with mr venugopal

postcard attempt. conversation with mr gerson

this is an attempt at representing the conversation i had yesterday. if all the postcards have these images and a link to the database online where all the stories will be saved it might be interesting.

conversation with mr gerson carniero

Mr G: so how can I help you?

Me:no with regard to our project, we have been talking to many people all over the city, We are trying to 

collect conversations about or over food.

Mr G: im not much of a foodie myself, but lets talk and see if I can help.

Me: sure,so lets start with a short introduction maybe? My name is Siddharth and im from delhi. Im studying art.

Mr G: my name is Gerson. And Im a l,zocalite. I served as captain in the merchant navy for many years, and have now retired.we are actually termed anglo Indians, but we have Portuguese ancestry.

Me: yes, are you fine with that? Being of Portuguese ancestry and being called anglo Indian?

Mr G: yes I have no issues whatsoever, that’s a government thing, they have so many communities here so for the govts sake they have clubbed all of us as anglo Indians. But for all purposes im a kochiitte.

Me: I find it amazing that so many communities can live here in one place.we are trying to arrive at multiple perspectives of looking at kochi, eg. Some  people say that the kashmiris are a nuisance, whereas the kashmiris have a completely different point of view.

Mr G: oh yes, only recently the kashmiris have come and have set up shops and businesses here. The locals actually cant compete, that’s why the jealousy. The kashmiris come and spend a lot of money on buying land and such things. They don’t interfere with anyone.

Me: as out project has to do with food,what is your favourite dish?

Mr G: im not really fussy at all, and I normally have a traditional zerala meal, sometimes we make Portuguese cuisine as well. Like vindaloo etc. but personally , I love European food, I love steaks.

Me: what is vindaloo?

Mr G: it’s a pork based curry with marinations and such things, it tends to be sour but its very nice.

Me: has the food changed over the years?

Mr G: im sure it has but ive been here all my life, so I haven’t really noticed. What interesting is that certain food that are considered traditionally keralite, are actually ideas that the Portuguese have brought to india. You must have had puttu?

Me: yes.i liked it a lot.

Mr G: yes, the Portuguese actually showed people how you can cook and make rice cakes inside a bamboo! Even vivankjim I think that’s how they spell it, it’s a sweet thing. Its also Portuguese.

Me: wow I didn’t know that.

Mr G:haha, yes it is interesting.

Me: how do you find kochi to live in. in the merchant navy you must have seen so much of the world.

Mr G: well if you have money, kochi is beautiful. Its expensive, but if you have money you can life a very good life, its laidback and quiet. It’s a retired man’s life.you can get servants easily, you live peacefully.

Me: I haven’t seen any teenagers around.ive seen young kids in school , but where are the teenagers?

Mr G: see its an old mans town, as soon as kids finish school they spread out to all corners of india and abroad, they go to the gulf,Australia, Canada, uk, Bangalore, Bombay as well.they get better education and better opportunities there.

Me: what about your father, what did he do?

Mr G: he was a merchant, and my brothers and me have all been captains in the merchant navy.My son is now I pilot though, the merchant navy had its time, when I joined it was the best job one could go for, even better than a doctor or and engineer.it has its perks, you get to see many different places all over the world, and you earn a lot of money. But once you are married and have children, you miss out and your family misses out on a lot.

Me: was your wife ok with you being out all the time?

Mr G: actually that’s an interesting story. Theres a famous ship called Chidambaram, which in those days, went from madras to Malaysia. I was  second officer on the ship and she was a passenger. We met on board, I think somewhere around Singapore, and after our time on the ship, we got married 5 years later. Her name is Vinnie.

Me: what does she do now?

Mr G: she runs a beauty parlour in fort kochi itself, but currently shes gone off to Canada actually my daughter in law is expecting a baby.

Me: congratulations!

Mr G: thankyou!

Me:I noticed your house has a name!

Mr G: haha yes. My reasoning is that it’s the gift the sea has given me, all my earnings at sea have allowed me to build this house here. Hence, seagift.

Me: how nice. In the olden times, when you used to go out on your voyages, did you bring any things back with you?

Mr G: oh yes there was this wonderful music system I got from japan, and at that time those weren’t heard of in kochi, and everyone was excited. I just recently gave it away. It lasted me about 25 years.Apart from that I had this hobby of collecting stamps wherever I went, and I had quite a good collection.

Me: oh can I see!

Mr G: all those times have passed, now I have given it away to my children and I don’t have it anymore.

Me: how is it to be out at sea for such long stretches of time? You must be very attached to the sea.

Mr G: ive had a lot of experiences at sea. I loved it a lot but it poses a lot of challenges. After all a crew of 35 odd officers are responsible for safely taking the ship from one continent to another at times. I remember pirates were also a nuisance. They weren’t that big of a problem as they are now. But they would throw hooks, when the ship was slow, and rob things in the cabins etc.i got robbed once long back of some 10000 dollars,it was somewhere off Singapore.

