era of internet

and technology

it’s almost like magic when someone

connects to your work and

engage with it sitting miles apart it

means

someone is giving your giving you their

valuable time to listen to your story

and even empathize about it these small

things

make me believe that we are all

connected by same emotions

as one species the world might be full

of chaos and darkness

and it’s not always easy to find your

way within it

we can be saved only by sharing stories

to each other

stories of success stories of failures

stories of hope

love heartbreak stories that make you

constant authority

even stories about your own existence

maybe by telling the stories and

imagining a better future

we can actually make it a reality or

maybe not

but either way we must tell them in our

own way

as long as we can as deep as we can

because at the end of the day

storytellers will disappear of course

not in the same way

but stories will live forever thank you

you