Secret Colloquy

Be-Coming Tree

Be-coming Tree live art event via Zoom


Online event 31st Oct 2020

This performance is about the relationship between me and the plant. As per science and Jain philosophy plants have one sense with which they feel the emotion and react like if you play a song they enjoy and flourish. I want to engage with the plant to have a secret conversation an offering of prayer to them.

Holy Basil (Tulsi sacred Plant is my Special Plant) 

Basil is viewed as a living gateway (Threshold between heaven and earth, and regarded as the manifestation of the divine within the plant kingdom. 

I have learnt if one observe and contemplate with a humble plant which has the healing aroma and medicinal properties imbibe the feminine energy internalize a manifestation of Goddess in the process.

 

Stainless Steel Nirvana -Path of Atmanirbhar ( Work process Video)

Dimple B Shah ft. 'The Nest' 

 

In the performance, ‘Stainless Steel Nirvana- Path of Atmanirbhar,' Dimple Shah portrays an uncanny intermingling of circumstances in recent times. Drawing parallels between the act of cleaning utensils and the Buddhist practice of repetition to attain nirvana, the artist presents a satire on the domestic condition of women during this pandemic.

Her performance was a part of the exhibition, 'The Nest,' curated by Aditi Ghildiyal.

Bring me the Smell of Earth & I will bring you the Taste of Love

Performance at Borella Bus Stop, Colombo, Srilanka, March 16th, 2015, Performed for First International Performance Festival.

“MAN is born free; and everywhere he is in chains. One thinks himself as the master of others, and still remains a greater slave than they." 
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau, the Social Contract 1762.

When we go to a new place, usually we try to connect and understand people through their culture, customs, habits and also behavior and we try to mingle with them to become one among them. Constant thinking to become part of that land and be accepted or not, with all the barriers like Racism, Ethnic issues, Religious and political aspect involved. Taking que from this thought, did this performance an interactive one where audience were requested to give me small piece of earth in a sack bag or by applying clay on my body. Symbolically giving a small piece of earth, The act also denoted welcome gesture for me in the country.

The entire performance was an act that involved long ritualistic process, with more space to understand, accommodate, tolerate and respect other cultures and share the whole world without boundaries and rules that are man made. This performance brought out concerns in a larger context; also raised questions on various issues related to collective identity, the construction of urban spaces which are the result of rapid development of larger cities and reducing rural space. The urban cities lead to building our identity in more multicultural platform, where it leads to hybridization and mix of different cultures. Overall when we talk about the identity of an individual in larger context it becomes complex and stays as collective identity from this various sources. 

The identity is formed by adding all this collective memories and become one come complex format of collective identity of individual. The views are also drawn from vantage point of cultural landscape one come from. So, for me this performance will mark an important platform for a cultural dialogue and also understanding and making space for different cultures in International platform. In this performance I have tried to blend various elements of both, cultures and essence of the place I come from and also adapting Sinhala Culture, by incorporating voice modulation of Sinhala language and collaborating with students to their voice in local language them in my work, S o I could make blending of cultures in totality.

Dimple B Shah
2015

Karmic Connection II

Performance, at “TENT” (an old house), Kolkata, 28th Jan 2015.

“We are here to awaken from the illusion of our separateness”

Connecting audience and myself through an act of Karma (doing), I was netting and establishing bond by weaving through golden thread and also metaphorically bringing the connection which highlights only on special occasion usually it is blurred in illusion. 

The act of myself marking with nail and hammer and creating a monotonous sound on bronze sheet was an act symbolizing "the act Performing Karma", like a goldsmith making mark and mapping connection. Both the sound of weaving and marking sound synchronized, allowing me to build my connection through the golden thread in a room of a workshop, where everybody in the room transcends to feeling of oneness even they became part of the act, The Karma, by moving their hands which is tied up with thread and where they make movement with the sound of my hammering and weaving sound.

Dimple B Shah

2015

Black Fever II - Live Performance - Lagos, Nigeria.

From the Series of Cry from the Dark - Ejigbo, Lagos, December 27th 2013.

This was last performance for the year 2013 on 27th December done in Ejigbo ,Lagos, Nigeria. This was one more performance done on issue of rape crime on women in respect to socio-cultural situation in Lagos especially in Ejigbo area. The core concept was already worked out but I was also improvising to bring in cultural element of Yoruba culture and wanted to do Intervention with local community.

