Gowramma, 69, says her husband wasn’t a bad man. He was just lazy. That he never stirred himself to do a day’s work was realised by her father only after he married off his youngest and favourite daughter. She relives the memories of the days when she toiled on a farmer’s land for daily wages. “I used to break the ground with a shovel for eight rupees a day.”
Her son chimes in, “She couldn’t count, so I used to count the number of days she worked and tell her how much she had to be paid.”
Those days are fortunately far behind them, as her son has not only built a house for them in their village but has also been able to rent a cosy place in the city. It’s quite close to where I stay, a part of an old house – one of the rare ones that haven’t been pulled down to be replaced by apartments. I dropped in to visit them and was plied with ‘obbattu’ (chapati filled with dal and jaggery) and coffee.
Shiva, with a bushy moustache and twinkling eyes, has been a friendly and familiar face. We bond at many levels – our mutual love for walking either in the neighbourhood or Lalbagh, or Cubbon Park, our shared mother tongue, our artistic pursuits – he as a photographer, and I as a writer, and our close bonds with families. His life is extraordinary, and I never cease to marvel at his ability to live the life he wants and that his success hasn’t changed his nature.
Cop Shiva aka Shivaraju, grew up in a small village in Ramanagara, outside Bangalore. He began working after high school and found his way to the big city on a monthly train pass, and began selling phenyl and other cleaning items door to door. When he turned 21, he passed the police exam and was appointed as a constable in the city. He was drawn to art and somehow found himself at the Chitrakala Parishad, and soon began coordinating shows at 1 Shanthi Road, a novel art gallery. Here he began taking photographs, and soon developed a keen eye, following his instincts.
His work was remarkable and distinctive from the beginning, as it was more inclined to pageantry rather than documenting a moment. He spotted a local who liked to dress up as the Tamil filmstar and politician MG Ramachandran and photographed him over the days. Soon, he found Gandhi walking the streets -Bagadehalli Basavaraj, a village teacher who dressed up as the Mahatma to remind people of his ideals. ‘I Love MGR’ and ‘Being Gandhi’ were his first two exhibitions, and the reception they received set him off on a path that led to shows across the country, at festivals like Kochi Biennale, Serendipity Arts Festival and art galleries. Various international shows followed, as did residencies in several countries. Shiva is fascinated by masquerade and the roles people play in public and private. He captures the complexity of rural and urban India, focusing on people and portraiture as a genre. His portfolio includes intimate portraits of urban migrants, people of alternative sexuality, street performers and diverse humans who live on the edge. My personal favourite is the series on migrants in the city. These are happy and humorous, with the migrants wearing costumes of their choice and posing against posters and paintings in public places. Shiva’s experiences as a migrant and a cop help spot and persuade people to participate willingly in such photos.
He is the recipient of the Sovereign Asian Art Public Vote Prize (2023), the Swedish Art Council Grant (2018), the Pro-Helvetia Switzerland Art Council Grant (2017), and the Harvard University, Peabody Museum Robert Gardner Fellowship for Photography as a finalist (2016). He’s most chuffed that he was able to address various dons at Harvard as a Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute Fellow in 2023.
Gowramma can’t quite grasp what it means for her son to visit such hallowed institutions. “I begged him not to quit his job as a cop, as it was a steady income. But he’s been able to look after us. He’s happy, and I am happy for him”, she says. However, she’s far from being a silent spectator. She’s his muse and collaborator in his latest show at the prestigious Gallery Sumukha. ‘No Longer A Memory’ is a photo-performance series that captures Gowramma and Cop Shiva as characters who don various roles. Joshua Muyiwa, poet and writer, curated the show.
In one montage, Shiva plays the robber, while Gowramma is the khaki-clad cop. In another, they have dressed up as a Muslim bridal couple. In yet another, they are mythological characters or film stars. The love for playacting was seeded in Shiva by his grandfather Dasappa, who loved acting in village plays. Dasappa often took the young boy along to watch performances in neighbouring villages, perching him on his shoulders. Shiva would return home and recreate the plays, directing his mother to play various roles with him.
In recent years, Shiva was able to build a house in their village, and while it was colourful from the outside, they realised they had no pictures of their past to display inside. Having visited many homes in cities across the world, he felt a pang whenever he realised his family had no pictures and no stories associated with them. “Survival was the biggest challenge, so where did they have time to dream of travel or take pictures?”. With his love of pageantry, Shiva recreated all the childhood games he played with his mother, and the result is riveting, entertaining, and poignant.
Shiva is glowing with happiness from the success of the show. And more so that he was able to fulfil his grandfather’s desire of giving his mother a life of comfort. The walls and shelves of his home are overflowing – some of the photos he’s shot hang there, alongside colourful old signs and backdrops, and castaway artefacts that he gathers from second-hand stores. They are all fodder for his art and make up the canvas of the rich life he creates with his vivid imagination and keen eye. At the opening, amidst the throng of the art fraternity, he took a moment to tell me that he wanted my son and me to come especially because we would empathise with the bond he shared with his mother. I was touched by his sensitivity and insights that make his work special.
* Sandhya Mendonca, author, biographer, and publisher at Raintree Media, offers a distinct female gaze of the world in this column.
