Shilpi

The easiest way to recognize a cluster is that you enter a town and be greeted by countless forms and structures of one particular material. Although all the forms are different in structure but from your perspective – watching from the entrance of the town, the work seems monotonous. This monotony in the  material and appearance helps in pointing out the place as a cluster of that particular craft.

While standing at the gate of Shivarapatna, a village in the Malur Taluk of Kolar District in Karnataka, a similar sight of massive stone sculptures welcomed me and my friend Sree Lakshmi, and helped us confirm that we were standing at the right place – the land of stone sculpting, Shivarapatna.

 

I have to admit that traveling to this town from Bangalore is not very easy. We took a bus from Majestic to Hoskote, from where we got a bus to Malur. From Malur a bus to Shivarapatna gate and then an auto to reach the entrance of the Shivarapatna village. The deserted Shivarapatna gate leads to dumbfounderment as there does not exist any trace of public commute! Indeed huge autos which I have termed as ‘item’ autos (because of the way it is decorated from the inside) do follow this route at intervals of 5-10 minutes. These autos can possibly accommodate 20 people at once and cost Rs. 10 per person. We got into one of these autos and reached the entrance of the Shivarapatna village from the Shivarapatna gate in 5 minutes. Although this route seemed difficult to follow, on our way back to Bangalore, we did discover an easier route. We took an auto from the entrance of the village until Malur bus station directly. From here, we got a bus to Bangalore, which goes until Majestic but we got down at Krishnaraj Puram Railway Station.

 We reached Shivarapatna in two hours of journey from Majestic, Bangalore and were struck with amazement to see the whole village working on black and white stones. There were Gods’ sculptures all over made in black and white soapstone (steatite) and granite. We entered the village and stopped at every house to gaze at the stone sculptures done by the artisans and talked to them.

 I discovered that stone craft is a rich craft and artisans were happy shaping the stones their way. I learned the process of stone carving which is a combination of drawing on stone with red oxide solution and giving finesse to the stone with repeated action of drawing and sculpting. I also identified that the artisans there worked only on orders and produced sculptures as per the designs of the customers. The raw material is bought by various artisans from different places in Karnataka.

 For getting the feel of the hardness of stone and to understand the difficulty level of stone carving, I tried my hand on it and remarked the softness of the stone which made it easy to carve. Carving required muscular strength to give the initial shape to the irregular shaped stone. The minute details and carvings is generally done by the females which demand less strength.

 

Shivarapatna is also a cluster for metal casting. The lost-wax method is used here for making brass sculptures. Artisans though work here only on orders and do not keep ready made pieces. Me and my friend walked along the street on which the village is situated. One distinctive thing I observed was the use of bamboo to create screen like shelters for work.

 

It was an amusing and lively experience to gaze at the omnipresent stone craft. I and Sree Lakshmi walked back till the village entrance and waited for another auto ride. Never had I thought that the approaching ride would be like flying in the air. I stood on the foot rest outside the auto and flew in the direction opposite to the direction of the journey. I was delighted to be there and feel the air gushing in my clothes and my body while I stood on the footrest and was overwhelmed about the fact that there was no seat for me inside the rickshaw which was preoccupied with 17 passengers and my friend just managed to fit in. As always the case is, the road back to home is smaller than getting out. We managed to reach back to Bangalore by 7:30 in the evening and headed back home.

ALBATROSS…A feeling for my work towards them!

On visiting the terracotta craft cluster based in Marasandra village which is almost 15 kilometers from the NES Quarters Yelahanka, I for the first time confronted the artisans who have spent their entire lives working in clay. I was eyeing the entire village on foot and observed that every second house was involved in terracotta work. All of them worked hard to make clay idols of deities and other human figures which had a particular season of sale (mostly during festivals). Most of them also worked on wheels where clay was thrown on to be molded into a pot. 

