Chingu pen - Climbing the timeline

Chingu pen was not even a plan when I restarted cutting bamboo sticks for my drawing. During December 2018, I used to visit my college studio in the early mornings, and through the years I had been missing major dynamics in my daily sketching habit. Irregular timing and linear methods in drawing activity made my process become just any other standardized exercise in my life. But one specific morning I got a long, thick, dried, shiny piece of bamboo under my foot. I was not even imagining cutting those and going back to an old method of sketching with ink.

 

But it just happened, and I made one sharp pen with a nice groove in it. Textured and seated in my hand properly. Luckily, the sketch book I had was really good quality. I had no ink and I tried some lines with just plain water and it was smooth. I then waited for my friend to come to steal some ink from him. 

I  tried it with the fountain ink and I felt something very unusual in that precise moment and it was totally nostalgic with my college academic life. I made another with the same stick, checked and presented it to my friend who shared the ink. Sorted. I started watching him :) Manesh Deva Sarma also made drawings and he felt it was very typical. Nothing unusual. But for me it was like completing a circle. Back then I used to sketch with ink and bamboo pens. It was rough and naive like any other art student. A friend of mine, Sandeep, had enormous affinity towards ink drawing, the way he makes layers of thick and thin lines  was enough to have a strong memory  to make something similar or use the same tool. I remember I made a couple of sketch books using ink.

 

The reasons for that morning .

     Later here, in the college as a revisit to the campus and that morning, I felt  I should act on my instinct to recreate another session of making playful, dynamic, yet very emotional drawings. Concurrently,I felt that I was a little spoiled by using the linear predictable ball pens which had a massive emergence in late 2009. Additionally, relocating to a different city for a new job made my mind forget the beautiful dip pen in my memory timeline. 

Image 1 ( of my first batch pen)

 

 

 

                          

The whole week was totally productive and organic with my studies in ink drawings. But after I made a drawing of a man using a sharp, tiny pen I felt compelled to go to the bamboo plants inside the campus and started collecting those dried ,strong and suitable sticks without a reason.  

Image 2 drawing of a man (Naquash)

   

 

  My mind was in a state of conflict of dealing with a space like an art college to have better art experience through drawing. Here I have decided to overcome this myself and change the new dilemma into a challenge. The plan was simple; start  to make larger numbers of pens; the goal was one hundred pens in two weeks, give out to the students to make an atmosphere to check the ink drawings with dip pens and to break the linearity of ball pens. 

At the same time , I was also thinking of another reason behind my  insight/instinct. The first two weeks were full on cutting the bamboo with normal, industrial made blades which are used to cut paper. Being a sculptor and a person who actually knew the quality of lines, I could easily figure out the advantage of this tool. These are the two major reasons that I am capable of executing a nice tool like a bamboo pen, this could have been a chisel, but this time it was a bamboo pen. I made twenty pens and kept them in a box. Students started trying them out and saying 'nice'. I said 'nice' too. But it all flipped when the pen reached around fifty in number, now with a consistent cut. That was the first week of January 2019.  I was not facing a monotonous, process related barrier because each stick gave me a feeling that that will be the best pen, and it started looping on and on. The genuine uniqueness of each stick has, in turn, made each pen unique in its use (experience and duration of ink holding.)

 

     

      This was enough to go further to reach 100 pens in number. Surprisingly, one master student joined and started cutting with me; Sabin Das. The next three days he had made some insane line drawing with his strange, abstract forms. I was totally sure about the thing happening around me. Sabin’s cut was proper, clean and stable. He selected only suitable sticks. I needed to see his consistency; which was not so good yet. 

 

Images 3 - of Sabin pen and his drawings

     

 

Images 4 - of Naquash’s drawings

 

During this time, three of my other art friends who were from the master and bachelor program piped up and started investigating my activities. Sanath Sugathan, Allen and Aneeta, started joining us every day. We were like jobless people gathering together to make some old school pens. It was a group of people talking and cutting, totally a breakdown into a craft thing.They had a lot of critical observations on it.  I was trying to discuss the historical aspect in the context of Trivandrum College of Fine Arts and the Far Eastern approaches towards arts and craft.

 

Possible historical and cultural background for the quest of drawing methods

   During the 80s, Trivandrum College witnessed some mastery in drawing with a group called Radical Painters and Sculptors. Within this group, there were some  very familiar names in contemporary Indian art, such as: KP Krishna Kumar, Alex Mathew, Surendran Nair, Madhusoodhanan, K Reghunathan, CK Rajan, Jyothi Basu and NN Rimzon who belonged in the same batch.

