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Making art accessible

Last Updated 29 December 2015, 15:35 IST

Creative entrepreneur Sahar Zaman, who dons several hats and enjoys the distinction of participating in multifarious activities, has included thought-provoking, exclusive interviews with icons including M F Husain, Anish Kapoor, Subodh Gupta, Fabio Novembre and Marcel Wanders in her web series venture – Hunar TV.

With a 360 degrees perspective on the arts, it focuses on the need of niche viewers who appreciate art, music and travel, adding to the ‘joie de vivre’ of their lives. The idea behind launching the web series is to create a platform to make the arts accessible to common people. Metrolife spoke to Zaman on the necessity and idea of such a show on the web.
 
What is the relevance of artist’s interviews?
Television has shied away from bringing artists into light. On the web one can find much on design, but art and artists are not discussed so deeply.

They also need to be promoted. They and their art make strong statements on political and social issues. Like Subodh Gupta, who makes life-size installations with home utensils talks about the common man, poverty, struggles in everyday life through his work.
 
What importance does Hunar TV hold for the audience?
For example, the video on S N Souza’s work was done by Dhoomimal Gallery’s Uday Jain, who is the biggest collector of Souza’s artwork. Likewise, William Dalrymple’s most recent interview to Hunar TV presents a unique window to his professional and personal life.

The conversations took place at his farmhouse in Delhi and panned across his writings, upcoming book, research, Dalrymple’s following in both UK, India and across the world and his successes at the JLF (ZEE Jaipur Literature Festival) as director and the music he plays is a segment of what he put together for the JLF cultural evenings.

It includes his work as  an art curator in ancient Indian Art (Deccan and Mughal). William has never before seen holistic interviews on his professional innings. Besides this, Hunar TV presentation offers an exclusive sneak peak into his family and home – his wife as an artist, his three children and how they are impacted by the family shifting base to India, which portrays William’s love for farming and poultry.
 
How does the channel work?
Sponsors and funding are the main challenges. We don’t keep posting something new at regular intervals of time.

What is the future of this channel?
Sooner or later we will get down to interviewing niche, lesser known artists too. We will venture into tribal and folk art. I want to focus on the unseen glimpses of their lives, the thought process which goes into creating an artwork. All this, without being boring. The videos are short and like drawing room conversations. We focus on all arts like performance, writing and cooking and there is already an
author series.
 
Does the channel have a lot of followers?
It’s been over a year and we have over 500 views on some of our videos. These online videos are useful for documentation, research and education purposes as well. Whenever there is an Indian or international art exhibition happening, the hits shoot up and then again for some time they remain plateaued.

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(Published 29 December 2015, 15:35 IST)

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