I and two of my friends spent half a day with an aged potter who was working towards the fulfillment of an order of 600 plantation pots. The first thing that caught my attention the moment I saw him working was his physical form which was involved in the rigorous backbreaking work. Never had I seen a potter’s wheel which was hand drawn and never had I witnessed a 75 year old laboriously standing, throwing, applying momentum to the wheel and molding. The site was compassionate for the plight of the artisan. I with the help of my Kannadiga friend, tried to start a conversation with him making sure that his work is not caused any trouble. Our conversation started with momentary dialogues until the artisan was convinced and comfortable about the reason for our visit to his workplace. I was content to have the potter smiling and laughing with us by the end of our stay there. My conversations with the other potters and artisans in town also lead to the possibilities and reasons for the intervention that I intend to have.

 I questioned mainly about the range of products produced by the artisans, their target audience or market and the quantity of items created within 11 hours of laborious work every day (6a.m. to 5 p.m.). On my enquiry, I discovered that the products were mainly produced to fulfill orders placed by dealers from the cities (mainly Bangalore). The range of products was mostly limited to one or two types of plantation pots, piggy banks, coal stoves and God idols. Out of these, God idols were mainly sold during festival seasons like Diwali, Dusshera and Navratri. 

On questioning them about the non-innovation of products, they simply answered that the new products are not sold enough. The amount of time that is spent on doing the intricate and different style of work does not pay off because of less or no sale. One of the artisans, was greatly hopeless about the market for terracotta products. His opinion about the people who intended to intervene in this work was negative due to his past experiences. He felt that people come and go but never come back. He demanded long term development and was unhappy with short term earnings. 

I felt that my role as a designer can only be justified not by producing good designs using the crafts but in reality marketing the products and opening huge market opportunities and creating demands for the craftsmen. The terracotta pots have also got a competition against the cement pots. It is important to expose the advantages of the natural materials used in the handicraft industry which renders them more eco-friendly and non-toxic as compared to the other products. 

There are definitely a few artisans who have started developing contemporary products as a result of intervention but still, there exist a major percentage of craftsmen whose crafts are now endangered. Most of them have also started getting involved in other businesses like farming and construction. They work in terracotta only when they receive orders and during festivals. 

The visit and conversations with these craftsmen have burdened me with a larger responsibility and a greater role as a person who can create work and better opportunities for them. I do not wish to let their confidence down and make them believe that anybody who comes just comes and goes away and never comes back. Indeed I am a little scared right now but at the same time I know that the first step will lead to the next.

Inborn Processing

A terracotta craftsman working on his patent clay piggy banks. The product range is limited to various sizes of a single design piggy bank and God idols for various festivals.

Indigenous

Potter working on his hand-turned wheel

Marasandra

Dreams – they do come true! Not very long ago but nearly nine years, I used to fantasize about my life as a traveler. The kind of traveler I used to imagine myself as was not one of those wandering around spotting the tourist attractions and exploring luxurious hotels and towns but a traveler who is living with different communities, with various people, living with them, knowing their culture, learning their skills. While watching channels like Fox traveler and Discovery and others, I used to be awe struck about how each community in this world must be doing some or the other kind of artistic work to survive. As I was a child that time, I never even thought of India, that it could be one of those places where every region, nay every village, could have a specialty of its own, where the whole village strived towards working in one medium or one occupation. Nevertheless, I couldn’t think of a single huge group or community which could work in one profession. While daydreaming about such thoughts, I used to get filled with happiness and excitement and then eventually get my feet back on the ground.

It is blissful to fulfill your dream but it is phenomenal to realize that what you are doing right now was once your dream and you are actually living in your dream. A similar euphoria is flooded within me while visiting various villages to learn about their crafts and to also learn from them their own craft. 

