The Spirit is willing, and sometimes, so is the Body 

Jeram Patel 

Recent Works in Wood and on Paper 

20-30 June 2015, Sarjan Art Gallery 

It is amazing, if not unbelievable, to see Jeram Patel working these days. Since more than a decade, the man has rarely stepped out of his home, bound indoors as a result of frail health, generally left alone, and watching Gujarati ETV at top volume when not snoozing. Suddenly one day, a couple of months ago, he decides to dip pen in ink and get back to paper, canvas and wood. Like a child, the idea of celebrating a birthday is a huge motivator, and for an artist, what better way of doing it than having a special show of new works! 

There had been a few small works on paper that he had been persuaded to create for the VADFEST in January-small gems that captured the essence of his love for abstract imagery, made in his trademark black ink, with tiny flickers of colour used as playful highlights, in some of them. But for the birthday show, he decides that mere paper and ink won't do, though he would certainly like them displayed on one wall. 

He goes back to wood, to the kind of work he made in the sixties with dramatic effect. Of course, that kind of strength to handle a blowtorch with confidence, to gouge into layered plywood, is no longer there. So he selects a 19mm plywood sheet getting it cut into 16 pieces of equal squares. The couple of hours of 'rest' he enjoys in the mid-mornings and evenings are put aside as he converts them to work periods using a chalk to draw on the plywood sheets to make them ready for the firing-gouging. There's a twinkle in the eye and the sharpness in the voice has returned. 

Working with a carpenter and a couple of artists, he supervises each moment, making sure that the firing creates exactly the kind of ridges he wants in the uneven form that he has created at the centre of the plywood square. All work stops when, tired, he slips into a nap or wants to watch a favourite TV show. 

Once the form is done to his satisfaction, he decides to brighten up the flat space around the centre-form with a single colour, thus heightening the impact of the blackened centre. He chooses a different one for each work from a clutch of colour palettes brought by the carpenter. Sometimes, he applies a layer, and then not really pleased with it, irritatedly demands to see the colour palettes again, ordering more colours, mixing them, till it is the exact shade he wants. 

Starting out with wanting to do maybe 3 or 4 works, he finishes all 16. And then asks for a set of rivets. Preferably the same kind he used in his sixties' works. Then he slams a few in two works! 

Yes, the spirit is certainly willing. And when the body is too, they create magic. 

Sandhya Bordewekar 

Baroda, June 20, 2015