20210709 Chandrika Marla interview
Born in New Delhi in 1968, Chandrika Marla worked as a fashion designer for several years before she began a career in art. She moved to the United States in 1998 and is currently a resident artist at Cubberley Studios in Palo Alto, California. Her work has been exhibited at The de Young Museum (California), Queens Museum of Art (New York), Museum of the Shenandoah Valley (Virginia), and the Rockford Art Museum (Illinois). At a performance in Chicago in 2011, her paintings were interpreted by Rama Vaidyanathan – a leading exponent of Bharatanatyam dance.
Marla is best known for her use of saturated color to create paintings of simplistic forms that straddle the line between realism and abstraction. Her work explores female identity and is inspired by women, their relationships with others, and with their own selves.
Kacy (K): Thank you so much, Chandrika, for being part of the project. Can you start off by telling me more about what kind of art do you do?
Chandrika (C): It’s my pleasure and I'm honored to be a part of your project. I'm a painter. I create abstract shapes based on the female body and the paintings are built up with several layers of color on the canvas, ending with a vibrant, flat finish.
K: I want to ask more about your background in fashion. What is the chance of a fashion designer majored student becoming a fashion designer? And what's the everyday life of working as a fashion designer in India?
Caution to the Wind | Acrylic on canvas | 48 x 40″ | 2020
C: Going to fashion school is very similar to going to any other school to learn a trade. You are taught all the aspects of that way of making, including the history of that trade. In India, I also studied the history of Indian art, which discussed our buildings, costumes, jewelry, ancient and medieval Indian art, and miniatures. We also learned draping, where you are pinning muslin onto a dress form to create unstitched shapes. And one of the most important aspects of making clothing is patternmaking, where you measure the body, map out the structure of the garment, and then cut and sew. You're basically taught how to put a garment together from scratch. You learn about textiles, about weaving, and how to identify fabrics. You’re going into every aspect of fashion. And there’s a very good chance that a fashion design major will become a fashion designer. Of course, some people might choose to not go into the industry and instead get married but I think that there are many opportunities if you’re interested in a career.
Kacy: And how about life as a designer?
C: My working life started in India and that's where clothing is produced for many brands and countries. In most of my jobs, I would have a team of pattern makers, tailors, and embroiderers. It was a very quick process. Let's say that I have to make a collection of six garments. I could actually get them made within a day or two. I could go to the textile mill to identify the fabrics that would work. And meanwhile, the pattern maker would be cutting out the patterns for the six garments that I sketched. There were a lot of resources to produce clothes at a rapid pace. But in the US it’s very different. If you're not working at a boutique level and producing right here, you have to send design packages to countries like China and India. So, it became a bunch of meetings and Excel spreadsheets, and it was extremely unsatisfying. The prototypes would take three or four weeks to arrive and then you're like, “Oh, the embroidery is too large.” So, back it goes to China. And then it takes several more weeks. It was very slow compared to fashion in India.
Kacy: May I ask more about your experience on figuring out art is your way out?
C: Well, I didn't figure it out on my own. In true American style, I was laid off. I can’t say that I loved my job but it’s always a shock when life gets derailed. This is when I started freelancing in fashion, and I also joined a local art center and took classes in painting.
Kacy: And it was around 15 years ago?
C: That was 15 years ago, yeah. My son was almost a year old so it’s easy to remember.
Kacy: I guess through all this conversation, I'm also trying to figure out why art is so significant to me. You mentioned that before, one of the things you love about art is “self-serving”. But I also cook for myself sometimes but I don't get the same satisfaction. So, I am just curious, why art is so meaningful to you and what's the most rewarding thing for you in terms of making art?
C: I think I grew up as a person who was very used to speaking her mind. For me, honesty and showing my true self are very important. I feel the same way about my art. I’ve found a way to tell the truth. Whatever my truth is. You might not understand it, but it's what I want to make. Nobody tells me how to make it. Nobody tells me what these colors should be. They are my colors, they are my shapes. It's a very satisfying feeling to be in complete control of the process and every single thought that goes into it. I can’t speak about your cooking, which is probably something that is so transient that it's a different way of sensing creativity.
Kacy: Were you exposed to art when you were a young kid? I'm curious if art is something that makes sense for you to express who you are, why did you choose fashion instead of fine art in the first place?
C: In India there's art everywhere. It is simply and constantly in the background while you grow up and go about your day. Although I didn't go to museums or see a lot of paintings, my mother was an interior decorator. She had a lot of these books about home design, architectural design, and interior decoration. And I would just sit with those books and see all these lovely houses that we never saw in India. It was a different world in those books, which made me realize that there were so many ways of living and presenting your personality. My aunt taught me how to sew when I was thirteen. So, even though there was no art instruction I was trying to find a balance of style and budget in those homemade garments. And I think that's probably one of the reasons why I went to fashion school. I wanted to learn how to express my individuality through clothing and fabric. I did take a tour of an art school in New Delhi, but at that time after high school it didn't feel right. The students there looked very different from what I wanted to be. In other words, their lack of fashion sense was what I first noticed. I also looked at the course structure and it didn't excite me. That's why I chose fashion designing instead of art school. I guess art came to me at a later age when I was ready for it.
