kochi beinalle

Off to Kochi soon for the kochi biennale. Working in a team of 5 on putting up some work there. more updates soon!

http://www.kochimuzirisbiennale.org/

final reflections

The memory lab has come to an end for now, and i have tried to answer these questions for a lot of you who might be wondering what the heck is happening over here. I didnt arrive at concrete conclusions, but it was a journey for me that has given me some direction and things for me to think about.

heres a link to blogs of others part of the lab-http://thememorylab.blogspot.in/2012/09/link-to-personal-blogs.html 

1. PROJECTS TITLES: Why did you choose these projects and what was involved in the decision making process? (Refer to the three projects you have done)

The process differed while working on each project. For the first project, I tried to start with the strongest memory I had at that time, the death of my grandfather and worked on a way to give form to how I felt about choosing not to attend his funeral. For the next two projects, the process differed.I got inspired by objects, like the old radio and began playing around with them, and this play triggered memories and feelings in me which would inturn, influence the form. Similarly,for the third project, I was inspired by miniature painting styles and many narratives within one image, I didnt realise then, but coincidentally I was reading orhan pamuk’s my name is read which has a strong underlying narrative about the miniature artists of the Islamic world. These thoughts and the idea of the collaboration somehow came together for the final project.

2. SUBJECT: Reflect on the subject matter of your chosen projects and the breadth of research that you have conducted on these subjects?

The first project, I have to admit, lacked the research element. Im not talking about the internet kind of research here, Im saying I should have delved more into how I felt at the death of my grandfather,it was not only anger and confusion as the final piece portrayed, but a strange complex emotion that I still haven’t wrapped my head around. The first work was about the anger of a person, but it would have been richer If I had made it about my anger and not just any anger, that would have added nuances to make it a richer piece.

For the second project, which was the memory radio, Most of my time spent was figuring out the electronics and programming to get the piece working, so again more research on the actual content of the piece and getting exposed to more spoken word art and sound art would have definitely helped me tell the story better.

The third project fortunately, had a lot of things brewing in my head, from the miniatures of rajasthan to the medieval paintings of Albrecht durer. I looked up a lot of Dadaist work to see how the collage form has been applied elsewhere.

Overall, Susan Sontag’s against interpretation was the one article that has stayed with me the most, and if I compare my work process to last year or even a few months back, it has opened me up to intuition in some sense, whereas earlier I would try to be logic heavy.

3. AIMS/OBJECTIVES/CONCEPTS: How and to what extent have you achieved the aim and objectives of the projects? Describe the main concepts driving the projects.

The aim of the first project was to create a mood and a physical experience for the viewer revolving around the memory that I had, I think it succeeded to some extent and people felt that were entering someone elses private space, and it made them uncomfortable, at the same time, maybe it didn’t allow for entry points.

For the second project, I felt the interaction of tuning in to the radio to listen to stories was a success for me, and I would like to take that forward at some point in time. I felt it was very strong as a storytelling device.The only thing was it needed more development on the narrative side. Which is not an issue, because I am taking that forward, at some point.

4. AUDIENCE: Are you addressing a specific audience with your work within these projects? For example, a specific community, your peers, members of your family, a corporation or business, educators, patients of a hospital department, government agencies?

Honestly, I haven’t given much thought to a specific audience in any of the projects,I was just concentrating on communicating the idea to people in general.

5. FORM/MEDIUM/PRESENTATION: What are the forms and methods of presentation that you are working with? From the work you have done so far, have you gained any insights on your approach to making, doing and documenting?

most importantly, I have discovered how much blogging helps. When things are not clear in your own head, you can always go back and see things clearly written out. Also, to see the blog build up from scratch and to go through the work, is in itself an inspiration to do more.

Apart from that, as I mentioned earlier, i have become a little more intuitive in my work, as compared to the logical work process I had earlier. I am definitely more open to chance, and to go with the flow, and to not know.and to be okay with it.

6. RESEARCH METHODS: What kind of research methods have you used to research the projects work in depth, and how has your research informed your process?

My main research tool was the internet. Apart from that, a major research/excavation project was talking to my family so often and hearing stories from the past, and asking them to send pictures, tapes, photo albums. This part of the research felt great, and at the risk of sounding corny, has made me closer to my family.

7. REFERENCES: How useful were the references you explored so far- the artists, anthropologists, designers, writers or other practitioners?

the artists we all looked up, and even the ones I found personally on the net were very useful to look at. It was always great to see what established artists have done and what standard you’re aiming for. It wasn’t only installation work, but things that I did in general, like watch someone play a piece of music really well, or a well made film, all of this I feel added to the thoughts in my head and resulted in whatever I created during the course of this project.

8. POSITION & RELATIONSHIP: How do you think your projects would function in, or be positioned to contribute to, similar contemporary fields of production?

 I think that the miniature photography thing that we tried out at the end has a lot of potential to develop further into a way of making pictures. Similarly, the radio work is also interesting esp for me as a way of using objects and technology together, to convey stories and feelings.

Memoryscapes- exhibit at aftertastes, Rococo gallery

Concept note- These images were a result of a collaboration between Christiano Penso from Rhode island, U.S and me.

prints size- 12x8 cm

There was a good turnout at the gallery and it was nice to hear what people thought about the work.

Lots of people thought the work was quite interesting, and the fact that the prints were small made them go closer and look for details which was nice.I realised after a few comments though that giving a deeper context to the images through the concept note would have made the experience richer for the viewer.As i was striving not to explain the work through the concept note, i ended up making it minimal and non commital.I realised though, that the context might not be an explanation of the work but would have left more room for interpretation.

aftertastes- exhibition at rococo gallery.

