‘Elephants Can Fly’: Documenting Abhishek Singh’s Live Art at Jaipur Lit Fest

As Singh painted over the course of three days, The Quint chatted with him and tracked the painting's progress.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

When he was growing up, Abhishek Singh wanted to be a neurosurgeon. But he was so interested in storytelling, that he ended up choosing a different path for his life – that of an author and an artist.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

Singh, who recently wrote the bestsellers Namaha and Purnam, has worked on the imagery of gods, goddesses, and nature for more than two decades. 

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

At the Jaipur Literature Festival 2024, his live visual tapestry ‘The Flight of The Elephants’ is an attempt to celebrate all things nature – “especially the beautiful animals that are the ambassadors of nature,” he says.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

Singh tells The Quint, “We make a lot of things from trees. But here, the tiger, who is the central guardian of the forest and also a yogi, is singing a very ancient song of the earth and is morphing musical instruments back into the tree.”

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

He adds, “As the instruments are going back to the tree, all the birds and animals are coming back to their home, and the forest is going back to its natural state.”

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

It’s not unusual for Singh to write or paint about nature at length. That’s always been his inspiration and his driving force. He says, “I have emotional love for nature, but creative love as well. For as long as I can remember, I have used nature in my paintings, in my artwork, in my drawings.”

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

But Singh admits that this admiration wasn’t always an informed one. There was a lot he didn’t know when it came to nature – how could he, when the very term encompasses so much of our lives and our planet?

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

Singh wanted his art to have a purpose, a meaning that transcends what is there for you to see. Over the years, he decided to volunteer with conservation and rehabilitation programmes for wildlife and worked extensively with elephants.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

He says, “I want to put a sense of service in my art first and then a creative intent. We tend to romanticise nature more than we actually know about it.”

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

Having learnt about the kind of lives that animals live in our times, Singh decided to pay an ode to them through his art. He says, “For me, this is a tribute to nature but I am also painting on behalf of the elephants, of the animals, and the mountains that have been my home for so many years now.”

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

And so, he’s painted what he calls an “acoustic music of the arts and of silence.” Using simple instruments – black ink on canvas – Singh attempted to paint something that would make the experience of viewing art a shared one.

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

“Usually art is an endeavour of solitude and of silence. I am approaching art a little bit like music, when I’m doing a live piece. I want to bring the process out for people to experience what it’s like creating art,” says Singh. 

(Photo: Garima Sadhwani/The Quint)

At the Jaipur Literature Festival 2024, author and artist Abhishek Singh created a visual tapestry called The Flight of The Elephants.

As Singh painted live over the course of three days, The Quint chatted with Singh about his painting and tracked its progress.

Back to the festival after another live painting he had done for them in 2018, Singh says, “I’m glad they had me back to create art and initiate conversations that resonate with the festival.”