New book unravels working partnership of American photographer and Rajasthani miniaturist

A set of 10 Indian miniatures on which two artists have collaborated was exhibited at a gallery in 2008 One artist was American photographer who moved to India 16 years ago Waswo X Waswo and the other was Rajasthani miniaturist R Vijay Vijay signed the front of the miniatures Waswo on the back However the gallery and the art market were apprehensiveThe value of the series titled The Secret Life of Waswo X Waswo could be downscaled if the right artist did not find his place in the front And thats how and why Waswos sign shares space with Vijays mdash on the face of the paintingI See Myself as Laxmi mdash homage to Ravi Varma by Waswo X Waswo and R VijayFor artists like Vijay it is very hard to get hold of a label bearing their names in a gallery says art historian Annapurna Garimella That Vijay did not get pushed behind the curtains is a rarity she says Garimella is the author of The Artful Life of R Vijay which will see a multicity launch starting this week After a private viewing in New Delhi at the home of Gallery Espaces founder Renu Modi the Mumbai launch is set for April 7 at G5A Mahalakshmi If the titles of the book and the series resonate with each other then it is no coincidence The Secret Life of Waswo X Waswo critiques the protagonist while the book is Vijays story of collaborationsCollaborators Waswo X Waswo and Rakesh Vijayvargia aka R VijayWaswo has in the last decade collaborated with Vijay to create his lifes story in pictures collectively titled A Studio in Rajasthan It has discussed both the isolation and the kickback of being a foreigner in IndiaR Vijay is not a real name It is a condensation for convenience When I joined Waswo saab in 2006 he had some problems pronouncing my surname says Rakesh Vijayvargiya who hails from Rajsamand in Rajasthan His videshi mitr and kala premiyan foreign friends and art lovers couldnt get it right And then I wondered why not shorten it It would be easier to sign that way tooR Vijays surname rings a bell and we are right in assuming that he is related to the late artist Ram Gopal Vijayvargiya notable for his works many of which borrow from Kalidasas tales The senior artists works often pop up at auctions across the world right from SaffronArt to Sothebys and we wonder why the grandnephew R Vijay would part with such anillustrious surname My lineage is not what makes me he says adding that he had the fortune of meeting his dadaji only once on a summer vacation when he was but a teenagerGarimella a specialist in the study of vernacular art histories focuses on the miniatures made by Waswo and Vijay through their decadelong association Rooted in the court painting traditions of Udaipur and Bundi the miniatures feature anomalies mdash a fedora sporting cameratrotting firang who takes in Rajasthan In I photograph the Palace of the Lake the protagonist shoots the scene and Garimella observes that the pristine white Lake Palace Hotel in the background is the product of tourism Few refer to it by its original name mdash Jag NivasSimilarly in I have learned to shit by squatting the foreigner learns the mechanisms of the Indian loo amidst resplendent peacocks and courtiers The miniatures are cheeky as Waswo continues to parody himself My photographs have been criticised for following an Orientalist vein The miniatures helped me tell a story of my life here There are those who think that I was photographing the natives and living a life of privilege But when I started out in India I was travelling by secondclass sleeper and staying at backpacker guesthouses I am certainly privileged now but so are many other Indian artists says Waswo who works out of his studio in Varda 30 minutes from UdaipurWhen the gallerybased artists work with vernacular ones is it always exploitation Garimella evokes the words commission and collaboration in the book and reveals the processes followed by Waswo and Vijay Through Vijays hands Waswo has been portrayed as the goddess Lakshmi as styled by Raja Ravi Varma and there are depictions of homosexuality too Was Vijay concerned that he was disrupting a 400yearold tradition My point in art is to tell the truth and miniatures have always depicted the social events of their times They presented the truth and these events are todays realitiesBut more than technicalities the strength of the association in Waswos words lies in empathy Vijay gets it We cant do without each other he says