Sarnath Banerjee on graphic storytelling, and drawing gardens for the walls of Deutsche Bank's London office
The storyteller as artist! Graphic novelist Sarnath Banerjee on his new gig
Deutsche Bank sought to create a series of permanent large-scale works for 80 walls of their new London office. Pics/ Courtesy of the artist, Deutsche Bank London and Project 88 Mumbai
If there is a companion you should choose for wandering around a new city, or just treading an old familiar lane, we can suggest no one better than Sarnath Banerjee. His graphic novels — Corridor or The Barn Owl's Wondrous Capers — brought to life Connaught Place and 18th century Calcutta's bustling streets, their strange wares and even stranger residents. In his third and most recent outing at Frieze London, the Kolkata-born Berlin-resident continues his love for the flâneur, but this time on walls rather than in pages.
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On Monday, Banerjee appreciates his first day off in months by complimenting London's sunny morning, snacking on bhel puri at Roti Chai on Oxford Street and coffee at a Turkish establishment on Edgeware Street ("Am living it up," he says in his characteristic self-mocking manner), and Skyping with us about An Encounter with Thomas Browne and Other Commonplace Utopias — the title of his Frieze showcase. It's been an intensive six months, with another six months to follow, since he was sought out by Deutsche Bank to create a series of permanent large-scale works for 80 walls of their new London office in Canary Wharf. Known for its enviable corporate art collection, Deutsche Bank previewed a selection from this suite of drawings to Belgravia's finest at its VIP Lounge for Frieze London on October 7
Sarnath Banerjee
Banerjee describes An Encounter variously as "a soap opera, where you bump into characters in every corner", "a collection of micro-narratives", "a children's book for adults" and, lastly, "sponsored self-indulgence." Those who now enter Deutsche Bank's office can navigate from floor to floor, and follow a certain idea of entering and exploring a city. However, instead of the mechanical and the urban that usually pervade Banerjee's works, this time, we are treated to the abundance of nature.
"The brief given to me by Alistair Hicks [Deutsche Bank's former senior curator] and Mary Findlay[curator, Deutsche Bank] was open-ended, but we all agreed that we'd start with gardens rather than the dark Arcadias that I usually draw," says Banerjee, adding, "Gardens seemed proper and English enough." In this Edenic profusion, intellectuals, such as Gregor Mendel and Francis Bacon, amuse themselves with peapods, robins, ladybugs and bonsais. These are interjected with conversations and musings in the form of Japanese renga. "Banerjee sits between art and literature, constantly seeking a balance between image and text," writes Shanay Jhaveri, assistant curator of South Asian Art at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.
One of Banerjee's works on the Deutsche Bank walls
"The garden as a space for enlightenment and enquiry is something I have explored here, along with themes like the wandering man, flâneuring the city, narcissism and false-learning – how easily a society can be swayed by a few words. England is going through this, having recently burnt its fingers," he says. The protagonist of the series – the 17th century English polymath Sir Thomas Browne – becomes Banerjee's beacon against "template-thinking".
However, the true Banerjee fan might find An Encounter mellower in its politics; is this the artist who, in his most recent graphic novel, All Quiet in Vikaspuri, gave us water wars in a dystopian future? "There is no need to fight the right battle in the wrong place. Vikaspuri is a totally different world from the Deutsche Bank lobby," he says.
An Encounter's scheme of colours came about with long conversations between Banerjee and designer Sudeep Chaudhuri. We quip that green is not a colour that we have often seen in his works, and – after a merry comment about cabbages and kales – Banerjee says, "Men of my age [he is in his mid-forties] have to make peace with our outer limits. No matter how famous you are, you are not as famous as a minor actor in a television soap. I aspire less these days, and have less need for a very large audience."
The mature Sarnath is therefore, taking a brief retirement from drawing. In the near future, he will broadcast 'radio-comics'; panels will be narrated and we are most likely to hear more on Banerjee's take on narcissim. It's a whole new world for him and he explains that the interest in radio is not random but stems from his love for dialogue, conversation and radio plays. If you have been privy to Banerjee's scintillating wit, you will know why radio is a natural choice for him. Also in the works is a 'History Biennale' and making "sexy history textbooks" along with notable historians.
To gravitate away from drawing is not a new resolution for Banerjee but try as much as he can, he always finds himself with pen and paper and, as in this occasion, with a commission as substantial as Deutsche Bank's that is hard to refuse. "I default into it naturally because it is my way of making sense of the world around me. Each of the walls at Deutsche Bank, for instance, came after almost half a notebook's worth of thoughts. What drawing does is that it slows you down and makes you look hard at things. And, like my Bengali accent, I cannot get rid of it," he says. Graphic novelist, artist and now radio artiste — Banerjee knows how to toy with labels.
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