The M.I.A factor
-
M I A, Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam in Kochi for Kochi Muziris Biennale -
M.I.A., Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam, British rapper, songwriter and visual artist of Tamil descent. She is pergroming at the inauguration of Kochi Muziris Biennale. Photo: Special Arrangement
Sri Lankan-British singing sensation M.I.A will perform for the first
time in India as part of the Kochi Muziris Biennale. She speaks to
Priyadershini S. about her music rooted in dissent, politics, art,
spirituality and India
She came rapping into the hearts of the young. Rapping about issues that
the world would conveniently like to forget. Her original style of
electronic, hip hop and world music caught the imagination of a
generation wired together in cyberspace. Her strikingly fresh style in
art engaged onlookers. Through the two, art and music, her stage
acquired a new lingo, a cool dimension. She received acclaim and
phenomenal success almost immediately. British singing sensation of
Tamil descent, Mathangi Maya Arulpragasam, M.I.A. will be presenting a
music concert, her first in India, at the inauguration of the Kochi
Muziris Biennale. Her art work too will be exhibited during the event.
With Madonna
M.I.A. has shared stage space with musical greats like Madonna and
Rihanna, standing there in her own right. She has sung and been a part
of the A.R. Rahman’s team for the music of Slumdog Millionaire.
Known for her avant-garde music, she has been nominated twice for the
Grammy awards, an Academy award, the Mercury Prize and the Alternative
Turner Prize award. And yet M.I.A. is nervous about her concert here.
“It is more nerve-wracking than singing along with Madonna,” she says,
in her slow drawl, sitting elegantly in the Old Harbour Hotel in Fort
Kochi, unsure if her music will strike a chord with listeners here.
M.I.A. is without her tour group and that makes her task a real
challenge.
She plans to give an Indian touch to the concert by making interactive
music with traditional local musicians and involving children from
schools close by. “I am the bridge between the East and the West, I
don’t want to abandon one for the other,” she says, indicating the
global space that she has created with her music and art.
M.I.A.’s story is one of displacement of a young girl who fled from
war-torn Jaffna to Chennai and moved on to London. There she created a
space for her and her countrymen. The Tamil cause features strongly in
her music and yet the singer has moved above to encompass a global
approach to issues of discrimination, genocide, migration, displacement
and acceptance.
Maya’s father Arul Pragasam was a Tamil activist and later became a
mediator between the Tamil and the Sri Lankan government. But M.I.A. and
her brother saw little of their father. What they saw and experienced
were hardships of a life of a refugee, the struggle to merge with a new
culture, adopt and adapt and be accepted. She says with the maturity of a
person much ahead of her 37 years, “It is important to not let politics
become contagious,” and talks of a tumultuous journey that need not end
in hate and revenge but in a reincarnated form where peace rules.
M.I.A?
Her name M.I.A. evokes curiosity. “It is a coincidence that Mathangi is
the Goddess of Music and the spoken word, which can be rap,” she says
elucidating that she found this information on research. “The Goddess is
an untouchable and can be a refugee; she carries a sword for a cause,
and in the chant- Aum Aim Hrim …. the word AIM is an anagram for
M.I.A. M.I.A.also stands for ‘Missing In Action’, which often happens to
people in war-torn zones.”
MIA began her studies as an art student, making posters, covers, tee
shirts, set designs and stage designs. “The way I was doing it was cool.
It was nice to have music as a platform for art because it got into
popular commercial culture. I had to make my space look artistic rather
than putting my art in a gallery. This led to visual appearance onto the
Internet.”
Her art is not conceptual but direct like her music. Her first album, Arular, 2005, named after her father, was about finding something new. “I was angry but optimistic,” she says. With Kala,
her next album, named after her mother, she moved on to discovering
herself. “I discovered that everybody was the same- Ram, Sam or Cham, be
it Indian, American or Chinese.” Maya, her third album, came at a
time when China banned Google, When Blackberry was suspected of spying,
when FaceBook was sold to Google. It was in an era when IP was
currency. It was people’s lives in personal details. Maya was literally about the concept of ‘maya’ in Hinduism, of illusion. After Maya, she says she came up with a tough love album where her fans had to find the gems and find real information, she says.
M.I.A. feels very close to India, having studied in Chennai in her early
years. “I came to India because it was open to me again. I was involved
with Slumdog Millionaire. That happens all the time in India.
There is an ‘Indian Dream’ and I want to find out about that.” Her visit
has brought her closer to Indian spirituality. She discovered the
Goddess who stands for her name and represents freedom of speech,
somewhere simulating the Goddess through her music and art.
“The concept of freedom of speech is 5,000 year old, represented by a
woman who is an untouchable and a refugee, who fights for free speech
and rapping. It is not new to India. This discovery was very liberating.
I was always struggling to communicate this. India made me realise this
concept.”
Her outlook, shaped by her travails, is global and secular and yet at
this point she finds herself attracted by spirituality. “I never
pigeonhole my self into any religion but I feel it has found me. I am
trying to make sense of it….the essence of the Mathangi concept.”
Kerala connect
Kerala is not new to M.I.A. either. She was here in 2005 “in the
jungles” to make a music video with Rajesh Touchriver, whom she tracked
via the Internet.
The art that Mathangi will be presenting is conceptualised on the fact
that ancient Indian wisdom lies buried under a heap of present day
plastic, plastic of credit cards, holograms and lenticular materials. It
is a concept that has to be discussed now- money, cheap labour, piracy,
counterfeiting…”
The Tamil issue is close to her heart. She reacts to it with maturity.
“Tamils all over the world have a sense of belonging to the world itself
but our ancient roots come from India. I would like to explore India. I
will keep coming back. This is the closest I can get to home,” she
says, with a tinge of rue.
No comments:
Post a Comment