Pomegranate Prayer

Collaboration with the Rieko Shimizu

Uratan Concalve 2023, Utkal University of Culture

Bhubaneshwar, Orissa 9th to 12th December 

curated by Umesh Nayak

This performance collaboration started with my spontaneous response to the pomegranate Fruit. During conversations with Reiko, she explained she will use 51 pomegranates to represent 51 Shakti peetha that represent (Sati). I love pomegranate fruit as each fragment of the fruit is complete by itself and represents feminine energy. I instantly said yes to work and collaborate with her. We had a brief conversation with Reiko and I brainstormed for one night how I could collaborate with Reiko and laid a plan for action and collaborations on how and where we perform and how we reach the water pond( as one of the elements for performance was to cleanse the stains and ourselves). I could connect to feminine energy, whatever name we like to call it (The famine energy we experience in physical, emotional and spiritual terms). I wanted to collaborate since it engages me with energy and red seed. I wanted to be involved and engage intimately in making physical and spiritual connections to the seeds and performing. Reiko's collaborator had her way of connecting intimately with pomegranates. The performance was intense, forgetting the harsh Sun was concentrating on the mala of pomegranates opening the mala that Reiko had made 12 knots, 51 pomegranates opening to an unknown self.

As I opened one by one opening to its essence, squeezed the juice and the elixir of fruit juice was dripping on my body and soul, soaked in its juice and 12 0 clock-sharp sunlight sweat, each drop of each piece of fruit narrating its intense spiritual connection. I felt lost and immersed in that moment stained white sari lay on the floor. The white saree represented a blank page of my life chapter, getting stains in the process of experiencing the moment the sari was washed in the dirty pond water. Finally, we wrap ourselves in a stained and washed sari and share that moment and a stained and washed Saree together. A journey was to an inner space of identity, a spiritual path, a taste elixir connecting to a collaborating partner for that moment became part of yours.

Dimple B Shah 19th December 2023

Concept note by Reiko Shimizu

柘榴の祈り ~Prayers of Pomegranates

The pomegranate as an emblem of Shakti - the omnipotent power that permeates all existence. Inspired by the scattered remnants of Mother Goddess, Sati, interwoven into a white saree, into 12 knots of pomegranates, uniting and releasing into 51 pomegranates. Two female figures delve into movement, contemplation, action, and interactions, unveiling the essence of Shakti. It penetrates our bodies and souls, every being in the earth and the sky, nurtures and binds all into an interconnected, indivisible whole. Stains on the saree, the marks of life, traces of time are washed away in the pond, an amniotic fluid, the forgotten One - the nurturing expanse of a Mother's womb.

Talking to the Cows

(Performing for the Animals)

Sumjin River International Experimental Art Festival (SIEAF)  Gokseong South Korea 2023

This performance was an overwhelming experience as we performed for the animals on the farm. I took time to know and understand the cows, went around the farm closely observing their behaviour, saw fear in their eyes and were moving away from the humans. As I was watching them, I was thinking about what I would perform for them. The farm animals are fed good food but have a short life to become food for human consumption. The Farm owners instructed us to keep our distance and not to go near pregnant cows. I was moving around, overwhelmed by sadness as they were going slaughtered in future for the food.

 A paradoxical situation curatorial theme was to calm and perform for these animals. At another, this animal was farmed as food for the population, contradicting the perspective of questions and answers. It was unsettling mentally and emotionally to calm and perform for them when we did not care for their life. Every living being has the right to Live in their life and live as they want. Human beings are the most selfish people on Earth. This unsettled mind stayed all through my performance.

 As a believer in Jain's philosophy of non-violence, this question of what would happen to them in future disturbed me and was the only thing on my mind while I performed for them. Headgear made from bamboo sticks and leaves. I tried to establish a connection by playing one smallmouth instrument and also collaborated with musician artists who were playing guitar. I also used my voice to communicate with cows. The rendition evoked a painful mood and emotions I felt for the cows to end the performance by feeding them dried grass. The most touching and turning part during the performance was when the cows started communicating with me by making sounds. Cows that were distancing from us came close. I felt a deep bond with them and asked forgiveness in my mind that I could not help them. This performance was quite emotional and heavy for me to settle down.

The second part of the performance continued in another space where we walked and saw many goats in the open field, responding to the overwhelming presence of many goats. I spontaneously performed and made connections to them for some time. Later, the performance started, and many artists performed near a group of Goats. These poor animals got confused and scared and moved from here to there. 

