By Krishna Purohit

Pratima Naithani’s art revamps the notion of re-appropriation with its haunting blend of traditional Indian imagery and modern minimalism.

The New York based artist unveiled her accompanying exhibit for the Dance Festival of India this weekend at the New York Academy of Art. The show featured 45 mixed media works that reflect the seven types of dance featured at the event.

The series of untitled pieces all share Naithani’s trademark simplicity of form and love of Indian imagery. “It’s a mesh of both worlds-- East and West. It’s what makes my work unique,” the artist said regarding her particular form of art revival.

From dancers to architecture, the pieces cover a range of subject matter, which synthesizes to provide a rich backdrop for the modern-day festival’s performances. Visually stripped to their essential elements, the archived images, collected from various sources, evoke ancient temple friezes and the sense of nostalgia associated with early daguerreotypes.

But the streak of contemporary asceticism, which runs throughout the show, marks the work as Naithani’s own and takes it beyond simple restoration. The exhibit is a complex blend of chemically manipulated collage work, drawing and painting. Stark backdrops and hand rendered details produce isolated depictions of actions. Dancers become solid lines of graceful movement, whereas structures evolve into evocative spaces highlighted by grey shadows. An emphasis on geometric form also creates a space for the artist’s use of pointillism, which adds dimension and color to each image. Nestled in lush frames created from sari borders, the works extend beyond their two-dimensional surfaces like movie stills, only momentarily frozen in time.

Her fusion of found materials and contemporary presentation places Naithani within a growing number of artists, who actively seek to revitalize classical aesthetics. On the subject of what re-appropriation means in a media saturated culture, she said, “Even when you take things that are old and make them different there are still original, because no one has thought of doing it exactly that way before.”

She also points to art history itself for reference, “Even if you look at the great masters, they took elements and made them something different as well.”

This singular perspective is a result of the artist’s upbringing. Born to an Indian father and El Salvadorian mother, Naithani began as a skilled musician with a penchant for jazz. Due to the unstable political climate of her motherland, she leaned towards her South Asian roots from an early age. The artist stumbled upon the world of photography and the arts in her teens. This new fascination quickly led her to the New York School of Visual Arts and gave her access to uncharted creative territory, as well as a platform for her cultural interests.

“India is very unique,” she said. “It has such a tremendous cultural history and tradition. I’m always sewing old and new ideas to make something different.”

However, with the approaching globalization of rural towns and the country’s increasing appropriation of mainstream culture, Naithani sees the need to reinvent classical imagery for a new generation in hopes of preserving it.

“I don’t want those things to end,” she said. “I dig up old concepts and things that are dying out and make them part of a revival process. Even if a contemporary version can draw young people, then that’s good.”

Nevertheless, Naithani agrees that the reverse adoption of Indian culture into American media is a positive step as well.

“There is more awareness now, which is good,” she said. “They [Indian film industry] are starting to get the credit that is it’s due. It’s good for India that they start looking at it for more than just what they learned in textbooks.”

The artist’s vision of combining worlds adds a multi-layered context to all her works. There is a certain sense of collapsing ideologies that reach equally to both the South Asian and American audiences. Despite these compelling themes, the artist maintains a diplomatic air with it comes to expectations she holds for her viewer.

“I never give anyone an idea of what they should walk away with,” said the artist. “What I look at and think of may not be what you see. I don’t want to make you struggle to see what I put there, but rather walk away with your own perspective.”