In the above Surendran Nair,  KP Krishna Kumar, Jyothi  Basu and NN Rimzon had some thick, strong use of lines. Among these, Suderendran Nair's portraits and KP Krishna Kumar’s drawings are well known in the artist community. There are multiple reasons behind this new age drawing practices during the 80s. However, when you go into details through people, there was a teacher named Sanadanam Raj who was working in Trivandrum College who used to make drawings with bamboo dip pens. His approach through ink drawings had partially influenced, to have strong affinity towards drawing practices into new possibilities. From 2004 to 2015 there were a lot of new materials introduced to the art community which essentially changed the whole habit and the approach towards art practices including working on waist paper, ink drawings, oil paintings etc. It just happened to use, abuse, or over use the same market-oriented material. Students replaced the ink pens to ball pens and some other new type of macro sketch pens. This naturally caused them to reduce the chances of playful mistakes in their work. The lines became so linear and perfect. Obviously it gradually took on a monotonous activity in our practice. I am taking myself as an example to see this ”de-evolution”. Luckily some good pencils, charcoal, graphite sticks and brushes helped me to stay “unaffected” by this transformation.

Images of Sanadanam Raj 

 

 

Surendran Nair, Ink on paper / courtesy :Sakshi Gallery - 1982 to 1986

    As we all know, the change was inside us but we won't find it unless we relook or re-assess ourselves. Reconstruction and consumerism, we never imagined these themes  affecting our lives this quickly and so heavily. The option was to re-invent and try something traditional that exists in many other cultures. Here in my case was a pen, a bamboo pen which predominantly made a cultural diversity in writing and drawing of Far East and Middle East cultures. For ages they just sit and made their pens with maximum accuracy.

            Looking through books I could easily figure out cultural areas of China, Korea, Japan, Thailand and even Nepal had enormous experiments in craft making. If I consider this bamboo pen/tool making as a craft work, I find many interesting points on the traditional methods to make a pen and make the drawings and calligraphy with that pen. I had a major conflict inside me by using my studio time  for pen making. I took it as an art activity in the beginning, but there was much change gradually taking place in my understanding on the aspects of craftsmanship.

 

Selling  an artifact or craft.

            By mid January 2020, the group had made around 100 to 180 pens and at the same time there was an annual show planned and extended to January 28th 2020. Two days before it took place, I wanted to surprise the students by setting up a small stall at the entrance of the college. Initially there was no plan, but through many casual comments I realised that if I am going to give these pens free to the students or the public, I will be the same person who would be picking them from the streets and corridors of the college. That was not welcome to my inner mind which was already confused on spending time collecting the right bamboos, and cutting and preparing them.

 

 

 

Cutting a pen with any knife is not a big deal, but getting good quality seasoned bamboo is an important matter and that is what I was not aware of at that time. Sanath wanted a name and the sudden thought that “a pen is like a friend” occurred in my mind, so we searched for a word in the Chinese language which is Pongyo.Suddenly, as many says Korea was one of the places where  things just originate, like pottery and pickles, Korean culture was known for calligraphy and bamboo. So I took the word from Korean - chingu, meaning friend. This was never planned but a formation I would say. Sanath made a beautiful tag for it and an Instagram account which was already introduced with another minimal promo video was enough to send it to the students and others. By the time I also started looking at Korean and Chinese calligraphy through text and videos. 

   

 

  Everyone has a tendency to cut or scratch something for a minute or more a day. This is an unexplained phenomenon which always happened in humans from the moment they discovered the tool. Here the cut actually transforms a stick into a pen. It is psychologically satisfying and also creative.

 

  The moment I took an old notice board / box from the college and used it to display/arrange the pens, it looked as if everything was so planned. 

 

4-Images of pens - notice board and display.

 

 

Aneeta Rose Abraham  and a few other students helped me decorate the pens with nylon knots. Later I engaged in learning knots. We priced any pens for 15/- rupees ( which was never considered a price with its quality of cut and endless possibility ). Surprisingly, People bought all of them and we sold out in five days. This is actually notable in the context of Trivandrum College. It was the first time that someone sold something other than a painting or sculpture. The college was associated with many aspects of not commercialising the art, at least inside the college. 

The easiness/advantage for an artist being a craftsman. 

The 80s students had more lineage towards “art for society” in its socio-cultural values than a consumer-oriented growth. The college is known for its political approach towards power and hegemony. Almost all the artists had an inclination on discussing and keeping things towards humanity. It is true that it was overdone by avoiding the good side of craft. By being aware of the place I belong to, a fine art community, which was built by the students and teachers over the years should maintain in its new ways. My position was more in an area like an artist should have a readiness to make things which can enhance his/her/their art practices. They should be able to propose new objectives to support art practice. This is just like a potter processing his clay from his own geography. Artists can try to find the possibilities to make new tools for their art practices. Also, in terms of craft, it is always good to adapt things into our practice if the situations are not politically divergent.