In My Secret Life | Acrylic and pigment on canvas | Diptych, 40 x 34″ each panel | 2017
Kacy: That makes sense. Did you explore different kinds of art forms when you decided to leave fashion? Maybe something other than paintings. Or even something other than visual art, such as poetry or music? Or do you know you like an abstract painting from the beginning?
C: That's so interesting. When I was little, from the age of four, I learned Indian classical dance and also music for six years. That's a lot of time to be dancing and singing and I realized that I don't like people looking at me. In India you deal with men staring at you throughout the day and then to have a hobby that asked for even more attention? I have all kinds of stage fright and social anxiety so no, I didn’t explore music or dance later in life. Years before I learned painting, I had spent a few semesters working with clay, but when I turned to art I wanted to start with painting. I knew that I could not work in realism and that I wanted to see color in a very loud format. It was thrilling to work with acrylic because it's a medium that dries very quickly. Since then I’ve made it a point to attend a few workshops each year to find other ways to inform my painting. I went back to ceramics for a while and have also experimented with monotypes.
Kacy: Can I ask more about daily life as an artist?
C: I'm an artist and I'm a mother. Much as I want to be daydreaming and making art all day, the reality is that I have to make time for my child. Work starts in the morning after my son leaves for school. I check my email and see what I have planned for the day. Other than painting and preparing for shows, I might visit a museum or a gallery, or attend a talk. And then in the late afternoon I switch into mom mode—cook a meal and make sure that my son is situated for the day. So, it's not a very fixed work schedule but every day I’m either making art, or thinking about it, or seeing other peoples work.
Kacy: The last one is how do you see the current capitalist system affect your art practice? I kind of feel why I chose to do biomedical science at the beginning is to have a stable job. And a stable job grants a happy life. But it’s really not for everyone. What about the meaning and self-fulfillment in your life? How do you manage if your passion doesn’t fit into current mainstream monetary value?
C: Right, I see. In my case, I did think that fashion designing was a career that would give me a good income. In India I made a decent amount of money. When I started to paint, I was told that there's no money in being an artist. I had to have a talk with my husband, to ask him if he could support me. You're paying for a house and suddenly one person's income is just drying up. And that made me realize what it feels like to be supported financially. And then you wonder about the choices you’re making, right? A fair amount of people don't understand my work. What I’m painting, or why I’m painting. I look around and see that there are many types of artists and monetarily it works for some of them. They are making work that will sell. The subject of the paintings and the way that they work are dictated by the market. But this is not the art that I want to create. And I personally have understood that I'm not going to make large amounts of money through my art, but the level of satisfaction and pride that it gives me, that’s what keeps me going. Does that answer part of your question, perhaps?
Take me away | Acrylic on canvas | 40 x 48″ | 2020
Kacy: Absolutely and it's really powerful. Thank you so much for sharing all your personal stories and artistic motives. Do you have anything you want to add before I wrap up our conversation?
C: I do want to say that as an immigrant it gets very difficult to make a home for oneself. Since I came to the US in 1998 I’ve moved seven or eight times. It takes a lot of effort to reacclimatize to a new city, create a home, reach out to people to make new friends. And I think people who have not really moved much over their lives don't understand how disruptive it is and how difficult it is to grow roots in a new place. And for me, this has made it even more important to stay true to my work because other than my family - my husband and my son, that's all I have here, right? And I think that has been my constant in the last 15 years – that my art is with me everywhere. And it's making this journey with me. It's searching for a home with me and I have to stay true to that. In my work this comes through as a deeper sense of seeking for something. I don't exactly know what it is as yet. It’s not just home, but a certain comfort of belonging.
Kacy: I completely agree. Yeah.
C: But it's very difficult to explain to, you know, say my neighbors who’ve lived here for 70 years. If I lived in the same place for 70 years, I would be bored out of my skull. But I know that there are some positive sides to it.
Kacy: I think there are a lot of different people in the world. Some people like to stay the same, some people seek change.
C: Of course.
Kacy: But it's important to understand each other because we are living in the same place. We share the same space.
Expansion | Acrylic on canvas | 48 x 40″ | 2020
C: Exactly. And that's also a part of what I see in my work. Don't assume that what I'm revealing about myself is the entire picture. You have no idea of what went on previously, and in the same way, in the first few layers of my paintings, you don’t know what was there. It’s all obscured now. Like, you know, this early layer had some strange squiggles on it, but they just had to be here. And now the surface is solid and flat, no squiggles. Similarly, I was not dying to come to the US but then I realized that I want to live with this man and he was already here. And here I am, making the best of what I have been given.
Kacy: Absolutely and it's really powerful. You're so kind to share all your personal stories and artistic inspiration!
Chandrika Marla
Website | chandrikamarla.com
Instagram | @chandrika.marla
The interview with Chandrika Marla is part of an ongoing photo-sculputure project "21 Grams, the Weight of Souls - Grocery Bag". Her headshot is converted into a soft sculpture to capture the external and internal struggle of who are battling between having a remunerative career and pursuing their dreams.