A few artists in the group scared and panicked them by running behind a herd of goats. The same question came to my mind. Why can't humans become sensitive to these speechless animals? We need to treat them with compassion and love them. How can we co-exist together? Many artist's friends will not agree, and many in general would not agree on the philosophy of non-violence. I was in a state of unsettled thoughts and performed 'Talking to the cows and goats on the farm. I was trying to make a spiritual connection and see them with love and compassion, slowly developing an intimate bond.

Dimple B Shah

18th September 2023 

Chronicles of Past and Present ( Growing Gopuram for Future)

BE FANTASTIC

JANARA JAGGA AND KCYAERXHAERE

13th August 2023 at Wheeler Road Flyover under the Bridge

@jaagarnaut @kcymaerxthaere @Befantastic.in

OH! ಎಲ್ಲಿ எங்கே ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು

OH! Elli Eṅkē Bengaluru

OH! Where are you, my dear Bangalore?

I have been searching for you

In the old buildings, on city lanes,

I am searching for you in stories of people, old temples, churches and mosques.

I am searing in the scent of jasmine and in

The old cow sheds

The aroma of hot idli, tea and food

I came to this part of town it took me to my childhood memories of Tamilnadu.

The stories of Blackpally, Cantonment, Cox's Town and Frazer Town bring memories of the colonial period.

The bygone era of people from this area connected to their ancestors through stories of soldiers

The stories extend the connections beyond the borders rooted in Madras and Trichy.

The text and whispers we hear are not just kannada but of Tamil and Malayalam.

Thousands of memories of childhood knocking the subconscious

The old Tamil melodies start playing in my mind

The Temple church and mosques are all in one lane

A wonderful bouche of faiths blended

I am searching to make new connections

As I am walking in

Lanes high street, pottery road, and wheeler road bridge

With houses from the old colonial period, one can only fall in love with Bangalore

Searching through the aroma of food and the scent of the city

Sparking memories and emotions

The houses and city lanes that marked your presence are slowly disappearing.

The path had a unique character that took us to memory lanes fading slowly

Now leading to nowhere

Where are you, my dear Bangalore?

Now you have a new identity with concrete flyovers and under-constructed sites.

The operation for a makeover has torn your heart and soul

You are bleeding inside out

With the dust and revamped soil,

I go through the dissection of the city (body and soul),

Are we going to lose you forever?

You cry out in pain, painful to see you lose your identity with a new makeover.

My heart and soul are looking for you

In the scent of magina jade

I want to see the same old Bangalore

With a heavy heart, I look toward the city

The soul lost under the spark of a thousand lights

Now replaced Sparkling Maggina jade with led lights

We need to re-emerge from the dust and make new homes with old memories

Bloom our hopes under the bridge

Search the scent of jasmine

OH! Where are you, Bangalore?

We want to remember your makeover marked by old memories

Making new memories of the present with a touch of past glory.

We want to see you

spread the scent of Malighe forever

OH! ಎಲ್ಲಿ எங்கே ಬೆಂಗಳೂರು

OH! Elli Eṅkē Bengaluru

OH! Where are you, my dear Bangalore?

Death of Desire

Desire, Civilization, Birth

Rendition of Two Installation performance of Ratnabali Kant 

5th and 6th May 2023

Curated by Smitha Cariappa
Organized by Ratnabali Kant Foundation

This performance is a retake of Ratna Bali Kant's live performance titled- 'Death of Desire' I observed her performance video and let my thought flow on how I connect to desires and how to visualize desires of self. I had to give a gap and let the natural idea flow. After two days, I got some vision in a flash and wanted to follow it to see in complete clarity. The concept of performance evolved and developed organically. When I thought to work on my idea, I hit on the doors of Vison of Flash. The color of my desire was vigorous and heavy and gradually started giving a form and then fixed the shade of dark pink. The next step was to work on my sculptural installation.

 I sought the material right to make my sculpture heavy and bold. Acquiring the apt material took three days, then building it took two days. As I was working on the sculpture and developing my installation for performance, various thoughts flowed into my mind about desires. Desires don't have boundaries and can grow wide and tall are unlimited. The acquiring, consuming, un-bounding, overwhelming emotions turning to greed gradually elements started showing their face, and images from my childlike desires to play with kitchen toys appeared.

