A brief history of possession with Mithu Sen

(IANS) "I'm not sleep deprived, just that I don't want to sleep. How can one miss the night? Yes, I am forever restless. Sometimes I might just take out my most precious objects and clean the dust marks. But wait, when that happens, does it not also wipe away a piece of history, in a stroke?

New Delhi, March 19 "I'm not sleep deprived, just that I don't want to sleep. How can one miss the night? Yes, I am forever restless. Sometimes I might just take out my most precious objects and clean the dust marks. But wait, when that happens, does it not also wipe away a piece of history, in a stroke?

"I play with things, and at the back of my mind, it has its own explanation. Connecting points is important. It's like a block chain thing. I can't give straight jacket answers. People think I am going everywhere but there is a word called organic in the dictionary. This year I have decided, whenever a journalist asks me what I am going to do in 2020, I won't answer. I will refuse to give any clues. And yes, I am also tired of the 'surprise' bit. Everyone can keep making guesses."

At her studio in Faridabad, artist Mithu Sen has set the premise. And for the next three hours, plucks word from sentences. Nothing is forced. There are contrasts, there are long pauses.

This Kala Bhavan and Glasgow School of Art pass-out, who was the first artist to be awarded The Skoda Prize in 2010 for Indian contemporary art constantly changes mediums frequently to protect her freedom. She questions if she really wants to master a certain skill - painting, sculpture etc.

"Why this constant need to 'box'? Isn't it important to unnamed? Everything that Wikipedia calls you, let's unsettle that first. The in-betweens, that space, the transition between whatever has happened and whatever is going to come, I belong to that space," she says.

Sen says she is drawing, immersing and then coming out for short breaths. Sometimes it's about going back, and at times forward. "I see the news, which is disturbing. All of us must protect ourselves. These are hopeless times, in so many ways. It's not about individualism, but solidarity," she adds, almost with caution.

The artist, who performed at the Venice Biennale last year

( With inputs from IANS )