Day before the performance I went for survey of area to fix an ideal spot for my performance in Ejigbo and also to know more about Yoruba culture and intermingle with local in one of discussion with community members one of the member came with outburst of news the leak in YouTube video of local women tortured in Ejigbo it was about how police official handled the situation it was about how one local women was tortured by inserting spices in her private part because she happen to do small crime of stealing small amount of spice in market. This was shocking news and issue of concern so then my thought melt down to same thoughts of justice and humanity and respect to women the issues of rapes violence against women there seems to be no stop for crimes, I made my mind to perform to bring this concern this time I used local traditional hair dress 'Gele' to represent the mass Yoruba girls along with their name written on my face. I asked the local ladies to tie this head dress in public.

Very openly and generously they collaborated in tie headdress on my head and it become spontaneous collaboration with them also some of women also reading out the names as they were written on my face. After thoroughly studying the area I had chosen my spot in one corner where four road meet and where people catch local yellow cabs and it is busy with heavy traffic. The performance was a durational performance went for an hour where I interacted with local people of Yoruba community with audio. I used audio which were circulated through multiple ear phones to my audience and one to one interaction with my audience. The local community very well received my performance and seriously listening to the audio and I had one to one interaction with lots of women, men’s and local people and explained then about my concern many on the main road stopped by to know more about the Performance.

Dimple B Shah
2013

Time Immemorial -1st Aifriperform International Residency 14th -31 December 2013

Soul Purpose -Channel 6

Sheet Happen -Time Out Bangalore

One Monday last month, as the city slipped into the bustling rhythms of the morning, Dimple Shah began supervising the unloading of 15 boxes from a truck that had driven up to Gallery Sumukha. She was just emerging from about with conjunctivitis, which she contracted before undertaking a train journey to the city from Baroda– but with a tight schedule leading up to the opening of her latest show Catharsis in a Forbidden Zone, Shah couldn't afford to let physical discomfort derail her work.

Over the next few days the artist had the formidable job of unpacking 400 kgs of material and getting her show ready. Possibly the most daunting task – setting up the extraordinary piece titled “Catharsis Chamber” – a shower cubicle that she designed, surrounded by PVC curtains and shelves made of acrylic sheets. Once the basic structure of the cubicle was ready, Shah would have to line the shelves with 1,800 medicine bottles, each one filled with either ash, salt, hair or nail clippings, to create a room for a viewer to enter, a space permeated with a sense of privacy and almost ritualistic calm.

“I initially wanted to use pieces of my own nails for the work,” said Shah, who, while talking about her work, veers between earnestness and giggly delight (the former, in this case). “I started collecting clippings two years ago.” Does that mean she’s been planning the details of this show for the last two years? “No,” she clarified. “I just have a habit of collecting things which I might decide to use. I would have used my own clippings, but in a few days I found that they had started attracting ants, so I threw them away. I don’t know why ants were interested in my nails. Maybe the ants inBaroda[where Shah studied, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University] are a little mad.”

The clippings that finally became a part of the show were artificial, procured by Shah after scouring dozens of beauty shops. But there was a problem. “They looked terrible, too artificial and white. My friend and I sat and painted each individual clipping so that it looked a little more natural.” What about the hair in the other bottles? “That’s my hair,” said Shah. “I collected it over two years.”

The sense of theatricality in Shah’s installation work is perhaps explained by the fact that, for many years, she’s had a parallel interest in performance art. Through her training inBaroda, she held performance art shows in which she herself featured, often rendered unrecognisable by blotches of paint. And over the years, photographs of these performances showed up in Shah’s print works and paintings, along with other traces of herself – an image of an eye, a hand print, a diary entry.

“You might enjoy this,” said Shah, momentarily distracted in the middle of going over slides of her work, and flipping open a notebook crammed with preparatory notes and sketches.

A glance through its pages suggested an almost obsessive bent of mind. Reams of notes about psychoanalytic concepts jostle for space with conceptual diagrams, such as the ones of imaginary scientific apparati that Shah ended up fabricating out of copper for Forbidden Zone.