Me: ok thanks a lot for your time, If youre free later, we can meet again.

Mr G: yes sure, just give me a call.

Me: see you.

conversation with mr thomas tharian

Me: Hello, thanks so much for coming to meet us.

Mr t: no problem. so yes, ask me whatever you like, ill tell you.

Me: ok so maybe we can start with a short introduction. What do you do sir?

Mr t:I own a homestay here in fort kochi. After tourism boomed here,we moved to enrakulam and started a homestay here. Its amazing. 5-6 years back there were only 5-6 hotel in fort kochi. Now as you can see, there are big hotels like the harbor hotel, and there are hundreds of homestays.this has been a recent development.We were a family with 7-8 children, so we divided our fort kochi property amongst the children and we moved to ernakulam.

Me:the old harbor hotel used to be a jewish house right?

Mr t: no actually,that one used to be a house of one of the tea company bosses. It was called old harbour’s house. There’s a hotel called koder house now, in earlier times , S.Koder, who was the head of the jews in kochi used to stay there.I remember him being around when I was a small child.Its quite a beautiful building and has now be made into a very high class hotel. You should go and check it out for yourself.even though the buildings have been renovated, they have still kept the old style intact.

Me:What all has changed in kochi since you’ve been around?

Mr T: you’ve been to mattancherry?

Me: yes, we just went there yesterday.

Mr T: mattancherry, not too long ago, used to a filthy area.Now with tourism booming, kashmiris have come there and have started small handicrafts stores there.stragely, this area that once used to filthy has become a treasure island or businessmen.The container terminal that we can see from here has also been a recent development.the prime minister inaugurated it just a year back.now it is competing with the Colombo port, and I think if the govt relaxes the taxes, rules and such things, it will be the premier port in the area. Its going to be the best business. The place is actually called valadpadam, which funnily means paddy field, look what has developed there now.

The Gosree bridges were also a major development in the area. These are three bridges that connect fort kochi, willingdon island and ernakulam. Huge flats are coming up now there because of these bridges.

Me: what did your father do?

Mr T:My father owned a tea company called AVTT( a v Thomas tea company). He came here for that reason.

Me: what are your views on theboom that kochi is going through?

Mr T: I think its great, kochi has developed in multiples.All are literate here. Its very good for business too and its going to get better.

Me:Where did you study?

Mr T: I studied in st john’s de britto school.We were taught by anglo-indian teachers.There was a girls branch too, It was called st marys girls school.The education was very good. We learn good English.theres lots of goof schools like delta study school and chinmaya vidyalaya.Im very proud of kochin.all the communities that live here love kochi,auto walahs love kochi, they charge the tourists highly! Haha. Even the fishermen cater to the tourists. The heritage is well maintained.

Me: are the tourists mainly from other countries?

Mr T:well mostly, but now even state tourism is coming up in a big way.Lots of I.T companies are coming in for trips. The govt too is encouraging them by giving incentives and funds. Actually,the I.T sector is the cheapest manpower youll find in kerala.all of these people ended up going to the gulf to work because bigger companies were paying more there.

Me: our project is probably going to revolve around food.

Mr t: oh, you get lots of kerala speciality food here. All the tourists want to try out our food.Puttu, which is a steamed cake, is quite a hit, and you get it for really cheap on the roadside and you get really expensive ones in the hotels! In my father’s time, our breakfast used to cost 25 ps, We were fond of appam and curry, puttu and such things.

Me: who generally cooks food in the household?

Mr T: women are in the kitchen all the time, while the men go out and work. But now, men have also started going for hotel management and cooking courses and even they are respectable courses because of the tourism sector. Earlier they weren’t considered to be good courses. Parents would want their children to become doctors, or engineers.earlier parents would be shy to tell others if their son was a chef.

Me:its late, you came from ernakulam right now?

Mr T: oh yes, it was a friend’s wedding, im a bass singer, we had a singing session with a choir.you guys should come to the church on Sunday, I sing in the malayali mass over there.

Me: sure!                                            

Mr t: anyway, I have to go home and eat dinner now, let me know how your project goes and call me if you need any help.

Me: sure sir! Thanks a lot!

conversation with tg suresh.

Our project is moving in a direction where we collect conversations with different people from kochi, over food. yesterday, i spoke with a local artist called suresh while we had black tea and shared a bidi.

We plan to represent these conversations in the form of postcards, so i decided to start some iterations.
below is a summary of the conversation and the images are what i drew later.

*******

Me: wow! nice studio!
Mr S: its a small one, but the energy is great!

Me: desmond, sent me here.
Mr S: oh yeah, hes a good friend of mine.

Me: can i talk to you for sometime?
Mr: sure, lets talk over tea, maybe we can eat something too.

