Memories, medium or message? Art as a mirror to a world in transition

Abhishek Poddar, art collector; artists Seema Kohli and Shilo S. Suleman; and Narayan Lakshman, Opinion Editor, The Hind, and Curator, The Hindu Huddle, in Bengaluru. | Photo credit: K. Murali Kumar

“Artists are not just mirrors but actually creators of the world,” award-winning artist Shilo Shiv Suleman told The Hindu Huddle in a session titled ‘Memories, Medium, or Message? Art as a Mirror to a World in Transition”, moderated by Narayan Lakshman, Opinion Editor, The Hind, and Curator, The Hindu Huddle.

Ms. Suleman, who shared the stage with artist Seema Kohli and art collector Abhishek Poddar in this session, spoke at length about her work with Fearless Collective, which was founded in 2012 in response to the protests that raged in Delhi following the Nirbhaya rape and murder that year. “When I went to my very first protest, I felt this wave of anger, strength and beauty. At the same time, many of the stories we saw in the newspapers were rooted in fear. It felt like we needed a counterforce,” she recalls, describing the genesis of the collective, which “started with a protest and turned into a flood of beauty.”

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He delves into the vision, impact and future of the Fearless Collective, which has painted multiple murals in 25 countries to date, concluding that its “power truly comes alive in moments of fear and trauma.” He believes that art is not only beautiful and transformative in these situations, but also deeply subversive “because it doesn’t speak the same language as traditional activism.”

The meaning of art was explored in a variety of ways during the session, with panelists offering their perspectives in response to an opening question by Dr. Lakshmana. “When societies go through profound changes, they do more than pass laws, build institutions and develop technologies. They tell stories about themselves…remember, understand, create meaning,” he said, adding that this is where art enters the conversation. Alluding to the title of the session, whether art is about memory, medium, or message, and clarifying that he is not trying to artificially distinguish between the two, he asked the panelists, “Among these three dimensions—memory, medium, or message—if you had to choose the one that most resonates with your life and practice, what would it be?

For Ms. Kohli, “Art becomes a memory. I really tap into the conscious, the subconscious and the unconscious or even the layers underneath. That’s the way I go about it; a very simple dialogue that I have with myself,” she said, as Ms. Suleman talked about the medium. Although now no longer based in Bengaluru, “true to my inner Bangalore girl, I’m still very deeply involved in technology.”

For Mr. Poddar, however, it means “it really means more than anything else… For me, too, artists lived on the fringes of society, they could say things through their work that people like you and I just don’t say. That’s the importance I look for in art.”

Other aspects of art discussed by the panelists included: the role of art institutions, how art must respond to a changing socio-political environment, whether it is inherently elitist, its power to shape collective opinion, and how it can create a middle ground in a deeply polarized world. “I think that’s what’s missing right now, a collective emotional middle ground where multiple realities and identities can co-exist in public space. I see that being a very active shapeshifter that we as artists can do,” Ms Suleman said.

Published – June 6, 2026 10:33 PM IST