From a disinterested mechanical engineer who used to doodle superhero sketches at the back of his notebooks to emerging as the first Red Bull World Doodle Art Champion in 2014 among 32,000 competitors, Santanu Hazarika‘s journey is as dynamic as one of his pieces. “Doing what you love brings freedom, and loving what you do brings happiness,” says Hazarika, talking about the crossover from science to the big, bold world of art. But it wasn’t until the last two years that Hazarika really entered the big league and found a firm place at the top of the cultural food chain, thanks to taking his inimitable sketches and gothic artworks onto larger canvases and showcasing them at important exhibitions. 

At 31, the Guwahati-born artist now stands out as a recognised name in the Indian art scene and is often seen alongside partner Shruti Hassan at a hot mix of big-ticket gatherings, from sneakers festivals to red carpets. Yet the artist remains humble about his exciting life, “I follow a monotonous routine. I wake up, play with my cat, then prepare my coffee or tea, have breakfast, and head to work out.” After this, his day unfolds in the studio, brainstorming, working on projects, and creating art. “Later, I come back home, have dinner with Shruti, spend time playing with my cat, and then turn in for the night. Occasionally, I might watch something, or read a few comic books or Mangas, but that’s essentially the extent of my life—simple.” Well, there’s nothing simple about the art he continues to create. We find out more

Man’s World: How would you describe your creative process? 

Santanu Hazarika: It’s simple. I just sit down and start creating. Most of the time the output is not as desired as what I would have envisioned, but it’s a constant method of trial and error. I do have a certain idea or maybe 2-3 different ideas which I try to just box together. I believe you cannot create something that has never existed, because we are bound by our senses and we use them to perceive and understand the world around us. What I try to do is take two, three or four different contrasting articles or subjects or emotions, see how creatively I can combine them to create a new composition, and then start with the execution. And while I’m executing it, there’s improvisation at every step because I’m trying to create something that’s never been created using a certain set of permutations and combinations. There are moments where I have to leave it halfway, and there are so many half-pieces because the process of improvisation doesn’t work and then I have to start fresh. But the thing is, it’s always a learning process. Every time you fail, and again when you get back to it, there’s always a discovery. 

MW: To what extent is Shruti involved?

SH: It depends, she is my first critic because whenever I come up with a new piece, whenever I create something new, she’s the first one to experience it or see it or see the whole process of how I make it, and she’s always there. She’s very appreciative of it and there’s always feedback, which I respect because she is also creative in her own right. We also bounce a lot of ideas off each other, because we have lots of similarities like we have very similar tastes in art, music, and everything around us. That way she’ll always introduce me to new stuff, which I take into, then maybe from different music artists. It’s a constant banter about different art forms which goes into a much more subliminal way of life. It goes into a way of switching, a subliminal way of affecting my thought process because we’re bound by experiences, both in our personal lives and also in our professional lives.

MW: What defines a Santanu Hazarika piece?

SH: My art keeps evolving, however, if you look at all of my artwork, there is a constant sense of mystery. It is fluid. A sublime flow of lines and motion which is visceral and also chaotic at the same time. The more you look at it, the more you’ll understand. And new things will be revealed to you with each passing day or time, or each moment that you keep looking at it. So it’s highly detailed. There’s a lot of line work. It’s hard to put it in words. It’s surreal in a very illustrative way and there’s always a significant use of the colour black. And, it’s almost mind-bending.

MW: What were your early inspirations? 

SH: It started with this artist called Richie Beckett. Then there was my true mentor in a way that I sort of learned everything from like sketching and everything from Kim Jung-Gi, who recently passed away. And James Jean is still one of my biggest inspirations. Then a lot of manga artists like Echiro Oda and Kentaro Miura are also included in that list. All of these artists have a certain style of painting and also create illustrations which are somewhere in between illustrations and painting. All of them are sort of figurative form based and heavily rely on a lot of forms and colours and a lot of surrealism in their work of art.

MW: You’ve noted your fascination with Kentaro Miura’s work. How does it influence you?