I played with my desires with deep breaths hinting at my existential self. Desire in humans can have several layers and metaphoric meanings and connotations mixed with negative shade hiding under the bright. There are several aspects of life desires- to have a good partner, love life, luxuries, hunger for power, the satisfying demands of the ego, and many socially set materialistic things there is no limit. All these wishes and unlimited desires are summed up metaphorically with pink cotton candy.

 The eating and consuming cotton candy did not want to finish it wanted to enjoy every bit of it. Metaphorically the desire was in the form of a balloon presented to audiences. The audience blew the balloon with their 'desires then I offered the cotton candy to the audience to devour it.

The Cotton Candy metaphorically represented greed and ballon to desires. I saw many avoid eating it. The journey ended by playing with a balloon loaded with black ink. The climax was to play with death in due course, and then there was an end to this desire. There are various aspects in my work- existential self, the heavy proud body carrying the heavily wrapped pieces of baggage of desires that are visually appealing bold, and attractive. Polyphonic sounds filled the extempo of action representing the presence of self all the time. At last, I released my childlike emotions and playfully braking the ego of desire.

Negotiating Memory- Encountering Catharsis

"The unconscious is inadmissible to consciousness." ―Sigmund Freud.

Performed on Behala Art Fest 2023

The concept for this performance work revolves around negotiating our memories of the past in our unconscious minds and encountering them with art therapy to gain catharsis. According to well-known psychologist Freud, the unconscious is a repository for socially unacceptable ideas, wishes or desires, traumatic memories, and painful emotions put out of the mind by the mechanism of psychological repression. However, the contents did not necessarily have to be solely negative. The concept for this work is to unbound or free oneself from these memories from the unconscious process. It is the conscious mind making it more acceptable and cathartic. The baggage of memories makes us heavily entangled in fears and traumas sometimes, fear of the unknown dark Like a shadow you bring it to the light, it would be nothing effort to bring it to light and help us lighten from the weight of it, and free us to go further.

This performance was in a one-to-one public interactive. Through artistic interactions, the artist facilitated the audiences to encounter their memories creatively and encounter healing. The bed is one essential part of the private zone and door to the inner space, where we travel through the unconscious mind and encounter stages of our unconscious mind in a state of sleep. In that state of deep sleep, our mind confronts deep memories from the past and present, and also we see our future. Often, our unconscious mind fights the devil and fears and directs ways to fight them.

In this work, the idea was to bring indoors to the outdoor space while maintaining and respecting the privacy of the audience. The bed, the Lenin net, and the object of memories will act as tools to bring inside out while maintaining the privacy of the audience's emotions and thoughts. It is like a fantasy door to escape to an inner world. The Installation work is like an alchemical container /vessel in a lab where the process happens. I want my audience and myself to go through the process of transformation in this alchemical vessel simultaneously. In this process, the audience will go through different stages of healing and transformation with the warmth of love/fire in the vessel. 

This state can be very well explained, with this reference to psychotherapy sessions in psychoanalysis - Something similar happens during psychotherapy. For much of the time it is the patient who is speaking while the therapist generally exercises what Freud called "non-judgmental listening". As the sessions continue, the therapist may give prompts, reflect the patient on what has been said, or at times throw out a little suggestion or even advice. In more intense cases, the processes of transference begin in which intense feelings are invoked within the patient. In those cases where projective identification occurs, the therapist may even become directly aware of contents from the patient's mind. But in all these cases the therapist still attempts to bracket his or her feelings, thoughts, and reactions in order not to contaminate the therapeutic process. Nevertheless, several skilled therapists have told me of those magical moments in which all boundaries disappear, moments in which it is not possible to say "where is the Healing"; or who is the patient and who is the therapist. On those occasions, the patient and therapist enter the alchemical vessel together and are warmed by unconditional love. It is in those moments that the miracle of healing takes place. The Jungian therapist Beverly Zabriskie has referred to this as the healing of "frozen accidents" that is, the melting away of those "accidents" from childhood that have remained frozen within one. Therapy and insight may go some way toward the process of thawing, but the last analysis requires the heat of love. This work is durational in a moving cycle cart installation with sound and light.