(walk to small tea shop closeby, the area is mattancherry, he orders tea. black for himself, milk chai for me, he lights a bidi and we sit down at a  small table)

Me: there were a lot of elephant paintings i saw in your studio. why are you so interested in elephants?
Mr S:haha! ive been working on this series for 7 years now. i draw only elephants. not normal black, or grey, not even white ones, but in different colours, in different postures.

Me: hmm, why so?
Mr S: haha everyone asks me that. at times i tell people, that the elephant's trunk is so unique, or its the biggest land animal. ill tell  you tt something interesting,i think elephants are socialist animals, when i kid is born, every mother takes care of the kid. we have a lot to learn from them dont we? and you might not agree,but my aim is not to represent elephants. i am representing humans. this is me dream for the world, free people, happy peaceful people, elephants without chains.

Me:are you interested in politics?
Mr S: yes, sure im very interested in politics. but i dont contest elections or anything. im saying what i need to say through the images im making.my paintings are for the people.  i dont agree with people who say communism is an old concept.

Me: kerala has a history of communism right?
Mr S: yeah that might have been there earlier. but now its become bureaucratic. its not communism. 
do you know 80 years back common people didnt have clothes to wear in kerala!?

Me: really? sounds impossible to me.
Mr S: no im telling you only the rajas had some kind of long coats, the common people had nothing much at all. if they wanted to cover themselves up, they had to pay taxes!

Me:what? why?
Mr S: thats how the maharajas rule was.

Me: do these things that youre concerned with figure in your paintings?
Mr S:yes. i paint freedom. ultimate freedom. dancing elephants. jumping elephants. i think thats how the world should be.

Me:what are your views on the biennale?
Mr S: i think those guys are doing a corporate event. the biennale is not for the people. there is no local representation. there are so many local artists. no one is displaying there. we are planning to hold a parallel event on 12/12/12 where we local artists will talk about our views.

Me:i saw a few bob marley posters around. whats that about?
Mr S: i believe in bob marley's philosophy. his music came to me 30 years ago. we used to go to fort kochi to find cassetes and we'd listen to his music. his music was music of the opressed people. it had a fighting spirit.every two years, we organise a bob marley remembering event, and i read my poems there and give talks about my philosophies.
this is an excerpt from one poem i wrote last year.
" say no barricade
say no border
say no fort
say no force
say no war
hence only peace
and
freedom
of everyone"

Me: do you think people are opressed in kerala?
Mr V: must be.

Me: what about  other communities?
Mr v: yeah there are lots of different communities here. there are a handful of places like kochi in the world. there are jews, muslims, malayalis, christians everyone. i have hundreds of friends around here. from all communities. you should come here in the evening. we have a session of music and lot of my friends gather and talk and sing.

Me: sure i would like to come for that!
Mr S: you must.see you for now.

Me: bye.

*****

city at it's limits-Daniella Gandolfo

“the soft city of illusion, myth,aspiration, nightmare, is as real, maybe more real than the hard city one can locate on maps in statistics, monographs on urban sociology,demography and architecture”

* in our project, we are trying to capture life in kochi, and this statement from the book really resonated with me.We are hoping to collect conversations over food from all over, which might start from food, but hopefully will go into personal stories. These stories will map out kochi with all its illusions, mythologies, aspirations and nightmares. *

first trip to kochi

Just got back from a week long trip to kochin.These are a few 35mm images i took with my Holga.

The kochi Bienalle has been agreat opportunity and im working with 4 of my friends on a project which the bienalle is encouraging as part of their higher education programme.

As per our project, we have narrowed down to the idea of food triggering conversations, and how these conversations will throw light on the cosmopolitan nature of kochi. During this week, we began the process of getting to know people and talking to them and i will post transcripts of the conversations we have been having.

We have worked on a proposal and the plan is to go back this sunday and start work!

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/

family picture

tried to work on a collage of a family picture. interesting results i think.

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.

more progress on memory landscapes

did a few more rounds of exchange over this image with chris. i think it looks quite interesting. hoping to develop our work further with the next one.

i find it intriguing that after working on this image, chris' images too are strangely becoming part of my memories. as i look at the image, i can almost imagine chris' dog, lito, being there with me and ma parents. memory is so malleable and volatile.

albrecht durer- proverbs

very interesting from the nothern renaissance. beautifully detailed, i could look at this for hours! its amazing how multiple stories are weaved into one image, and how the eye moves from one to another, discovering new things as i go.

one more

progress 2

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

progress

we started work today on a peice revolving around memories around an ocean. the idea came from the fact that my partner comes from a place which is called "ocean state", in rhode island.
my memories and images of an ocean will be very different from his and will be interesting to see in our little composition. thinking we should play more with perspective and foreground background elements, maybe text and colour too.
still a work in progress.