Sculptures

Organic Metal:
Using arc wielding rods as the medium, a good portion of my second year art school was spent at the sculpture studio.

Some experiments. 2002

New works. 2009-10










Matchstick Experiments:
Experiments using matchsticks as a medium.

Vids n Pics
2004, 2007







Experiments using cotton.
2004

More experiments prior to using them for the recycling fabric project.
2010








Experiments using bread
2006

Photographing Everyday

An exhibition showcasing sixty Polaroid enlargements of mundane moments in a city; moments that are rooted by the quality of being temporary.

The posters and invitation cards were arranged by designer/ artist and incredible human-being, Soraya Taher Merchant

- Collecting Fragments (a mini writeup by me). Pages 1, 2 and 3.
- An article written by Ayesha Matthan for The Hindu newspaper.
- An interview with Rajita Gadagkar for The Bengaluru Pages.
- Opening day pictures.

(These Polaroids were shot between 2003-05)

.2008

The Lost Tea Leaves Series

An experiment playing with the possibilities of reusing throw-away tea leaves and powder as a collaborative effort between Infinitea and Mithun Jayaram.

(Why is it called the LOST tea leaves series?)

If in Bangalore, we invite you and your family & friends to relax with a pot of tea and great food under this loungy feel situated at 2, Shah Sultan Complex, Cunningham Road.



- Christine Rillo who works for Adagio Teas wrote this very inspiring article.
- Catherine V. Bainbridge wrote this for her blog.

- Kanika Singh, who works for Buzz in Town, Bangalore, had written this on the Lost Tea Leaves Series.

Many thanks to Gaurav, Deeksha and the many pillars who hold up this very special place.

2008-09


Documenting the Lost Tea Leaves Series







Photo documents.












Video documents. (coming soon)












Videos for Infinitea. (coming soon)

Observing the 'Lost Tea Leaves Series'

Why ‘lost’ you may be wondering…

Few years back, at the Alliance Française, I was trying to explain (rather retardedly in French) to one of the French teachers there, the project i had been working on, the past couple of months. (I had been collecting the refuse tea from a tea restaurant called Infinitea in Bangalore, to make works that could be later exhibited in his establishment). In his trying to understand what I had said to him, he related it to something that was very familiar to him, ‘Pain Perdu ’. Literally translated as ‘Lost Bread ’, which is what we know to be as French Toast.

He further went on to explain that the bread that was made a long while back in France, lasted for just for a day before it became hard, crunchy and stale (lost). He described how that for the people to get over this, what they’d do is make it soft by dipping it in a mixture of eggs and milk to fry it into golden brown chunks (slices in American and English cultures).

The more I tried researching about it, the more I realised that each country has their own method of preparation and they all call it by different names. Even the history of ‘French Toast’ may not necessarily belong to the French.

Nevertheless, just the idea of something ready to be thrown away (the abject quality) and it being given second breath to be something different, was what captured me. That people had found a way to waste less bread by preparing it differently.

Talking to my dad about it reminded him of an Arabic desert item he loves called ‘Um Ali’.

My mind kept revolving around the idea that the bread was once ‘lost’ and now reborn. The usage of language to imply history through the word ‘Perdu’ (lost), was an idea I found too appealing to let go of.

The more I thought about it, the more I could relate to what I was doing with the tea leaves. They too, every evening get chucked away in large garbage bags where they will find their way into lorries, the next morning, that lift them away. Instead, the 'Teamen' (as they are called) collected them for me, where i took the leaves and powder back home to dry and stored them to see what would happen over time (eventually to glue them into forms and frame them for display).

But it just wasn’t a simple matter of collecting, drying, storing, pasting and displaying.

Observing its daily decay and experimenting were where the fun laid for me.

14th March 2009 edited (12th March 2011)

The Feeling Bubble of Forgetting

An installation/performance experiment,
using post-it notes and erasers,
observing the idea of revealing the art-making process,
in a public space not designated for the arts.

(How the idea took root)




- Masala Chai: A visual arts blog groomed by Pavitra Mohan had covered the work.
(Photographic credit of pencil works to John Heng)
- BS Manu Rao, of the Bangalore Mirror, covered the work in the ETC section.

Mega thanks to everyone at Gloria Jeans Coffees and CityMax for their trust and support. To all the friends i have made through this experience, i am indebted to you.

2009

Documenting the Feeling Bubble of Forgetting






Photo documenting the process.











Video documenting the process. (incomplete)












Undressing the work.












Nikhil Narendra's "No Salary" music video. (coming soon)

Pricking "The Feeling Bubble of Forgetting" (Pre-experiment)

"Over a month back, a friend and I had a discussion on memory, this elusive material that we faced problems recalling on many occasions. As a response to this discussion… or rather as footnotes to our conversation, I decided to sculpt and post a letter to this person utilizing ‘post-it’ paper and correction tape.