The performance was performed in two layers first part was where I unbound myself metaphorically using mattresses and pillows. It is one of the most intimate objects where we negotiate memories ( both conscious and unconscious mind). I was carrying three pillows tied to my head, dragging clay teapots on the road, and later unbounding the pillow from cotton that metaphorically represents the memory. I invited the audience to join in my cycle van installation work, I created a private indoor bedroom look-like space with Transparent Cotton Lenin cloth with sparkling lights and an old Bengali song played. The audience connected with the images shared, with popular nostalgic Bengali songs playing the scent of tuberose placed inside the installations where I had one-to-one interaction with audiences. I had some audience emotional bust during the session. I performed cleansing rituals with milk the henna felt much lighter. The performance was on a preview day. During the first two days of the festival, the audience saw the videos of the performance recording, performed again on the last day of the festival, with one-to-one interaction participated by many audiences.

Dimple B Shah 9th February 2023

'Site under Construction (Galli nali Gopuram )

OH! Where are you, my dear Bangalore?

I have been searching for you

In old buildings on city lanes,

Searching through the aroma of food and the scent of the city

Sparking memories and emotions

The houses and city lanes that marked your existence are no more

The path had a unique character that took us to memory lanes is lost forever

Now leading to nowhere

Where are you, my dear Bangalore?

Now you have a new identity with concrete flyovers under constructed sites

The operation for a makeover has torn your heart and soul

You are bleeding inside out

With the dust and revamped soil I

Through the dissection of the city (body and soul), we have lost you forever

You Cry out in a pain.

It is so painful to see you lose your identity I don't want your makeover

My heart and soul are looking for you my heart and soul are lost the scent of mallige jade

I want to see the same old Bangalore

With a heavy heart, I look toward the city

The soul lost under the spark of a thousand lights

Now replaced Sparkling Maggina jade with led lights

OH! Where are you Bangalore?

'Site' under construction is a performance-installation work developed during the project period. The idea is a response to the city of Bangalore which is always in the process of development of several 'sites' that are under renovation, and deconstruction, and where new structures are built to widen the roads or metros are constructed and old buildings are demolished. and splashing of led lights of the festival. I consider the 'site' as my body and as the city itself which is always in the process of deconstruction and construction. It is in between celebration, like a lighted street god, and the goddess-like lighted Gopuram in a mood of celebrating nostalgic, melancholic, humorous, and emotional attachment to memories of the city and childhood. It is an existential site to stay alive and awake, where life passes and the present ever keep moving.

Dimple B Shah 10 Jan 2023

Negotiating History- Finding Path of Jina

Mapping cultural Topographies through Body and Space

Performed on 16th Dec 2022

Jiwaji University Jaipur Art Summit 2022

The performance was a project to introspect the history of Gwalior city to explore the present and past through interaction and collaboration. It was about decoding history through cultural and spiritual lenses. I performed with headgear and costume to match Gwalior's cities' monuments, buildings, and sites ( like the Gwalior fort and Gopachal archaeological sites.

I was carrying a trunk full of city stones that have embedded the history of the city, photos of monuments, soil, flower essence, and soil for 500 meters. The walk collaborated with the student of the sports department of Jiwaji University, and a few students carried the stones along. The idea was to gaze into the city with The Latitude and longitudinal perspective giving an inside view to the Ecological- social-cultural aspect of the city, a city which emerged in the 8th century Ad has seen so much transformation and lived rich art, culture, and historical happening. 

The present-day city has clouded with the environmental issue of poor air quality. Gwalior has been breathing in and breathing out the changes from the ages. The idea is to observe, Live, and experience cultural topographies through body and space. This performance was also an attempt to see oneself through cultural and philosophical roots. This city has celebrated Jain philosophy for thousands of years and wanted to gaze at self through a Spiritual lens and wanted the audiences to see themselves through the same lens. I gave them a ball made out of wheat dough and asked audiences to create a Sculptural form of what they see in terms of self and asked them to place it in a site that forms one more historical site.

The performance enables an opportunity for the artist and audiences to read the soul of the cities from past and present. The concept opens up to decode the gird zone transformation over 1200 years. The metamorphosis has been gradual: few things have remained the same (Historical monuments. Palaces, temples, and archaeological sites), and the city has seen changes over the years. Every generation has added tone to the gird zone, which needs to be decoded, with Latitude and longitudinal perspectives through the body and live action. 

The concept gave scope to express mainly through the body: spontaneous or processed response to the Grid zone. This performance allowed audiences to look into local and global perspectives on the oral or written stories of the present and past, observe and respond to present ecological social-cultural context grasp through monuments, customs, and traditions learning and respond through body and space.

Dimple B Shah 9th Jan 2023