In creating these apparati, and, indeed, in all her explorations into the show’s central theme of alchemy, Shah seems to be responding to a need to explain the inexplicable, and to organise the chaotic storm of ideas that rage through her mind. And while some of her earlier works can bewilder the viewer just because of the sheer number of elements used, in newer works like “Catharsis Chamber” these impulses are expressed simply, with an immediate and undeniable power.

Showing off the sketch of a piece of apparatus, which didn’t make it to the final show, Shah said it was a challenge to get vendors to carry out her orders. “They go crazy when I show them what I want done,” she said. “They’re used to normal orders. I have to spend days with them. They eat my head, and I eat their heads.”

These tedious transactions more than exhausted her, Shah admitted. “Every single work seems to take a toll on my body,” she said, gesturing towards the example of her infected eye. Then, a smile appearing, and her tone growing kinder, “But it doesn’t matter. After all, art is about hard work.”

Ajay Krishnan
Time Out Bangalore
October 01 2010 7.14am

BANGALORE GARDENS RELOADED

No Space To Escape -"TO BE OR NOT TO BE"

As the city growing bigger and bigger everyday and more and more people migrating from various parts of the country and making Bangalore as their home. This constant inflow is leading to a very different transition of development that the city is experiencing leaving the city in a chaotic, claustrophobic and suffocating space. Argument can be good development or a bad development but fact remains that the city has changed drastically and slowly becoming the city like others without any identity except being just a concrete habitat. The cityscape of Bangalore has changed to accommodate flyovers, buildings, roads and metro etc. slowly and rapidly replacing greenery with concrete.

This installation work basically evoke the feeling of helplessness of situation ambushed, suddenly attacked like situation where no space to escape and exit (a trap). In this work the audience will be forced to confront the situation which they normally do it in everyday life subconsciously, but here they will consciously face it directly, there by alerting there mind to counter the question and seek for answers.Visually this work is in form of concrete box, inside the box there will be 360 degree view of existing city they live in, which is with cement and other material. the work  bring in main essential characteristic of city in minimal form. The experience within the box (claustrophobic and suffocating space leaving no space to breath) represent the psychological situation of mind the mental space.

Over powering of concrete and its inevitable super imposed presence in our daily life which is symbolically represents mans thought and body slowly turning into concrete form with no space for nature and not being in touch with ourselves. 

The installation is  memorabilia of the changing phase. The smell of concrete initially will attract the audience hiding danger ahead. This work is a presentation of the dilemma - Development (a distortion) – Good, Bad or Necessary. My idea is to bring the attention where we really need to look and what we really need to think about? This work provokes us to question ourselves where we are leading to? Is this road leading to Utopian land or land where there is no space to live?

Dimple B Shah 2013

For Reconciliation

Sethu Samudram Project, India-Srilanka collaborative project curated by Suresh Jayaram

It has been some years since #1 Shanthi Road started the Sethu Samudram project allowing interaction between local artists and their Sri Lankan counterparts from Theertha. In the face of earlier and grave recent history linking both countries as well as effecting in conflict, it has been dominated by geographic, socio-political and cultural issues, their pronouncement being as important as seeking a common ground and reconciliation. 

Although sadly, art still does not reach anyone beyond the Art circles proper, such ventures remain vital. Previous efforts of the artists who often participate continuously and of Suresh Jayaram, the moving spirit behind it all, have contributed then to their fleshing out during the recent joint residency, whose character was led by his curatorial guidance or perhaps only stimulus. 

The resulting exhibition from November 1st to 9th had two young participants from both lands led by the desire for overcoming the three decades of a complex and destructive war by reference, evocation and by drawing the onlooker into the mainly interactive installations. 

The Bangalore artists seemed to approach the task in a compassionate and encompassing way. With much immediacy in visual and emotive terms, Dimple Shah, using the act of erasure of suffering images and by gifting sea salt, engaged the opponent aggressiveness, victims and perpetrators of violence on all the sides, her own gesture and the visitor’s active response through an appeal for mercy and at the same time for forgiveness.

The work of  Prakash L was sincere too, perturbed and empathic, whereas the metaphorical content partly came through, as the blood running through the tubes forming a soldier’s boot, menacing over crematorium shots spoke of rebirth and renewal. Yet it partly remained unclear and unconvincing. One would have wished for an equally loaded and forgiveness-seeking position from the Sri Lankans who, however, preferred a cooler, statement-like, approach. 

