The Painted in the Performed: Photo-Documentation of Nilima Sheikh’s Theatre Collaborations

Through the archives of artists, we are able to access the wider circuits and conversations that they were involved in—beyond their individual practice and pursuits—and can take note of a certain criss-crossing of mediums, disciplines and cultural fields. Along with letters and correspondences, photo-documents visibilise milieus and situations, as well as work that does not make it to the exhibition space.

Within the archive of artist Nilima Sheikh, there is a focus on the collaborative nature of her feminist practice, which included her work in theatre design between 1989 and 2001. During this time, she worked closely with theatre-practitioner Anuradha Kapur on a number of plays. She also collaborated at times with artist Bhupen Khakhar with support from Shamsul Haque and Sumant Jayakrishnan. Apart from brochures, the photo-documentation of theatre performances—where Sheikh designed and painted sets—unveil a synthesis of the painted and the performed; of text and stage lighting; of moving bodies and motionless, designed ones. This includes stills from the film recordings of the performances. While the images certainly serve as documentation of the performance by playing an evidentiary role, there is also a pictorial quality to the manner in which they compose the lighting, the actors and the painted sets as visually dense assemblages—as atmospheres.

In the brochure for Sundari: An Actor Prepares, directed by Anuradha Kapur, and staged in 1997 and 1998 in New Delhi, Sheikh writes about the visual design of the play, “We have tried to carry that, to investigate a reimagining of character and an alchemisation of the painted image on stage. The vertical curtains seek to bring the painted body in relation to the performing body.” The curtains in particular were inspired from the net curtains in Parsi theatre and innovated stylistically by Khakhar. Apart from this citation, the set design referenced the paintings of artist Ravi Varma and life and work of actor and director of Gujarati theatre, Jaishankar Sundari. The idea was to play with, and work within, the architecture of the proscenium arch by creating backdrops and wings through the curtains—crafting spaces for a layered navigation of the stage by actors.

For Sheikh, painting theatre sets had an impact on her own personal practice as a painter—the sets enabled her to work with ease on a large scale, the form of which can be seen clearly in her work on large scrolls with tapestry-like effects. In an interview with journalist Rahul Kumar, she stated: “It was immensely gratifying and challenging to work with a moving body. It reinforced my conviction that forms of art do not take away. It is the modernist approach of ‘purity of form.’ But the more we blend, the richer it becomes.”

To read more about Nilima Sheikh, please click here.

All images courtesy of the Nilima Sheikh Archive, Asia Art Archive.