Just yesterday (30th Jan, 2014), I visited a village called Marasandra which is a suburb of Bangalore and is some 25 kms heading north. I was not expecting anything  while heading towards the place in a bus with one of my friends, Aarushi. My intention of visiting this place was to learn about terracotta work so that I can use this work for developing my product range. I had heard that this village is a cluster of craft working in terracotta. The only doubt I had in mind was the communication barrier due to the regional language – Kannada, which I am unfamiliar with. At the same time, I was optimistic about finding at least one person in the whole village who would know Hindi or English – languages that I can understand well. That someone who is also willing to help us talk to the locals about their work. I was prepared to grant some currency in return of the role as a translator. 

While being occupied with these thoughts, I didn’t realise that twenty minutes had already passed by since we started from Yelahanka, and we hit the bus stop of Marasandra – a vilage which is on the Doddabalapur main road. I knew the landmark of the possible location of these workplaces which was the Suman School. After enquiring about the location of the school, we started walking on the main road moving further away from Yelahanka. While walking for 15 mins, we asked a person in a Bisleri shop about where the school was. The guy was generous enough to come along with us show us the school where he studied in and which we had crossed already and missed because of a tiny signange that was not visible. Fortunately the guy knew a little Hindi and in his language ‘shulp shulp’ Hindi. He took us to a potter’s house when we asked him the location for terracotta work. Although the conversation was difficult with Prasad, the Bisleri boy with his shulp knowledge of Hindi, still by using basic hindi words and understanding the basic Kannada words, we could communicate well with him to make him understand the thoughts and reasons for our visit. 

Even before we could ask him to help and accompany us to look around for some artisans who work in terracotta,  Prasad was with us, taking us to various craftsmen’s houses to show their works. It was intriguing to watch the film-like village and the small thatched workplaces and houses of the craftsmen. The first place that we went to was the house of a very old artisan aged 55 years, who was preparing his clay for work. He was taking out small pebbles from a huge lump of wet clay. The whole scene was very fascinating and the space was cool because of the wetness of mud and shade of the thatches. With a lot of effort, we tried to understand the whole process of procuring raw material. The basic material – mud was being transported from the Marasandra lake or kere to the artisans’ houses. The artisan was not going to work on the wheel or model that day. He asked us to come down the next day or the day after that.

 

While watching his dedication towards work and the long ten hours of work a day, I felt that the amount he was earning by selling his pots at a meager price, was unfair. I observed that the range of products which were being produced was limited to plantation pots of a specific kind and God idols which were produced during festive seasons. On my next visit, I would learn more about the market of the products and the reason for limiting the product range.

 As that artisan was not working on his wheel, Prasad took us to around 3-4 terracotta artisans who were working on idols and show pieces Unfortunately none were working on wheel. We came across one family which included the artisan, his wife and a son who must be in his late twenties who worked only for making God idols. The artisan said that there is no money in making pots. We get twenty times more money by selling these idols. The method of joining two moulds of clay to form a volumetric figure was fascinating. That artisan agreed to teach us the modeling of figures in clay and called us later for the same.

 

The next house that I went to, was the workplace of a family who used to make Plaster of Paris moulds themselves for making the idols for the festivals. I observed then what a kiln looked like. A huge floor level well surrounded by bricks and on which pots were kept for heating. It took one full day for all the pots to be burnt and made strong. Due to the language barrier, there was less conversation but I believe that the next time I go there, the journey would be more fruitful.

 

The visit was great to get acquainted to the region and its people. Indeed these people are welcoming and are more than happy to share their work and craft. While walking inside the village, I was held back with the thought of my daydream, when I realized that I was living in it – walking through the interiors of a village, talking to various people, knowing about their culture and learning  from them. I had never ever thought that this research and study will lead me to the least expected thing that could happen to me.

 

Prasad was a great help and I felt that he was a physical form of my optimism. His non-selfish motive of not expecting anything moved me and let me believe that there are still people who are ready to help when needed without thinking of any benefit.

Looking forward to visit Marasandra yet again to know the people more and learn their craft their way.

