Celebration is an inherent part of our lives. Be it the birth of a child, a wedding, promotion at work, or some victory in competition, we tend to throw parties to celebrate joyous moments with our loved ones. Take the case of a wedding, which is becoming a more glitzy affair and lucrative business with each passing day. Marriage halls and party plots are mushrooming to accommodate thousands of people who gather to “celebrate” the union of two souls.
From an empty space, the wedding venue magically gets transformed into a fairy tale-like land, aglitter with lights and fireworks, and resounding with feet-tapping music. What is it that the participants experience while celebrating? Do they really know what they are celebrating, and why? And how does it enhance their lives, if at all?
These are some of the questions that Baroda-based artist Vasudha Thozur raises in her exhibition, “The Anatomy of Celebration” or “The Party Plot”. The show, currently underway at Latitude 28, Lado Sarai, will conclude on May 10.
Living right next to a public space in Gujarat that hosts weddings, functions and parties, Thozur has been a constant witness to the elaborate and extensive preparations and festivities that are so characteristic of our present-day celebrations.
During a wedding, the venue becomes invariably abuzz with the construction of temporary sets which, Thozur says, are “more and more spectacular as the years pass”. She calls these a “visual experience with a darker edge”. “I say it has a darker edge because of the element of self-destruction that is evident in most mass-scale celebrations, and the lack of civic consideration that is so much a part of it. One can continue to celebrate while one’s neighbours are being slaughtered,” she explains.
The exhibition comprises digital prints and four sets of video footage that Thozur shot from her terrace and during a walk along the highway at night. With these videos, Thozur attempts an intent examination of the nature of “celebration” set within the context of our unique cultural and political milieu. She says, “I am speaking of celebration within a certain cultural and political context where cheap rations and cheap entertainment are historically known forms of state bribery. I think it raises questions in the viewers’ mind, which is the intent — that we investigate it together, and perhaps arrive at different answers.”
Thozur, however, was not sure about what she
could do with the shaky footage. “The content seemed more like weird wonderlands in haphazard sequence, with no obvious narrative, and the handling of the camera was hopelessly inept. There emerged, however, from this set of dysfunctional relationships, the undeniable fascination for glowing nocturnal dreamscapes shot through with dazzling displays of lighting and fireworks. They were, in fact, panoramic artworks that performed a very significant function in mediating the events that were staged in their midst,” she says.
On whether she feels the essence of celebration is still alive in today’s business-oriented society, Thozur replies, “When celebration becomes a packaged commodity that one buys, one needs to at least understand what is happening.
It creates an artificial divide between everyday life and enjoyment; work becomes drudgery and enjoyment a sort of hysterical release, and both are robbed of their power. No doubt there are moments of true collective celebration, but when the structure takes over the impulse, it degenerates into rituals. which are sometimes self-destructive — the decibel levels I am talking about are definitely so.”
She feels that the decibel levels during weddings are unimaginable, which are sometimes death-inducing too, as a few people are reported to have died of cardiac arrest at the intersections of such celebrations. She says that music mimics music to an audience that mimics enjoyment and can no longer appreciate the difference.
“In some of the music I have heard at wedding venues, all the known parameters that enable us to distinguish music from other sounds are entirely missing. Sometimes men sing both the male and female parts, resulting in an excruciating form of wailing that to me mourns the death of music. And again, the decibel level, which actually reduces one’s capacity to hear. But it comes in a package, which is hired for the evening, and no one has the time to evaluate the quality, hence, the alienation between music and audience.”
Does being a constant witness to “celebration” influence Thozur’s idea of the term? “Personally, ritualised forms of celebration impose certain constraints, which always made me uneasy. But, difficult though it may be, one needs to learn to celebrate every moment,” she says.