        As we remember KGS toys and Nandanmela at Kalabhavan or say other festivals in MSU Baroda is helpful to provide some good quality brushes, tools, colours and amazing papers to the public. Some of these aspects acted as the core reason that helped me to take this pen making seriously. I felt that if someone made a single drawing out of these pens, my effort is successful and meaningful. I am actually happy at that moment, it happened multiple times. The papers we kept for the buyers were filled with words and drawings. They were wowed by these simple pens. The fact is they missed their timeline from their mind.

6-Image of people drawing with chingu pen

 

 

 

There is a macro level difference in writing and drawing with pens. Controlling the wet ink and being controlled by a macro ball is actually different.

    I have observed that when I use ink pens, especially dip pens I am just guiding the wetness/ink to lines. I can not apply pressure when I use macro nibs. But in the case of metallic nib and ball pen nibs you use your pressure which modernists always associate with emotion. But when we look at Far-Eastern approach it is much slower, subtle and controlled  than liberated when we contemplate the material or tool.  Ball pens are mechanically made of a ball rolling inside the nib and the ink distributes accordingly.

 Here it starts from the point u dip it, then take it to a surface and extend the line you are in. You have a chance to try multiple thicknesses and angles with the same pen. The use and carelessness of what we do with a ball pen is never natural as in the case of dip pens. It demands a little attention  and workflow which transforms into each artistic difference. This matters in the case of drawing and calligraphy. People are so diplomatic showing these qualities when they do  weaving, pottery, metal craft and tool making. But they really do not care in the case of writing. Writing in daily life is getting even worse as everything is being typed these days. The association with the brain and hands are evolving according to the time which is towards some strange areas. It happened in the name of speed, portability and  illusions on reliability. Here I always had a critical thought: what is actually progression for the masses? The answer is to lose quality of life or stay satisfied. 

In February 2020, I restarted making pens for one other flea market by some designers (Olam 2019). The young curators invited me to have a display, this time I had collected some better sticks from the college campus and made another 200 pens. It was too much work to maintain a proposed time. For me it was more like trying the pens  in a larger  space to know how the public will respond to it. Here I sold the pens prices from 30/- to 80/-, we asked people to send us drawings to make sure that people are actually using it or just keeping it as an artifact. Very less people responded positively.

 

    By the end of this event my supporting team was showing disinterest and some cold response on developing more activities related to it. Sanath and Aneeta already tried chingu pens in a school among the students and it was a really good response. The initial stickers we made were with these kids’ art work. It was up to the standards. I have realised that if a child can use a dip pen an adult can actually explore it.

7- images of stickers

 

 

 

    By the end of February I was all  alone again in the room, and I wanted to  keep the momentum going because I wanted there to be more drawings from each pen I make. There were also orders pending from Instagram friends. I again started collecting sticks and figured out that getting the correct bamboo is not a simple task. In a Sculptural point of view and also a collector point of view I had to find some reliable and more durable bamboo sticks. The bamboo for all these pens I have used was yellow bamboo. The beautiful groove in these is suitable for holding ink properly. 

       Having a background in botany was helpful in my search for other species of bamboo. I found that there are 24 varieties of bamboo in Kerala, a total around 52 different varieties across India. The North Eastern region has more varieties. 

So by searching I have 3 more varieties of.

1. Green bamboo(Pacha mula)- vellayani

2. Kallan mula (university of karyavattom and arimbra mala, malappuram dist)

3.buddha bamboo- tennis club Trivandrum.

4.yellow bamboo.( College of fine arts Kerala)

5.some garden bamboos. ( Near vellayambalam)

 bamboos from the municipal locality of Trivandrum district. ( Palayam, Kowdiar,) 

 

 

 

 Thinking about pens actually brought me an existing medium which I was never aware of, Bamboo. I started watching a lot of videos and images of bamboo processing, seasoning, and harvesting. This turn happened during March 2020. I started thinking about seasoning  bamboo myself. Emotionally, I wanted to give a meaning to bamboo sticks which are destroyed across Trivandrum like all other places in India. People cut the bamboo in the name of cleaning. Very few people are working with bamboo technique and its product. Recently the government has proposed better support to the craftsman to do utilities in bamboo. I started to discuss and document bamboo locations and also I tried meeting craftsmen in the city. Unfortunately, the sudden spread of covid 19 situation arose and limited my reach. Luckily I was able to  reach three places near me where there was a massive destruction of bamboo plants. 

I have collected the non dried bamboo this time and I started processing bamboo by water technique. I made a tank and treated the bamboo in water for weeks, I observed the changes.