A Road Trip! First official visit to Channapatna

I was all prepared and set to have my first official visit to Channapatna – a town nearly 80 kms from Bangalore which is famous for its toys crafted by lac-turnery. I was heading towards the bus stop for venturing into my new project of development of products by the use of the Lac-turnery craft of Channapatna when I received a call from a friend who with her family (husband and kid) wanted to join me for my excursion. Soon enough, the four of us including me, my friend her husnband and her 5 year old child left for the ‘toy town’ or ‘Gombegala Ooru’.

 Heading towards the south-west of Bangalore we reached the destination in an hour and a half while enjoying the beautiful Bangalore-Mysore highway.

 We landed at the Lacquerware Craft Complex which is looked after by the Karnataka Government. This is a factory which produces the traditional lac-turnery crafted objects and toys for the Cauvery Emporium.

Although this was my first official visit, I had visited Channapatna very recently for getting acquainted to the area and the place. The artisans working there recognized me easily and were very welcoming. I thought that this was a good start to intervene and know more about the artisans, their craft, their tools, their life, their problems their way. I started taking photographs of the factory where the process of toy-making was happening. I recorded all the tools and the process of their work for my documentation.

 

It was an interesting observation to see how these artisans had a competition among themselves to sell their products. I saw the way everyone opened their ‘pitaris‘ (boxes) and surged towards my friends to sell their products. The same thing happened with me the last time I visited them. My excited was short lived when on talking to them I discovered that they get their money based on the sale of their one product and not collectively by completing their order.

After various visual recordings of the processes we moved further into the village to map more people working on the craft. While I walked, I felt refreshed to be in a typical village and watch the streets filled with huts and mud houses. Although the sun was radiating scotching heat, but this could not let my enthusiasm down. It was the peak hour of the afternoon and thus the streets were barren. Somewhere here or there we could see some Muslim ladies walking and reaching their places. The whole place seemed like being dominated by the Muslim community.

While walking through one of the streets, I spotted a person through a small door who was working on his power lathe. I wished to enquire more about his practice and then I knocked and entered. To my amazement, the man was working on the power lathe in about a volume of 336 cubic feet (8ft. X 6ft. X 7ft.). As I entered, I was choked with the dust and other small particles of wood which were entering my nose and mouth as I spoke. I came out for a breath and felt pity. On my enquiry, the artisan informed me that he worked there for 10 to 11 hours a day. I could only think of the health hazards that were being faced by these craftsmen. In a larger space, these are not evident, but in a smaller space, the hazards seemed deadly.

(The two extreme ends of the photo are the extreme walls of the room)

I was made to acknowledge the presence of zinc compounds in the lacquer sticks for use in the turnery craft. Recently, the use of zinc in lacquer has started due to less prices of the zinc mixed lac over the vegetable dyes lacquer. This information about the lacquer sticks, made me worry about the toys for the children. I was further told that in the toys the vegetable dye sticks were used. The zinc lacquer was used only in the utility items which were used by adults for home decorations.

After listening to all this, I could only think about the words by Jaya Jaitly where she mentioned that the crafts of India have a greater importance – that of being environmental friendly. I thought to myself, if I really succeed in providing a better market for this craft, I might just be able to improve the economic conditions of these artisans. This may lead to solving their problems related to the availability and prices of raw materials. This still solely depends on the ethics of the craftsmen.

Further, as the day was passing by, I with my small group that day kept walking towards the interior of the village to discover something that I had read about in text books, which was being used by only the women – a hand lathe for producing lac-turned products. I read in a case study based on the Lac-turnery craft of Channapatna that women’s position in this craft was deteriorating because of lack of technological inputs and training. I had read that women were not given a platform to keep themselves involved in the lac-turnery craft as much as the male counterparts.