A poster for the final exhibition being held at rococo gallery, rest house road. 

work in progress

thought of trying something different with the same techniques that we've been figuring out together. not too sure if its working yet. 

memoryscape 3

memory landscape 2

started on a second one today.still a work in progress. need to change a few things.

progress 2

tried a few more things.not sure which one to go with. but i like the look of the crow

lo. mo. playing with the Holga 120N

These images were taken with The Holga 120N.I attended a workshop today on Holga photography and developing film with Annu Matthew, an artist and professor at the university of Rhode Island, usa.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holga

http://www.annumatthew.com/

The memory radio: exhibit at JAAGA shanti nagar, Bangalore

Concept note:

24 Sep 1995, Plague Outbreak, Surat

                                             
                                         

This piece consists of a radio and a set of 3 pictures. The viewer is supposed to turn the knob on the radio and tune to different memories that i have used to tell the story of how the plague affected my ancestors and me.

--

Some reviews: 

"Intriguing and effective as a storytelling tool, i like the mix of the family narrrative with a public instrument such as the radio"

"Great work! I really liked the interface.The radio sets a great mood and the tuner just creates that mystery that prepares the listener for whatever he/she is about to hear"

---

The memory radio project- beginnings.

Im in the process of hacking on of those old transistor radios that i remember my grandma used to have. i want to make it a memory radio , the content of which im figuring out as i go. i like the form, and the idea of tuning in to the memory, and the sound of the static.

ive begun playing around with an arduino board, which is electronics prototyping platform, and have kindof figured out the code. the idea is to play my own mp3 sounds with the turning of the transistor knob. im using a potentiometer for this purpose.

i will post the code and a video soon.

The year of my birth

Right now im in a phase of researching what was happening in india when i was just born, the year 1991.

after some researching and long phone conversations with my parents in delhi, i found that rajiv gandhi, the prime minister of india at that time, was assassinated in chennai. i would have been a 3 month old baby then.

what interests me is how at one point in time, there are so many things going on around and so many stories are being created. some large, some small,some known, some unknown, all fitting into their own frames of view, whether large or small. 

3 months after i was born, i was probably sitting on a chair crying for my mother to come, at the same time, an iconic figure in indian history was lying lifeless in a pile of bones and blood. 

i sometimes try and imagine what must be happening at this moment. as i write this blog post, what events are happening which i have no clue about?

as i write this line, thousands of stories are being created , and it feels like many of them will just pass into a vast sea of memories never to be known again.and some will be known by everyone. 

its always nice to hear stories in retrospect, i guess thats what makes them a story.

but there are so many of them around me, right now, at this moment.

Time puncture: first exhibition at srishti.

the first exhibition, where i exhibited "babuji's funeral" turned out to be success. for the first exhibition as a group, it was nice to see how everyone had put up very different kinds of work.and it was an interesting experience working with the Museum and gallery practices class.

personally, i learnt a few things by watching people interact with my exhibit.
i felt i relied too much on the concept note, and that maybe the work would fall apart without the concept note.not that i wanted to go for this, but in the struggle to disaggregate, i realised i got a little bit caught up with the idea of fragmentation.and i fragmented without the bass narrative being too strong. which might have made bits of the work seem too open, maybe even random to some viewers.

for the next work, i will try and make the base of my work. the basic narrative clear and strong. and at the same time will try and fragment and acheive and interesting balance,which allows different experiences, yet communicates the content loosely.

also, this has got me thinking about the idea of abstraction. Why fragment? why abstract?
although i have realised to some extent what these things do to the narrative, the work opens up and in some sense becomes more experiential and looser, in a way allowing different entry points for different viewers.
at the same time, i want to read up more and study this idea and how it has been applied in art forms throughout history.
future posts on this subject soon.

Ramkinker Baij - The fruit gatherers - exhibit at NGMA bangalore

This sculpture really jumped out at me when i was going slowly, through the multitude of work that was on display at NGMA recently.The artist in spotlight was ramkinker baij. an artist from west bengal and one of the pioneers of modern indian sculpture.

I stood in front of this work for a good hour or forty five minutes, and i loved it.but i didnt know why.
And now after ive gone back to susan sontag's article, its become clearer to me that i was trying my hardest to make sense of what i saw. so that i could "understand" it. and move on.

Strangely though, to this date, i dont know what the work is about, yet this image has been in me head ever since. the title says "fruit gatherers" so that atleast gave me some lenses to look at it from. and the figures look like that of tribal women who would go around gathering fruit in the woods. this i think comes under the studium part of the work. it gives me some idea of the setting or cultural context that the work arises from.

But what really caught my attention, punctured me, the punctum is somewhere hidden between those intertwined, abstracted forms of two females with the fruit falling our of the basket onto their rough stone figures. i dont know what it exactly is, and i guess the fact that i dont know is what is magical about it is what really interests me.
it really lifts the work from a representation of two tribal women gathering fruits on a studium level, to a point where it is exctremely personal, it punctures, it is not any two women, but these two women. i want to know their names, what they are doing. in a strange way, and i hope its not saying too much, this scultpture excited/aroused me on a very visceral, physical level and i was left intrigued and trying to imagine these two women, how they would have been, how they would have been feeding each other the sweet juicy fruit they had just plucked off the trees.in a sense this work really captured that moment, not just on an information level, but with all its confusions, its nuances, emotions, sparks, and resonances.