28 July,2023 12:54 PM IST | Mumbai | Tanishka D’Lyma
Santanu Hazarika at the paint and sketch corner of his studio. Pic/Ashish Raje
Opportunity comes to those who are prepared to receive it; and it seems as if visual artist Santanu Hazarika had been working towards the career he has created for himself in Mumbai since he was a child in Gauhati, Assam, doodling comic book characters and selling his sketches to friends. Art was not only an outlet and way to process the worries of a young boy, and the violence and hardships he encountered as a teen including racism when studying mechanical engineering in Chennai; but doodling for all those years prepared him for 2014's Red Bull World Doodle Art in Cape Town, South Africa, where he became the international contest's very first champion. "That tipped my whole career. A little bit of appreciation can go a long way. Before that, it was ingrained in my head that art was not a career, only a hobby," he tells us when we drop by his Versova-based work studio.
After winning the international doodle art championship, Hazarika decided to head to Delhi before making his way to Mumbai in 2020. Relatively unknown in art circles and looking to build his network, he began carving out a career. He explains, "I was the new age contemporary Northeastern artist and I had to prove that art could be a career for me and for other kids from the Northeast." In 2017, Hazarika co-founded Gauhati Art Project, an urban arts collective based in the region that aims to nurture a community of artists. Alongside, his work for brands, musicians, and organisations ensured his career in Delhi took off. But soon, Mumbai beckoned.
"When I first came to Mumbai I noticed a vibrant subculture that I, as an artist, belong to because I'm not a traditional or [formally trained] painter. But Mumbai is a melting pot of culture and people from different backgrounds, all with the same goal of making it," he recalls, adding that it inspired him. The city's work ethic was a draw for Hazarika. "Plus, no one cares where you come from; if you're talented and you work hard, you're celebrated. I knew this was the place where I had to be. This is where art flourishes. So I shifted to Bombay," he shares.
Hazarika shifted to Mumbai only a month before COVID-19 hit. Battling the onset of the pandemic, finding accommodation and studio space, high rents, and building a career from the ground up in a new city seems all in the distance now. Hazarika reveals, "One of the struggles was to ensure I was at the right place at the right time to establish contacts and network since I was creating my career again from scratch." This hustle in Mumbai, he adds, was challenging but also exhilarating.
Hazarika's success in Mumbai has not stopped him from new frontiers. Today, he stands on the cusp of a new chapter in art as he shifts from his signature drawing and sketching to embrace a new medium - painting. In a seemingly full-circle moment, Hazarika is working on a series called Portraits of Childhood Traumas. One wall of his studio showcases a painting from the series - the artist's version of Naruto Uzumaki, a manga character, with markers of guilt and loss. "It's a whole new process of learning and unlearning, using the same subjects I drew as a kid while also portraying my childhood experiences through them. It is a change, a new style, new exploration, new struggle and it is exciting," Hazarika smiles as we end our conversation.
Love about Mumbai The food, the people and the subculture [of visual art].
Hate about Mumbai The traffic.
Expectations from Mumbai Honestly, I'm still not sure what to expect from the city.
Did Mumbai live up to your expectations? Yes, I'm grateful for whatever the city has given me.
Will it remain your home forever? Yes, it'll always be home and the place I come back to.