Before going for this field visit, I had a perception that there is a need of women upliftment in this craft and if I impart knowledge to these women in terms of the market requirement and design, they could probably establish themselves better. To my horror, when I visited Channapatna officially, to observe various things, I became aware of the current fact that women no longer work in this craft. They have stopped their work in it completely. I couldn’t see a single woman working in this sector. On my enquiry to people about whether women work in this craft all I could be answered was, “Madam, aurat isme kaam nahi karta, sirf aadmi karta hai. Wo aurta sab bidi banata hai.” (Madam, women don’t work in this field, only men do. All those women make cigarettes). This was indeed sad but true.

The women in the town of Channapatna have shifted their profession from being a craftswoman to being a cigarette filler. Despite having infinite adverse effects due to inhaling tobacco which is filled in the cigarettes, these women have chosen to work there because of better incomes. On being questioned about the reason for not working as an artisan, all they had to answer was, “Paisa nahi milta madam, bachha paalna hota hai, ghar sambhalna hota hai, ghar rehke bhi bidiyan bhar sakte hain. Isme paisa achha milta hai.” (Don’t get money madam, have to grow kids, have to take care of the house hold, can make cigarettes from home. Get good money from this.)

Indeed, the cigarette factory pays Rs. 150-Rs. 250 to their workers per day for making 1000 bidis daily.

I learnt about this scenario when I went inside the village with the help of a local 12 year old kid named Zishan, who showed me a house where a man with his wife worked on a hand lathe machine to prepared lac-turned items. I could not see any woman working in the whole village. The range of items produced by the hand lathe is limited to three products due to the use of the hand machine. They only produced 10mm diameter beads, 10-12mm disameter flat buttons and some keyrings. On being questioned about the non usage of the power lathes, they simply answered cannot afford it and they get a lot of orders for the these items. I could only gaze at their way of working and limitation due to which they could not grow much.

I took some photographs with Zishan, his sister and a few more kids who had gathered around getting attracted by the camera and may be the language and attire. But they all were smiling and yet welcoming. There was a conversation problem due to the language which could not be solved even by my Telugu friends. Thus, I could not question them more and just thought that next time I will get a Kannada speaking friend with me.

My next step was to interview the artisans to know how they felt working, if there were any problems that they were coming across in any context of the craft or due to it. On speaking to a about three-five people, it came to my knowledge that the main problem is the raw material procurement. The artisans had a huge problem getting the material from the forests as they had to pay taxes to government which they said they couldn’t afford. Their other problem was they had no growth in the field. They were producing goods as per the demand but did not get any profit. By the time money was transferred to the bottom of the supply chain, it was over. The last layer of the chain – the artisans had to convince themselves with the wages that they earn generally.

I was thinking throughout, that will increasing the market solve any purpose for them? I thought that I have to find a way to eliminate intruders from the supply chain so that profit can be made for the artisans. The other aspect for development that came to my mind was the enhancement of the product range itself. A range that has immense demand for its aesthetics. But the hurdle for my thought was that only developing a new range won’t solve the purpose. I simply thought about the things that will happen once I leave this place. I don’t think that the artisans will continue producing new products.

I believe that I now have to train these men. For developing on their own. Educate them to an extent that they think anew, afresh.

While I was on these thoughts while listening to the artisans who were speaking to me, my thought process was interrupted by an artisan who was very eager to show around the various factories that his nephew was working in – stone and lac-turnery craft. I and my friend initially started with that person thinking that we will be back in 10 mins but that small visit slowly converted into a voyage. A voyage to the village on foot – exploring various kinds of factories of lac-turnery craft and wood craft which produced different varieties of products – some were small scale like key rings, small toys etc.and some were a little bigger utility items like jars, flower vases etc. Some were artists who were painting with poster colors and then turning them with lac and some were carpenters who developed school trophies and other items on their own.

Throughout the expedition, I was filled with energy and happiness to look around so many people. My friend, Ankita, was there to continuously instill in me with the do’s and don’t’s that could possibly be in terms of work and surrounding.

This visit to Channapatna was a very informative, fruitful and thoughtful journey. Suggestions and comments from my friends who were with me were worth seeking answer to and also to keep in mind further.