“A Story of Dhal and Onion” by Prasanna Ranabahu and Lalith Manage was an accordion book with words and photographic prints alluding to the 1983 war with its ideological, commercial and psychological aspects whose realities, though, needed elucidation here. 

Manage’s T-shirts for sale calling for contact through the use of Sinhala, Tamil, Kannada and English scripts along with rangoli dotted lines was a nice but somewhat over-used idea.

Marta Jakimowicz

19 November 2012,  Deccan Herald,Bangalore.

Photographs by - B.S. Shivaraju (Cop Shiva)

All are Welcome to the Live Art Lab 2012

Saffron Border - Live Performance at Kanoria Art Center

This performance addresses socio political situations in Gujarat, India, done in 2003 a year later communal massacre happened in Godhra. The communal violence took thousands of lives and many were left homeless. This massacre unfolded right in front of my eyes and I went through many horrific experiences and I tried to bring in my traumatic experience through this performance. The experience during the riots was terrifying. The city on fire, being surrounded by sensitive areas, the experience of  Gas cylinder bursting in neighboring lane from the burning houses, Milk man coming in middle of night, black commandos patrolling on streets. Hearing heart breaking stories of terror and violence’s where people were brutally killed by mobs, Women and children who were tortured and killed. Groups of mob came in hundreds and thousands killing and looting the people, houses and shops. Experiences of all this in my closed room with fear of that this can also happen to me anytime.

This experience of fear amplified with time as I could not see any news of the situation as there was no TV and with no sign of slowing down of riots in the city or in neighboring town and villages. I was only relieved from this situation and traumatic experience after the curfew was called off in four days. The city looked very different after that riots, there were hundreds of small houses in next lane belonging to one community, they were all burnt to ashes, people were killed, some of them escaped and fled, only vacant, broken and burnt houses left. It is very difficult to explain in word the loss and pain of the people during these riots. 

The performance was a combination of audio-video and live performance. The video shoot was done in Baroda; the video was combination of my performance, passion of saffron color, fear, lost dreams and pain, the fragmented and random images from city life this shots were amalgamated which were juxtaposed in layers. The video was supported by continues audio of railways tracks, which constantly reminds the "Burning Train" incident in Godhra massacre.

There was an additional audio along with video, voice given by Mumbai based Artist Bharati Kapadia, the audio narrates my journey and obsession with saffron color the color of passion and strength and how this color later on turned into color of fear and terror.  Basically this performance raised some of the basic questions of common man/women, their fears, insecurity, communal harmony, freedom and socio-political rights in the society. Questions like why history keeps on repeating and when there will be an end to such bloody violence.

The live performance was an act to bring out the traumatic experience of a person who has got stuck in fire, with no escape situation, the traumatic experience, the pain of burning live, and the cry for life. I tried to bring in all this experiences, with ritualistic performance of symbolically marking the border in saffron color and placing green house inside this boundary. The performance was basically to invoke the feeling of fear and terror inside the burning house and bring out the traumatic experience in front of audience. Then in the end of performance the green house was burnt. This performance work performed in many cities (Ahmadabad, Mumbai and in Bangalore) in front of varied audience which gave me opportunity to reach out community in large there by spreading my concerns.

RE-FLEX - An essay about a new medium.

Re-flex, the latest project at Bar1 curated by Christoph Storz, or Estee Oarsed

Whether you like it or not, in recent years the banners and hoardings on vinyl, flex etc., are an integral part of the visual city. Bengaluru, with its lax regulations, is plastered with stretches of flex wherever you look. Put up for a short while, they catch your attention and then disappear again. Later the same flex may reappear in a less official role as protective covers against rain and dust. In this second life, the imagery on the material gets ignored. Features of local operators blown up to the size of statesmen might end up upside down, as covers for tempos, makeshift shacks and pushcarts. The second life flex authoritatively negates any pretence and come back into the world of things, where surface is just surface. 

The exhibition curated by Bar1/No Bars, artists and going-to-be artists responded to the public presence of flex and appropriated it in their own ways. 28 artists (Aishwaryan K, Alaka Rau P, Ameer, Anjana Kothamachu, Archana Prasad, Biju Joze, Chaitra Puthran, Charitha, Christoph Storz , Dimple B Shah, Estee Oarsed, Mohan Kumar T, Mangala A M, Meghana Rao, M G Kulkarni, Mohammed Yunees, Prakash L, Rakesh Kallur, Ravi Shah, Ravikumar S M Halli, Sheela Gowda, Shiva Prasad KT, Smitha Cariappa, Subramani J, Shivaprasad S, Suresh Kumar Gopalreddy, Urmila V G and VG Venugopal) were the artists who participated in the show from all over the Bangalore.