SH: He created one of the biggest and most legendary Manga to be ever created called Berserk. I was moved by the story. Then I got into the manga and I started reading it and every panel was so detailed. It was designed so beautifully. Each page was a piece of artwork. It was all in black and white. I’ve always had an affinity towards ink sketches, ink drawings, which are done in black and white. The fact that he explored a lot of macabre and a lot of adult themes fascinated me because I started off making artwork by copying a lot of graphic heavy metal or death metal album artwork. For example, the decapitated, cannibal corpse, Megadeth. All of these bands had a similar theme. And, I used to copy those artworks or imitate them as a young kid. Immediately when I came across Kentora Minora’s work, I was naturally drawn towards it.

There are a bunch of my works that are inspired by Kentaro Miura’s art. Some examples would be one artwork called Ted Bundy’s Pinup which was heavily influenced by his use of black ink and themes revolving around death and decay and also sexualizing it in a way. There’s one called Melting Fat which is similar. Then there’s this one commercial work that I did for DeWars which sort of has a lot of elements which is inspired by his work for the launch of DeWars Japanese Whiskey where I blended the style of manga illustration along with a branding project.

MW: How did you transition from being a doodle artist to working on larger pieces?

SH: There is a certain part of me that always wants everything to be mightier and as I grew older, I kept making more detailed pieces. On the other hand, I just ran out of space to draw. I wanted to expand more and push myself and see what I could do, given an opportunity where I get to work on a bigger, larger canvas, which is an automobile be it a bus or a huge wall. I wanted to explore and challenge myself and see how I execute it. My first transition into a bigger piece would be during my stay in Guwahati, my hometown, when I started painting in other articles, like, I painted my car first. It was a Maruti 800. That was the first time I jumped into an automobile. Painting or creating art on it. And then, slowly, the situation demanded that I create larger pieces to captivate more audiences. And also, to put forward what my pieces look like in a much-needed physical space. 

MW: What are some of the most common misconceptions associated with modern art today?

SH: The most common misconceptions associated with it would be around the fact that art is something for the elite. And at the same time, art is not accessible. Either that or art is more or less like a hobby and there is no particular career around it. 

At the same time, it is also an inaccessible realm of elite people just gatekeeping a lot of the artists and the artwork and the general populace. And at the same time, people only associate art or modern art with some of the old works or the grandmasters who are long dead. But right now, there is so much happening around. There are so many art galleries and so many art foundations that are breaking the stereotype and kind of promoting art from a much more public perception. And they’re creating an ecosystem where every artist is welcomed irrespective of their background or from which school they belong. 

MW: At one point, you were the fastest-selling artist on NFT platforms, where do you believe the future of the industry is heading for artists?

SH: The whole crypto and blockchain isn’t a decline. It happens with any risks. For example, art in itself is a gamble. Taking up this career is a big gamble and so was being in crypto and blockchain. And I strongly believe that the future of the industry is heading towards a much more digitized artistic approach. It will end up being a mix of technology and art, which will drive this further, like AR, and VR, and those things will take over soon enough. At the same time, physical and analogue art will also exist, but it will become more of a niche. 

MW You’re a big sneakerhead. Tell us about that. 

SH: I always loved sneakers as a kid but unfortunately, I didn’t have the resources to buy them. I would always go out window shopping, check them out and one day aspire to collect them. I have always seen a lot of hip-hop artists as a kid; they would wear all these expensive sneakers like NWA or 50 Cent. It became a fascination, sort of like collecting toys. Finally, when I became independent and had the means to collect the things that I’d always wanted as a kid, I started spending on sneakers and I started collecting them. And now I’m sort of overdoing it because I have lots of pairs and I don’t have enough space to keep them. Right now, alll my pairs have been distributed. I have some in my house, some in my studio, some in Delhi, and some in my home in Guwahati.

MW: What are your most prized pairs?

SH:  It would be one Chuck 70 Converse, which was a Tyler the Creator edition that was created by Spencer McMullen. It has a bunch of illustrations on it. Then Air Jordan Black Cats, those are up there for me. My current favourite pair is the Adidas X Korn, which was recently launched. I love the band Korn, and after 33 years of them always wearing Adidas for all the shows, they finally came up with the whole collection. 

MW What is your current go-to sneaker? 

SH: Right now, my go-to sneakers would be a simple Air Force one and I also have this off-white ‘Out of Office’ by Off White which is one of my favourite pairs because they are comfortable and I love wearing them around. I’m also working on a unique sneaker project—a whole Santanu Hazarika edition of sneakers, which I am very excited about.