Best Foot Forward
The very first meeting and he surely leaves a mark on you. Yes! That is the aura of Siddhartha Barik, a philosophical man whose only mode of looking at life is black and white. He loves to be described as invisible. The most striking point of this man is his ascent, its crisp, precise and quite distinctive. You might have made up your mind that he is not an Indian, but to your surprise he is born and brought up in Delhi and for a matter of fact, he himself is unaware of the reason behind his accent. Recently, A.Kameshwari from One World News sat over coffee with him, and tried to decode all of his puzzling and perplexed thoughts.
The moment I visit your Facebook page, I come across a few poetic lines “Art is not a choice, it is way of life….” What are you trying to say through these lines?
What I am trying to say is that art is like life. Life gives you chaos and order; they are walking together hand in hand, as if one. There is pure chaos in world, there is no reason why you met me or I met you, but we met. It might have been planned but it did happen and happened chaotically, but we are making sense out of it. The same way the process of painting is a reason why one paints. When one is painting he doesn’t really need to think what he is painting about, but if he can make sense out of it he will be able to get something which is chaotic and has order to it. It might not make sense to people but would make sense to him.
So, is all your work ‘personal’ and not for the audience?
What I usually make is portrait and human faces. Every person is similar and has a similar life but only different expressions. My each portrait is so universal that if it’s of a woman then every woman will get connected to it and so is the case, with men too. Journey of life is the same but only the story is different.
A lot of your art work is about love-making, what you have to say about it?
Women are the reason why I paint. Without them I would not have started painting. Women are the best and most beautiful creation of god. Love making is oneness felt by two different bodies, let me put it up this way like a coin has two sides, a branch has two aspects and each branch has further two aspects. Nothing is one as such. The more you know about something you will get to know that there are two aspects to everything. The concept of one is two, I am one only when I am connected to a woman so, that is the reason why my paintings are mostly of love making.
Alongside your art, you have scribbled something which comes out to be poetic, is poetry also an interest of yours?
Art is a way of life so is talking. And when art and talking becomes your way of life then everything you do becomes artistic. So, the only thing required is to add style which we term as painting or poetry. My favorite medium is painting. When you are alone in a room and are trying to play with color it is the best time. Your mind is not quiet but, conversing with the canvas, and while doing it you are having a conversation with your inner self too and it is called alpha stage and one paints to do so.
Is your art-work related to your life?
Every painting is in phases. Everyone has phases happening in life. If you ever really go through my paintings you will understand that they are in layers, one month it would be of a different style and another would be of other style. One should never stick to the same style and should always try to create something you have never done before and if you do that you will be motivated experiment more and more, as the song goes ‘There is no satisfaction.’
Talking about satisfaction, what makes Siddhartha satisfied?
Siddhartha gets satisfied but is also unsatisfied in every single moment; I am a natural point who is looking at both sides of any single view. It is hard to describe me, even I can’t do that. I follow the fact that there is happiness only because there is existence of unhappiness alongside. I started painting seven years ago. But, I was interested in it since childhood.
How has been your family’s reaction to it and how beneficial you think painting is, as a profession?
My parents have given me the freedom to be whatever I want. It is because of them I am what I am today.Our country has not been able to bring art as a form of earning bread and butter yet. There has been different way of earning money through art, like job, freelance etc. A true artist has to believe in his work and enjoy it so that others can also enjoy it. If you do commercial painting then there is more scope of selling your work. Earlier, I wasn’t bothered of commerciality but now I am. I feel it is trying to eat the artists. Money is god these days and that’s why we conform ourselves to some idea. The irony of painting is that the man who paints is true and genuine whereas the man who buys it is completely opposite.
What is the inspiration to your art? And what is new you are trying these days?
Tribal art, folk art and pre-historic art are my inspiration. I don’t understand colours, they are very chaotic for me. I understand black and white. So I am experimenting colors these days. There is different feeling to it but black and white will always be me. Though the color depicts duality of life, it has nothing to do with my personality. I never thought I will be an artist but life happened in a way that me and art got together and one of the person who inspires me a lot is Vincent van and if you haven’t read the novel ‘Lust for life’ then you must now.
What is it you are working on these days?
‘Barik-life’ is a project through which I and my friend Ari Jayprakrash are trying to bring a new aspect of art. A live show where there is live music happening and I am on stage painting right there. May be after some time we might introduce live dancing too. We have done this experiment five times for now and the response has been amazing. Along with it we are also working on a graphic novel where we are putting concept-art. The novel has a story which goes in boxes, you break the boxes and a painting appears but the painting has nothing to do with building up the characters rather, it moves the story. I got myself a typewriter and I also play the guitar. I don’t want to learn it but love to experiment.
What message would you give to our readers?
I enjoy painting and once I stop enjoying it, I will stop it. So, for the readers also I will say the same that- life is a beautiful experience and enjoy everything that comes your way.
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