Will be continuously going ahead to seek and develop something that comes my way from my research.

Research through Artistic Practices: An Insight!

‘Research through Artistic Practices’ – while working through this course, I was completely unaware of the fact that I was learning to research through certain artistic practices. I only thought of it as a medium of exploring different materials to find the interest of one’s own self. Frankly speaking, when our faculty, Rakhi, used to ask us to go beyond and explore, I hardly understood the exact meaning of what she was trying to tell until our last class, where bingo! I knew exactly what we were doing in this course. Suddenly each and every word that Rakhi spoke throughout the course, rang like a bell in my head, made absolute sense to me and I now know, what we had been doing could reach to a greater level but I then only felt, ‘I wish I could discover this earlier’.

Quite a few things happened in the last class and the week before, that suddenly triggered in me the idea behind Research through Artistic Practices.

First of all, I realized the importance of concept in any work. This was partly because of Rakhi’s teachings and partly because of a friend’s words that I came across while in a serious conversation with her. The line that I remember is, “Without a concept, your work would just add on to the heap of products in the market. A strong concept leads to form the identity of the product and the individual”.

Secondly, while discussing the text of Michel Foucault in class namely “What is an Author?“, our discussion reached to a point where Rakhi was talking about tracing back the history of the works we were doing currently. She talked about researching through whatever has been done. While listening to her carefully, I gazed at her and suddenly my mind started wandering around and telling again and again, “Ok! It is fine that we know the history, it is good to discover how things have been worked on in the past and the extent to which the work has been carried forward. Ok! Fine it is that we research through all this. But…But…why do we need to look into the history at all?“…although now I was hearing Rakhi, my mind was simply occupied with this thought and spoke again and again…”Why is it that important? What if we do not see anything in the past? How did the first artists on earth start working without having anything in hand to look at?”

Now, after serious conflict between my listening and thinking muscles, I could not resist but asked this question to Rakhi – after all, why is it necessary at all to trace back history.

What Rakhi told me imbibed in me the importance of the artistic history in terms of tracing back its cultural importance and having an identity of the work itself.

A couple of Rakhi’s words galvanized me, “If I look at any piece of art and could link it to something that brings out the identity of it or shows something about its cultural background, only then I can term it as ‘work’ otherwise it just a hobby inspired activity“.

The last class of Research through Artistic Practices inspired me to work in a particular direction by giving in 100 per cent importance to it and by researching through the artworks and works that have been done until now.

Well, after this class, whatever I was developing in clay felt so dis-satisfactory. I had started working on a model of a chair that was designed by me in under graduation. I remember, when I told Rakhi what I was doing, she had asked me about the details of its history of research. That time, I couldn’t understand what exactly she was asking for. But now as I have understood it well, I have started researching on the extent of work done in clay in furniture and architecture architecture.

Although it feels pointless at the moment for developing that chair, but I have decide that I will complete it and after my research, go on developing a different work with an all new insight. This would instill in me the sense of self-satisfaction and I will be able to spot the difference in the quality of work and the impression of it on my audience.

As I have worked in clay before elementarily, it was not very difficult for me to handle the material but what I came across now and found interesting was the freedom of expression through form with this material. Clay is the best material to express through form.

The stop motion animation film, ‘Food’ by Jan Svanmajer, shown to us during a class, redefined for me one, the extent of using clay as a form and two, conceptualization. 

I feel that I have learned a big lesson towards the end of this course which is actually beneficial.

 

Initial Clay exploration

 

 

 

Outsourcing from a city!

Being new in a city, any city for that matter, leaves an all new opportunity of exploring it with different ideas and angles without having the ego of you knowing everything about the place.

I had this amazing opportunity of exploring my current city – Bangalore for outsourcing the ‘waste’ material for my workshop project.

During the span of two weeks of the workshop, we happened to visit the market place almost everyday which was nearly 25kms from our working place.

