Dorrie Younger and Anoop Skaria

JohnyML: When did you start the gallery?

Anoop Skaria and Dorrie Younger: We first opened an art café, in 1997 in Fort Kochi.  In 2003, we took on some more space, dedicated to the promotion of art, in Mattancherry, just 2 km from Kashi Art Café, and this became the Kashi Art Gallery. Now we have two creative spaces for artists to live/work–one is a stone's throw from Kashi Art Gallery on Bazaar Road in Mattancherry, and the other is on a quiet backwater island, 25 kilometers from Kochi.

JML: What motivated you to open an art café and a gallery?

AS & DY: Numerous talented artists hail from Kerala, but they had little support structure or platform to professionally present their works.  Understanding the limitations of art lovers in Kerala (or lack of), we opened Kashi as an art café in order to sustain our art activities.  The profits from the café totally support art and cultural activities.  Over the years, we have professionally represented several talented regional artists.  This dedication was noted and appreciated by the community and news of our efforts reached other established artists who had previously left Kerala.  They, in turn, supported us in a major way; for example, Bose Krishnamachari, who coordinated the show ‘Bombay x 17’ in February 2004, helped create national awareness about our activities.

JML: Who initiated you into art?

AS & DY: Neither of us have any professional art education, but both of us have been involved with artists and the art scene in one way or another for many years.  You can say we are both self-initiated art lovers. There has always been an innate interest in art among both of us even though we come from culturally extreme backgrounds: Anoop is from South Kerala and I am from Detroit, in the US.  But, as a child, I was a frequent visitor to art museums and galleries, and began collecting art as a young adult.

JML: What was your experience when you started your gallery? 

AS & DY: We got hands on experience while organising art exhibitions and other cultural events while running the art café. Many of our projects were designed keeping in mind our long-term objective of  “defining and repositioning the role of visual arts within the Kerala society”. One of our most successful projects was called ‘Everybody’s Space’ where we invited young artists to work for 10 days on a filthy, very public beach, creating installation art revolving around the issue that public spaces should be considered ‘everybody’s space’ and not ‘nobody’s space’. The event caught the public’s attention and an amazing amount of support and community participation forced the city to initiate a clean-up programme.  Therefore, by the time we opened the art gallery in 2003, we knew the work and responsibility we were taking on.

JML: How did you strategise to go ahead at that point of time?

AS & DY: We set our own rules; we didn’t really have other role models to follow (may be thankfully so).  Not being a gallery with a big name or reputation, in an area such as Kochi, we knew that well-established artists may initially be reluctant to work with us, so we went out to find young talent that was yet to be discovered and positioned the gallery as a professional platform for their recognition. 

JML: Who were the young talents that you identified?

AS & DY: The young artists who got noticed include Gopikrishna, Sosa Joseph, Rajan M Krishnan, Anil Kumar Janardhanan, Ratheesh T, and Upendranath TR. And there are other amazing young artists coming!

JML: How did you locate them?

AS & DY: Search and hunt, seriously reviewing the work of all artists who approach us, providing encouragement and residential opportunities if we feel they have potential and finally with projects such as KAVA (Kashi Award for Visual Art).

JML: What has been the growing up process with them?

AS & DY: We present their work, sometimes repeatedly over a period of years.  Today more people are watching what we do closely, so artists are getting noticed more quickly. They seem to take off from there. We don’t tie artists up with contracts, but hope for their understanding and ongoing support of our activities. We build our gallery on relationships; when an artist is recognised we share in their happiness and feel a great sense of pride in knowing we too played a role.

JML: How did you find your clients?

AS & DY: The buyers?  They found us, generally through our website–www.kashiartgallery.com, but sometimes they just walked through our doors.

JML: Can you point out certain differences in your exhibition strategy then and now?

AS & DY: Since the buyers found us, we now have the luxury of improved cash flows and can afford to print catalogues, do more camps, sponsor more artists, and provide more opportunities for the upcoming talent.  We work at the grassroots level and will continue to do so.

JML: How did you prepare yourself to receive the boom?

AS & DY: We just went with the flow…we recently registered ourselves with the sales tax office! 

JML: What do you think about curated shows?

AS & DY: We don't see very many ‘curated’ shows, only conceptualised or organised.  A serious curator has a point to make and artists and their work become tools to make that point. Some so-called ‘curated’ shows fail to do this.

JML: As Indian art is going international, what are your strategies to promote Indian artists abroad?

AS & DY: Kashi has always had the luxury of an international viewership because Kochi is an important travel destination. Most travel guides highlight the fact that Kochi has an ever-expending contemporary art scene and anyone interested in art can't help but notice this upon arrival. Many of our buyers have serious Asian art collections; once they come through they remain in touch for all shows via our website. Many artists have made international connections here and have participated in shows abroad.

Our international viewers, see the cinema posters, feel the dust and taste, the masala in India before they visit our spaces and appreciate the contemporary Indian art. Therefore they enter the work within the context of this culture–because they are not in NewYork, Berlin or Paris viewing it–they are right here in India.

JML: There is a sceptical view in the scene that the boom is a bubble and it will burst soon. Do you agree with this?

AS & DY: The boom will definitely level at some time, but considering that the Indian economy is experiencing its own boom within the middle class and that these people have expanding sensibilities about aesthetics and investments, the art scene boom is not destined to burst too quickly.

JML: Artists are hard pressed to produce more and more works. Will it affect the quality?

AS & DY: Of course.  And it’s shameful. The artists should take control themselves and not over commit, but rather work at their own pace.

JML: What do you think about the art journals in India?

AS & DY: Not enough depth. Not enough variety in the people covering art. Overly urban.

JML: Do you think that Indian art history and criticism are up to the mark?

AS & DY: We see more reporting than actual criticism.  It's tough to maintain friends if you are an honest art critic. May be we have people here in India who can do the thankless job, but they appear reluctant. 

JML: Alternative art forms like performance and videos are growing up in India. Do you promote these art forms?

AS & DY: When the opportunity to promote any substantial contemporary art form presents itself, we most definitely take it into consideration.