In the process of sculpting this letter (using a pen knife), I had made double incisions on the pad, where there had meant to be one solid cut instead. This led to an interesting mistake whose texture I instantly noted as potential to create/ manipulate a space with.

At the time, I had been frequenting Gloria Jean’s Coffees over at 100ft road, Indranagar and was made happy by the staff there who had made me feel welcome.

Unsure of a final outcome, I prepared an informal proposal that I approached GJC with.

The next couple of days were spent speaking to different managers and their superiors, till one day, I had given space to the thought that maybe this wasn’t to happen within their premise.

Just when I was about to start thinking of other places that might fancy the idea, I had received a call which caught me by surprise; Not only were they were very enthusiastic about the project but what was incredibly encouraging about this call was the amount of support the people of GJC were willing to provide.

All I could tell them for certain were the materials that I had planned on using and the space I had my eyes on. What interested me were the elements that I had chosen for my head to play with.

A medium for remembering (post-its) and one for erasing (erasers/ correction tape).

I had, at the time, also been reading ‘Food of the Gods’ by Terrence Mckenna… and this part of the text caught my attention, which I could relate to this experiment and weave into my thoughts;

“ …Tea cleared the way for the popularity of coffee. Their stimulant properties made caffeine in coffee and its close cousin theobromine in tea the ideal drugs for the Industrial Revolution: they provided an energy lift, enabling people to keep working at repetitious tasks that demanded concentration...”

One of my interests in art, lie in the use of everyday materials. That we can look at objects as myriad-purposed materials, rather than as items driven by a singular purpose. Having had the opportunities to have done something like this in Singapore, I am curious to observe public responses (in Bangalore) to projects such as this done in spaces not usually reserved for the arts.

With the visual richness that the window space of GJC provides, I’m looking forward to where the process leads… and sharing it with the people around.

Do drop on by."

This was written about 2 months back

Towards the Untaming of the Gardens of our Seas

It is a mouthful of a title to swallow... So why don't we talk about it by first talking a bit about ourselves;

Soraya and i graduated from the same art college (LASALLE-SIA College of the Arts) in Singapore but, had pocketed different perspectives from the same space. During our time there, we knew of each others existence and would confirm it by passing 'hello' smiles at the cafeteria or library.


The first time we had really spoken was about three years after graduation. She was rushing over to her hair styling classes while i had been running around getting errands done for my then-employers. Our chancing together that day led to an intense fifteen minutes where we shared what we had been up to and where we would be heading. Soraya was preparing to shift to Bangalore after her marriage, while i was making plans to shift in with my parents who (coincidently) happen to live in Bangalore too.


It was something for the both of us to look forward to. That neither of us would really be alone in a foreign country... That we could reminiscent over taut popiahs that could be held well by chopsticks, slithering laksa noodles, mrt systems and other moments we'd miss about Singapore. 


This was to be the first time either of us lived in India.

We kept in touch as and when we could. Soraya would share with me of her love of paper-art and when i would gift her something, she would light up promptly, to ask if its made of paper. Our get-togethers would end by a discussion of collaborating to make paper-art and for me to look up paper artist, Jen Stark's work. 


Sometime beginning of August 2010, she tells me that shes been given an opportunity to make and display works anytime before December this year. 
She baits to see if i'm interested in joining in. 
I bite. And she quickly reels me in.


So now  we have a space and less than 3 months to make a new set of works. which led to brainstorming sessions as to what this exhibition will be about.

Is there a theme to this exhibition? We would be presumptuous to say that we have any planned. What we can share with you are observations... such as, us have a liking for long fluid lines showcasing some sense of intricacies or how we both like involving our hands in our work and entering our bubble of concentration as we take the time to make works.

“If we are in a rut, it is a palatial and exquisite rut. And yet, like prisoners in a cell, we grip our ribs from within, rattle them, and beg for release.”, wrote Diane Ackerman in her book, ‘A Natural History of the Senses’.

And we were in our ruts. At that moment we were in our individual cages rattling away and quietly begging for we had forgotten what it was like to feel that strength of connection with our own impassioned creative juices... with ourselves. It was like speaking to a loved one in another continent over a mobile phone, and the voice through that phone was crackling away on its last bar of reception.

A frustrating inability to communicate with the ‘fire in ones belly’.

Carolyn M. Kleefeld wrote a poem in her book, 'Climates of the Mind' that helped visualize how the ecosystem of ideas and creativity functioned;

"... There's a symphonic coalescence
between the pulse of my streams
and the seas outside
My dynamics claim the freedom
the abandon born of the gypsy wind

The untamed gardens of the sea
offer me a palatial everchanging playground
The tides landscape these nomadic gardens endlessly

The plasma of the sea gives without loss 
Gifting me with waterfalls
that cascade inside me into ideas-
pools of imagination to swim in..." (excerpt)

An apt visualization of our momentary disconnection, which became the title and visual for which our selves are growing towards.


We hope to see you here soon!


Have an excellent week ahead!

.