I happened to explore the plugged market area on foot. It was amazing to see the span and variety of commodities in the market. It was wondrous to gaze at the colorful and harmonious fascicles of objects.

As we had to work in pairs for our projects, me and my partner had this wonderful experience of exploration. I was inspired and learned to chase the necessary required things for creating what we intended to create from my partner.

As we had to outsource waste material, we discovered the huge ‘kabadi‘ or waste and recycle market. By visiting that area on a daily basis we realized how huge that ‘industry’ was.

We dealt with the acts of negotiation of prices on waste and I did realize that even waste does not come for free. I realized how important it is for me as an interior designer to know the reality of prices of the materials.

I learned how to price products, my own creations for that matter.

One of the most eventful day was when we outsourced the waste/empty metal oil cans for creating our product. Both of us got three oil cans from the market to out institute’s workshop. The feeling of contentment was filled in me. I felt that I was actually doing something productive while I was buying, transporting and working with the material towards a specific goal – development of a concrete product.

This act of material outsourcing, especially waste material (because it required even more efforts), has rejuvenated enthusiasm in me for working towards a set idea and chasing my own thoughts for achieving the final output of any design that has been created my me and working towards it to make it exactly the way I thought of it.

 

 

Gallery 2 – Identity with the sense of historicty!

In the memory lab gallery of the second movement, we shared stories of collective history, with a personal twist. These stories highlighted the influences that have been drawn from the ancestral reigns and recorded by the voices of the families. The underlying forces of history flew within these stories in a timeless way.

I worked on this project with my memory of my grandfather telling us the stories of his past experiences while we used to sit leisurely in the verandah and how I used to paint while listening to him and slowly joined the rest who were listening, leaving my canvas.

I was able to recall one of his experiences which was related to the 1984 riots between the Sikhs and the Hindus. He told us that after the assassination of Indira Gandhi in 1984, the prime minister of India then, there was a retaliatory violence all over the country. Everywhere the Sikhs and the Hindus murdered each other. That time, he gave shelter to four/five of his Sikh friends in our house and for a week looked after their food and clothing before transferring them to a safer place.

Remembering his memory, I developed my artwork where I intended to portray how at the times of these conflicts, there must be chaos and violence outside the house to the contradictory calmness and fear inside the house. I incorporated my images of my grandfather’s story onto my canvas. Thus, I used the canvas as my archival object.

After knowing what I had to portray and make the people feel, it was a little difficult for me to figure out how should I execute what I was thinking. A couple of days went by. And suddenly, while discussing my concept with someone, it popped in my head, why shouldn’t I create a house? A human-scale space which can be thought of a house. That would be the best way to make the viewer feel what my grandfather must have felt then. Bingo! 

I immediately started to think over the constructional elements and the materials that I would use for creating the house-like space. Initially I had thought of using mount-board sheets but as soon as I went to the market for purchasing them, my eyes rolled over the thermocol sheets. I don’t remember what went wrong in my head when I purchased a huge bundle of thermocol. Maybe the size carried me away. I never thought initially how trouble-some it would be to work with thermocol. Apart from that, I didn’t even think how the structure will be made to stand thermocol….the lightest material. 

After discussing the structure with a couple of my friends, I decided to create a wooden-frame skeleton and then covering the frame with thermocol sheets.

On the day of the exhibition, I started working on the wooden framing on site. within a span of 3 hours, I was able to complete the structure.

 

 Then I started placing the thermocol sheets on the frame with the two-way tape.

 

 

I soon finished the structure. Placed the table and chairs inside the space and the canvas and the related things outside.

 

My idea was to project the video of the events that took place back in 1984 on the backside of the house and on the opposite side, that is on the entrance side, I placed the canvas outside and let people enter inside after gazing at the image. 

