The Power of Art and Activism with Indian artist Shilo Shiv Suleman

Qissa: Thank you so much for speaking with us, Shilo. To start with, could you tell us what you're working on at the minute and a little bit about your career up to this point.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Sure, absolutely. So my name is Shilo Shiv Suleman. I guess you could say my practice is split in two. I have my personal practice on one hand where I do a lot of work at the intersection of art, technology, intimacy, magical realism. Then I have an extremely public practice which is the Fearless Collective which is now growing into a movement of hundreds of artists across South Asia, who turn up at the front lines, at the moments of fear or national emergency or trauma and use art as a way to catalyse imaginations.

Qissa: Amazing. We will definitely come back to the Fearless Collective. But if we go right back to the beginning, you started as an illustrator for children's books. So, what was your favourite book when you were a child?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Well, that's an interesting question. I mean, I grew up half Hindu, half Muslim. So I grew up with a kind of amazing confluence of everything from the Mahabharata and ancient Indian epics. Growing up with the myths in a sense because the land is embedded with it. Mythology has been a big influence for me. Then on the other side, of course, there was the heavily globalised influence of the Disney multiverse.

Qissa: Yes. None of us can escape that.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Exactly. Between Disney and Hindu mythology and Islamic and Sufi mythology, there's a lot of magic everywhere for sure.

Qissa: Amazing. That sounds like such an interesting mix of culture to be growing up with!

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Absolutely.

Qissa: You can see that magic in your own artistic practice and the interest in mixing different elements. A lot of your work explores the interplay between art and science (such as Semiprecious which looks at forces of nature, and your collaboration with a neuroscientist where you created art that interacts with brainwaves). Did this interest in science and technology come later, or has it always been there for you?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Well, I grew up in Bangalore in the South of India, and Bangalore used to be known as the Green City of India in the sense that it was full of these like verdant jungles and forests and elephant corridors. And then with the, I would say the invasion in a sense, or the descent of tech companies into Bangalore, the identity of the city shifted from being the greenest city in the country to becoming into the Silicon Valley of the East. So I think it was actually this frustration with seeing the city that I grew up in turned to dust in a way. The frustration with that actually got me to engage with technology rather than run away from it. When I studied in school, it was set in 140 acres of forest land and we didn't have a single computer on our campus, which we were very proud of actually. And so, for me, when I was 21 years old and suddenly in university, it felt like rather than hiding from it I needed to be able to engage with it, reclaim it, grapple with it and that's what I did.

Qissa: Wow. That's very impressive to take something which is invading your space and deciding to learn from it inside of running from it. What is it that you were studying at university?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: I was doing design art and design essentially, so it kind of involved everything from more traditional graphic design to animation, to, at that point, what was developing into interactive media. My mother is an artist as well, she started painting around the same time [that I was studying]. She was in her late 30s and I was a teenager. So, again, it was this confluence of influences, right? From my miniature artist mother to this kind of new world of interactive art and art being something that didn't have to exist within a gallery but that could spread out into the streets or onto our screens or onto billboards. That became something that was very fascinating to me.

Qissa: That's so interesting. I watched your TED talk about using technology for dreams…

Shilo Shiv Suleman: I was all of 20 or 21 back then, so, it was definitely a marker of success but also I was very young.

Qissa: I was particularly interested in the interactive story you'd created and how you were trying, with some elements of it, to get kids to go outside and to look at the nature around them and appreciate it. It actually made me think of Pokemon Go and how it was kind of designed to get kids out of the house. Do you think that technology still has that desire to improve our lives in a physical way? Using technology to show us to the joys of not using technology, essentially? 

Shilo Shiv Suleman: One of my favourite apps, even if it's not the one I use most regularly, is Star Walk. Every night I could point my phone into the sky and see constellations appear. But even with our text messages and what we look at as being more functional, I think there's a tremendous capacity for wonder and for magic and that's what I try to bring out through my work. Even post working with new media storytelling - some of the bio feedback stuff that we spoke about like ‘Pulse and Bloom’ which was at Burning Man in 2014, and ‘Grove’ which was at Burning Man in 2016 and has now been acquired by Google. We're using what the rest of the world thought was very practical functional technology to create experiences of union, of wonder, of magic. So that thread of my work does continue.