       I quickly realised that there is starch in bamboo and need to transform into a final form by treating them. I also tried to collect and keep dry the naturally seasoned bamboo sticks, clean it, cut it and preserve in a box, I could see how the bamboo can be exposed to insects. The research on treating bamboo led me to the borax and boric acid treatments, I could actually see the change that happened in the sticks in weeks. I tried the method of burning the bamboo to preserve it permanently, started stacking it and kept for the rainy season like a potter who keeps  the clay in a tank. During the monsoon season, it is difficult to dry the bamboo, I have to keep them safe so as not to face a scarcity of materials. I became serious and totally fascinated in bamboo and its treatment which is expected due to my sculpting side.

During the covid outbreak,  I actually was clueless what situation can potentially emerge, I stopped going out and it became risky to visit the college to harvest sticks. At the same time, there were some artists and designers who contacted me through Instagram wanting some pens. I was not sure about delivering them on time but I kept my mind open. The third week of March and the beginning of April, I got a call from a friend in the early morning and informed me that people were burning some bamboo near Trivandrum tennis club. I took all my tools which I have collected in this time period and literally went for a bamboo hunt. There was a huge number of Buddha bamboo being cut and removed. By asking people, somehow I got permission to take the bamboo from there and in time I shifted all of them onto the terrace of my house. I had gotten around 150 sticks which are roughly  five to ten feet in length, (around five to ten pens from each stick, that meant I collected resources for a minimum of 800 pens) The quality and the shape of bamboo was so good and inspiring. The scarcity of material made me think about processing those myself. At the same time I got one other location with the same landscaping situation. I got more yellow bamboo this time. I started processing simultaneously in weeks. I started watching the bamboo, the color, the foul smell, the water resources, vessels for processing, making a tank, removing mosquito larvae and a medium shade with sunlight.

Images of bamboo processing

 

 I knew that the monsoon was approaching so I had to keep the pace going within a constricted time frame. I got the first batch of yellow bamboo and dried and cut it into pieces again, tried burning with infected/rejected bamboo sticks. 

This was a total recycling session. I continued sending the pens to a few of my friends and started updating Instagram also. I became a storm of productivity in the months of March, April and May in processing bamboo and in learning the material aspects and enjoying the process. This was the first time I actually started understanding how the craftsmen across Kerala are working on bamboo and its utilities. In Kerala, there are some communities who only make bamboo baskets and other storage shapes. These days there are some women who are still selling baskets in Peroorkada market, Chala market and Pattom of Trivandrum district. I still have yet to contact the bamboo organisation of the government of Kerala, but I got information that there are some local techniques which are common in bamboo craftsmen of Kerala. I should study more on these once I am able to travel again. 

Our country has partially ignored the knowledge and importance of cultivating bamboo parks and harvesting bamboo for amazing applications. This could be one reason I associate myself with the Korean and Chinese aspects of understanding bamboo, ink, paper and also clay. The details and observation they have developed on these areas are sublime. The execution and the cognition and experiencing the craft is as equal as Fine Art. The commercialising tendencies are never in discussion for any masters. It is the way they approach to take anything into an artistic experience .

 

Conclusion

Whatever the intention behind this project was, in result it just worked only 30% through the art community in the college. People like Rahul Ojha, Gishma, Sunil Sharma, Sreenandan TK, Sabin Das, were able to make some excellent drawings and they were ready to share it with me. 

 

Vasvi Oza

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Rahul Ojha

 

   

 

 

    On the other hand, I travelled further by getting a result from a much more scattered art community from different cities. Vasvi Oza (Bangalore) was one of the people who actually restarted her drawing habits and started making a good number of ink drawings, Simran Lakhiani (Delhi) was another person who began her Calligraphy practice. Zaynab (Angela) from Georgia, USA started working on her childhood calligraphy practice, Christina Park (California) is another person who really started approaching her traditional routes through calligraphy and drawing. People were finding a way out from isolation and quarantine with these pens. In a way it could actually act as a healing tool by way of slowing down and working on some texts and drawings. I sent a set to Pithbull aka Renuka Rajeev (Bangalore) in exchange for their amazing mask artwork. Then, Dead the Duck aka Madhav Nair (Mumbai) and Anatajith and Shilpa Sivadas (Bangalore). One other friend from Mumbai - (a full calligraphy set).  

Until now, I have made more than around 1500 pens and I have no idea where these pens are. On that note, I absolutely do not want to send these pens to random people to make some money which I never could hype in terms of effort and my valuable studio time. Also, how much can a person spend on a pen which is a very fragile thing?. The flip side is that an unnecessary price hike is happening for quality craft objects, if there is a reasonable price system the collectors can replace their plastic purchases and can plan collecting these artifacts and thus the craft community can run by themselves. Additionally, the craft objects should be excluded from the tax policies to make them more accessible for the sake of the craftsman community.Sometimes I feel these are strange areas that any art person should try to explore. This era seems to be dealing with existing mediums in visual art and craving for new media too. 

 

Calligraphy and nib images

 

 

More Images

 

 

 

To be updated.