Although the idea sounds complete, it did not work out. When the visitors came in to visit the exhibition, they could not relate to the outside and the inside. Apart from that, they were unable to point that the video was a part of my artwork. The first day of the exhibition turned out to be pathetic for me. As my idea was not being conveyed to the viewers, the thermocol pieces were repeatedly falling off their places and I didn’t even work on the element of light inside the house. It never occurred to me that as the exhibition was to be held in the evening, light would be important. I gave up for the day and had made it a point that the next day  I will definitely fix everything and make my presentation better.

On the next day, I went a couple of hours earlier to the gallery as I was prepared to see my structure naked. I was ready to make the changes that I had thought of initially.

First of all, I turned my piece at an angle of 180 degrees, so that the entrance of the house was at the same side as that of the projection. I then put all the thermocol sheets in place by binding them together with the packing tape so that they stay intact and do not fall off. I placed the canvas inside the house and added certain other elements to give it a homely feel, like the eatables and the tea pots. I lit the house by adding candles to the place. And last, but not the least, I had already changed the sound of the video which was now different and in contrast to the sound inside the house unlike the day before. Everything fell in place the second day.

 

The viewers could now clearly see what I wanted them to see. They could connect the inside and the outside. They could feel the coziness of the house an the happenings outside the house.

One of the visitors added a different meaning to my concept. As the structure of Jaaga was made up of waste materials and mild steel framing, the floor trembled while anyone walked on it. So, the viewer felt that the shaking of the  floor was the violence outside and one could feel the tremors inside which added to the fear.

While working in the memory lab for this project, I went through and experienced all the steps of execution of any idea very deeply. The project was interesting and stressful at the same time which made it more challenging. I dealt with a comparatively new material this time – thermocol, and now I very well know where to use it and how to use it. 

I was able to notice advancement within myself in terms of new ideas. Finally, the exhibition ended well because I was able to achieve what I wanted to

 

 

What is cloth!

In our monday course days, we are undertaking the “Artistic Practices” classes where we are developing our creativity via various different techniques. The first being, producing 30 sketches every week.

This idea of a sketchbook, is way too different from that of the normal sketchbook. This sketchbook does not include the usual sketches but all the confusions, interests and inspirations of an individual. The main idea behind this sketch book is to revive the thought process of own self when looking at it any time later. 

The second thing that we are working on is, picking up a material and working with it – in groups as well as individually! One material is worked on for three weeks for studying it to some extent.

These first three weeks have been allotted to ‘Cloth’, as  a material where for the first two weeks we have worked in groups.

We mainly identified cloth as a shell, where shell has a broader meaning of shelter engulfing or protecting everything that is within it.

We, as a group used calico, a continuous piece of calico to question the identity of a person. The concept of our artwork was to show imprisonment of a human. We were meant to show that how man is imprisoned within the boundaries of the society, of his emotions and of any other individual. How his clothes define who is he and determine the way a person has to act in life – emotionally, socially and personally. For portraying the same, we chose to use a single piece of cloth to cover each member of the group continuously in cloth with three different types of garments and expressions. For example, we had thought of covering one person in a lungi, a bear chest and a covered face, the other a chinese face, cape and under pant and so on the third one.

What we finally ended up doing was covering the first person completely and showing his bear chest, lungi and covered face. The concept now shifted to what gives an identity to the individual? The answer that came out was a person’s thinking/mentality, rest everything is a means of hiding what you actually are.

We further evolved with different concepts with the same piece of art work, the first one being, cloth can redefine the physique or characteristic of a girl and a boy. This was clear when the bear-chest garment was worn by me. The other concept that we derived from the art work was, anyone can disguise themselves and deceive others merely by hiding their own identity by means of different styling. The figure appearing out of the dark wearing the art work and covering his face was disguised as phantom.

What I learned from this activity as a group is the development of a concept. We used cloth with its basic property but now, as an individual, I would like to work with cloth structurally. Cloth is a material that flows, can be stiff and soft and can be engineered for getting required strength. I am yet to explore these aspects of cloth and am looking forward for working with it to get the desired output.