Qissa: And in art, who is your biggest inspiration?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: In my particular case the answer is quite obvious - my inspiration is literally at home with my mother. Even though I am most definitely the next generation in the sense that my work is, like I said, embedded in technology and looks at intersections of social justice and environmental justice etc. I think that there's a tremendous solace and kindness and devotion in [my mother’s] work. She's a miniature painter and she makes these incredible tapestries in a sense of characters that document the visual culture of India. I'm very grateful that, with her as an influence, I have truly recognised that beauty is not just something that exists within the realms of canvases but also is something that can be embedded into all aspects of life and living. I think that's also very much part of a kind of decolonial practice on how we approach our work. Before colonisation, before modern art, before contemporary art, we didn't have exclusive spaces in India where art existed. Art existed in our love letters, you know, and in our utensils and our weapons and our jewellery and our rituals and our sacred spaces. And so I would definitely say that she is the first influence. I often say that beauty is my mother tongue. 

“I have truly recognised that beauty is not just something that exists within the realms of canvases but also is something that can be embedded into all aspects of life and living.”

Aside from her, I think I draw upon the lineage, and expand upon the lineage, of women artists like Amrita Sher-Gil and Frida Kahlo. Also, female mystic saints and poetesses in India: Mahadevi, Andal, Ammaiyar. These were all women who, despite the boundaries that they were placed in based on the societies that they grew up in, still managed to be incredibly radical and disobedient. And so, I definitely draw and expand upon them as intergenerational lineage. Aside from that, one of my best friends and someone who was a very instrumental mentor for me, especially early on, is Raghava KK, who's an artist whose work in India bends what we're supposed to do or what art is supposed to be, through interacting with AI and art or technology and art. So definitely him as well.

Qissa: I'd love to see his work and your mom's as well.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Yeah, absolutely. I feel like I have the privilege of knowing many incredible contemporaries. They used to say that back in the day there would be cafes or pubs that some of the greatest artists of the time would meet and I feel like even in our digital virtual spaces, we've managed to create those kinds of spaces of coalition and solidarity and inspiration. I’d also like to name Rha RHA Nembhard, who's a South African artist (and a dear friend) whose work is absolutely glorious.

Qissa: Amazing, I’ll look her up. You mentioned there about creating virtual spaces, and I know Fearless Collective is in very public spaces and we can definitely talk about that in a moment. But in terms of your own practice - two questions. A, What space do you work in and B, How do you switch off from work? If you manage to, that is.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: With my own personal practice, I have a studio inside a 17th century Palace. 

‍Qissa: Oh, wow. Nice.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: I think what that space really represents to me, aside from representing my ancestry in a way and this incredible heritage of art and culture that I have inherited as an Indian artist, that space also is actually my ivory tower. It's in, like I said, this 17th century palace and it feels like a very sacred space that I can disappear into. I'm also grateful that my practice is not limited to that ivory tower, so to speak, it also engages with movements of our time; resistance movements. So it does kind of create a safe oasis to escape into between being out in the streets quite a lot. 

In terms of switching off, I don't think I need to switch off. What I will say though, is that there’s moments where - I think switching off is the wrong word for it - but moments where I'm not  pouring outward, but pouring inwards instead. These moments are quite crucial to me and quite rare for me. I think that often for me that means going out into the natural world.

Qissa: I get it. You need restorative moments for yourself to be able to then put that back into your work.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Yeah.

