Out of Print Workshop at MAP

Out of Print Workshops

In collaboration with the Museum of Art and Photography

Over the first weekend in October, Out of Print partnered with the Museum of Art and Photography (MAP) to conduct a creative writing workshop with a focus on fiction. 

Indira Chandrasekhar, founder and principal editor of the magazine led the workshop 

Titled ‘Write from Art, Write from Story’ the workshop centred around the works of artist and writer, Ram Kumar whose exhibition ‘Shape of a Thought: Letters from Ram Kumar’ was on at MAP. It featured two aspects of Ram Kumar’s creative work: 

- the visual which included vibrant to dark abstracts and monochrome cityscapes 

- the written where excerpts from his letters and rare collections of his short stories in translation were on display

Both days of the workshop began with an exceptional walk through the exhibition by the curator of the exhibition, Priya Chauhan. 

Day 1

The writing focus on first day of the workshop, was inspiration and imagination, allowing the writers to think about how visual triggers can open the mind in interesting and unexpected ways. The paintings in the Ram Kumar exhibition were to be those visual triggers. 

It was a crisp Saturday morning. Participants went from the brightly light lobby of the museum, down the corridor, into the softly darkened exhibition gallery on the first floor, a rather magical transition. After giving the writers a few minutes to quietly absorb the visual works, Priya introduced them to Ram Kumar’s oeuvre, the wide range of his experiments with painting and drawing, his artistic journey, contextualised his work in terms of the artistic movements of the time, and gently guided the writers into seeing the works. 

Indira’s discussion on visual inspirations followed in the workshop space, with readings from her own work from her collection Polymorphism, and Vanamala Viswanatha’s translation of Kuvempu’s novel, bearing the English title Bride in the Hills,. She referenced the synchronicity of mood and narrative in Ram Kumar’s short stories that were to be discussed in greater depth the following day. 

The writers produced a range of extraordinary pieces in their individual styles, taking inspiration from Ram Kumar’s paintings in fascinating and diverse ways, thus embodying the words that headline the exhibition: 

“It is a beautiful painting, but I am not able to understand it”

“There is nothing to understand, it is only to be felt from within”

Excerpted from The Artist and the Collector

map-india.org/exhibition/shape-of-a-thought-letters-from-ram-kumar

Day 2

On the second day of the workshop, the focus was on craft. Indira made use the stories of Ram Kumar and some from Out of Print to illustrate specific points of craft.

Priya’s initial walk-through opened up the extraordinary world of Ram Kumar’s correspondence – with Abhishek Poddar, founder of MAP, with friends and with fellow artists. The letters are personal and revealing, and sometimes quite stark in their critique of the world and its impact on his art and creativity. To be exposed to the inner world of a creative individual was both revelatory and sobering and many of the writers were taken to different space from where they were the previous day.

The specific aspect of craft that was addressed by Indira were the following:

- the psychology of character in a piece

- back story – tips to avoid paragraphs of ‘tell’ that could drag down the pace and energy of a story

- the mood of a narrative and how landscape and setting can impact mood

The workshop led writers to dig deep. Many continued to explore what they had been invested in for some time, inspired by Ram Kumar’s words to extend their work. Others wrote pieces that were inspired by the story of the artist himself. A travel essay emerged. It was an altogether intensely surprising response and the workshop experience was rich.

The Stories

Out of Print offered to publish select completed works by the participants on their blog. Four stories by three authors were selected and are being published today, October 26th as this extraordinary exhibition by Ram Kumar closes its doors.

Below the list of published authors and their stories:

Untitled, Red by Suchi Govindarajan

Kaleidoscope by Prachi Uchil

Tragedy is a Comedy Misunderstood by Prachi Uchil

Maramalli by Aiswarya APV