- Christoph Storz, or Estee Oarsed

From Left - Alka, Rau P, Dimple B Shah, Ravi Shah, Smitha Carriappa, Aishwaryan K, Biju Joze, Suresh Kumar Gopalreddy, Subramani J, Shivaprasad S, Ravikumar S M Halli, Mangala A M, Rakesh Kallur & Anjana K.

Milk, Melancholy & Me - Live Performance [Audio & Video] at Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore, 2011

The wise man is not surprised by death

he is always ready to leave.

La Fontaine

This melancholic state is so powerful

that, according to scientists and doctors,

it can attract demons to the body,

even to such an extent

that one can get into mental confusion or get visions.

-Agrippa

Milk, Melancholy & Me, the performance was based on my experience in Mumbai during 2003. The performance was supported by video which was shot in Mumbai at Marine Drive, Chopati Beach. The video in the performance was about my conversation with the sea and myself over the period of 6 months. The  conversation with the sea starts with overwhelming feeling of its greatness and vastness, later on the feeling narrows down to a point of nothingness of self in front of it. The video narrates ones journey in metro city where he/she is isolated in there own world with no trust and faith on anybody and fear of losing self identity and dreams. It talks about struggle of individual who come with big dreams and tries to fit into this big city, searching for his/her own space and owning it. It also talks of emotive aspect like coping up with loneliness and depression which is the byproduct of mega cities. In this video I have shot very few elements like sea, waves, buildings and reflection of lights on waves. The dancing night lights and play of it on the sea bring the melancholic flavor to the video. The constant sound of waves that symbolizes the heartbeat and existence of life, the play of light in the video represents dreams that afloat. In this whole video I have continuously showed only few elements to bring in the essence of time that I have spent.

The visual treatment was the conglomeration of audio, video & my performance. In audio  I was talking about my experience in Mumbai and my journey in the city, act of drawing on canvas (like mapping my journey) and painting my face with black color. During the performance I distributed black balloons to the audience on which I had written "I Am Here", both painting my face and black balloon symbolically representing the darkness within me. I used herbal resin incense [that is used in death rituals in general] since the element of smell was also important in my performance.

The core idea of my performance was to bring in the psychological state of mind of a person, who is in deep state of depression and in melancholic mood, who is in state of isolation and has lost all its positive power to fight back (symbolic to first stage of Alchemical process – Nigredo, this is very well explained by Carl Jung and interpreted Nigredo as the moment of maximum despair, that is a prerequisite to personal development. Nigredo is "The dark night of the soul". He says "Right at the beginning you meet the dragon, the Chthonic spirit, the devil or, as the alchemists called it "The Blackness", the Nigredo and this encounter produces suffering" It brings the ego into contact with what it fears).

The performance had both existential feeling and melancholic tone. This performance act is a healing process for me and to my audience. In audio there are two people talking one is doctor who hypnotizes his patient and the other voice is mine, who is the patient and takes the journey to the past. (This conversational format was sourced from psychotherapy session and psychoanalysis and expressed here as metaphor. A doctor usually lets the patient speak and listens without judgment, later offering gentle insights and suggestions. Sporadically there occur precious & magical ‘Frozen Moments’, named so by the Jungian therapist Beverly Zabirskie, when boundaries between the patient and the doctor dissolve and in their shared warmth immobilized random traumas of childhood melt away to enable mutual healing). I concluded my performance by the act of pouring milk on my face and this ritualistic act symbolized healing. I am thankful to Smitha Cariappa to give me an opportunity to perform.

Great Expectation

Great Expectation speaks about silver. In history and present times, silver has always been connected to dreamy worlds and poetry. The lunar influence on metal also adds to the quality and character of the metals for example the black and white images of photography where silver is used to bring out the images, and it has also been linked to film industries’ “Silver Screen’. The word lunatic, which has lunar influences, is also linked with the moon.

Acrylic on canvas, 7 ft x 7 ft, 2010