Qissa: Yeah, amazing. And so, Fearless Collective is obviously an amazing initiative and you've worked on some amazing projects. What was the catalyst for starting it?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: So the catalyst was that I had just given my TED talk at that point and I was flying across the world working with art and technology, speaking at various conferences and it felt like my career path was quite set. And then a 21 year old girl was gang-raped in Delhi in India. I happened to be in Delhi at the time. I went out into the protests and I felt like, you know, even the ability to be able to imagine a future, or engage with technology and wonder, was a tremendous privilege that almost without healing the past one couldn't even really do. It felt like one really needed to be able to heal the feminine, heal the wounds of our past. I should let go of some of those privileges and engage with what was present. Which is in India, of course, tremendous mythology, culture, beauty, all of that stuff, but also a lot of pain. And so Fearless [Collective] began as a counter force to the mainstream storytelling that we were hearing in the media that told women in India that we needed to be afraid. And even though it is a kind of remedy for social injustice, or one of the many remedies for social injustice, at the same time it does still draw on deep wells of, I guess, magical realism, of hope, of imagination, of creativity, and looking at the role of the imagination within social and environmental justice movements.

Qissa: Yes, when I first heard about the Fearless Collective, hope was definitely the first word that came to mind. I think it's such a great way for women to feel part of the conversation and to see their involvement in the physical form. So, obviously it started in India and you've worked around the world now and with different groups; transgender activists, refugees. How much of your work is still carried out in India and how much is international?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: So we’ve worked in about 15 different countries with about 50 different communities. We kind of identify as a South Asian movement and not so much an Indian movement because we recognise that many of these sort of border identities are part of a colonial heritage and aren't necessarily finite. And so we actually look at expanding and reopening some of those straight roots between South Asian communities. So, a lot of our artists and our staff are based in South Asia and yet our work is on a global scale.

Qissa: And is there anywhere, in particular, or any communities that you'd like to work with in the future?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: So, when we say global, I would still say that the majority of our work is focused on the global South. So, over the next year, we're going to be working in Uzbekistan and Mexico and Turkey and Indonesia, across Africa and the Middle East. We're going to be painting around 18 to 20 different murals this year alone and that's really exciting.

Qissa: Definitely, wow. How big is your team and how many artists do you work with?

Shilo Shiv Suleman: Throughout the first 10 years it has kind of evolved from a personal art project - it was kind of my Robin Hood project - to becoming an organisation. Now we are growing into an institution of art and activism in South Asia. In terms of the artists, what we're doing is we're building our capacity for what we grudgingly refer to as an army of artists who are equipped with the tools to be able to create these participated monuments and public spaces with different communities who are made invisible or marginal in some way.

“an army of artists who are equipped with the tools to be able to create these participated monuments and public spaces with different communities who are made invisible or marginal in some way”

So we have about 150 artists that we engage with on a larger level and 15 artists who are Fearless ambassadors who are trained and mentored by me in tools around art and activism. So they are kind of like our inner circle in a sense. Over the next three years, we're going to be expanding to about a thousand artists and 50 ambassadors.

Qissa: Wow.

Shilo Shiv Suleman: So it is really growing as a force of beauty, love and imagination. I’ve actually just got back from Srinagar in Kashmir where we painted our first mural [in Kashmir]. Not only was it our first mural, it is also one of the first few pieces of public art that exists in Kashmir that is not sponsored by the government. So that was very exciting, very radical, very wonderful work.

Qissa: Amazing. I'm looking forward to watching Fearless Collective as it grows. So for your own practice, what have you got coming up in the next year or so? 

Shilo Shiv Suleman: At some point I was painting a lot of self-portraits and then I started to create these immersive installations that one could step inside, like ‘Pulse and Bloom’ and ‘Grove’. I now find myself in a position where actually I am most interested in ritual performance and really decolonising art, not just in terms of the content or the subject, but also in terms of the medium itself. So a lot of my sculptures have become part of ritual performance pieces, be it the piece that I sold at Sotheby's last year, or the pieces that almost form ceremonial processions on the street. So with a lot of my work in my own personal universe, I'm really excited about embodied mythology, ritual performance, treating art not just an object to barter or sell or an object of beauty, but actually an object of transmutation, a sacred object, something that's worthy of worship in a way. So yes, that's been quite exciting as I make more and more wearable performative pieces.

Qissa: Amazing. I can't wait to see them. It’s been a pleasure talking with you, Shilo! Thank you so much for your time.