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.

 

A Laboratory for Survival (Performance During Lockdown)

performative act for the camera which was done for a series of

Coronavirus Artpocalypse_ The Art World Responds - 

Part 2 by Waswo Waswo X Artists series

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6tj85hZNcWw&feature=youtu.be&fbclid=IwAR2r03s7GMmLGjZi1Pk6va9rBrtqAXx000poiTLTGBtvsEScodK8BZYa2_c 

This work was down during the Lockdown period in March and my reaction as performance artists acting as Virologist, Studying oneself as a body in the time of COVID 19.    I created the whole lab space in the Living room with all my collection of laboratory jars. It was a metaphoric representation to understand the invisible virus and how one could fight with it there different psychological state where I am trying to breathe through my hand gloves and almost feeling breathlessness and taking it to a terrace where I am getting wrapped in food wrapping foil again to protect my body but a paradoxical act where I  feel suffocated and breathlessness and finally the maketh the positive act of burning a maketh of coronavirus and turning it to ashes it very surreal and abstract imagination of virologist. 

Mapping Paradigm Shift

Performance in Paris, at Le Senetle

As I see question of women's position in the society is always in flux, that keeps oscillating between how and what a women should be doing and behave in the society. Mapping Paradigm Shift is about mapping oscillating thought process of mind. Thought process that are in flux, and the dichotomy of role of Body and mind of women.

Every country (society) has drawn a border line for role of women in the Society. Some have given liberty but some have less liberty but the role is always defined within a frame. Be it from social liberty to very existence as an important and integral part of the constant developing society. There is a constant debate on where to draw line of control, what women can do or deserve; each country has its own set of rules, and what is permitted being a women. 

Through this performance I made an attempt to map the shifts like Thoughts, Belief, Theories and Rights. The performance was perceived on both levels personal and as an observer. The oscillation from purity to impurity, mind and body, spiritual and material, right and wrong, the performance was worked out on these trajectories, confronting the realities that I experienced and also what audience can recollect at that moment. This performance complete with the intervention of the audiences.

Dimple B Shah

2015

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

In search of antidote

Performance at Rama Anjaneya Temple Venue, Hanumanth Nagar, 21st Dec 2014.

“In ”Search of Antidote” was a performance involved ritualistic act through body actions, to heal body and mind of the audience and myself. This performance was conceived keeping in my mind present social situation prevailing around the globe, enormous unrest among people around us. In this performance my main concern was to bring into notice various social issues that is against humanity and which provokes us for an action against widespread injustice. We are a social being and we confront number of social issues on everyday basis from corruption, injustice to crimes against women and communal violence. 

It looks like that we are constantly consuming these pressures/tensions of the society, to fight with emotional and mental level and we keep absorbing so called negativity, like a sponge which accumulates in our system like carbon of the earth. If we don’t burn out these negative energies into positive energy it will totally take us to the depth of its darkness. My performance was an attempt of a ritualistic act bringing cathartic effect on body and mind and cleanse purify body mind and our space and hope for a peaceful future by taking out, ejecting all the negativity through body actions, converting negative emotions/ forces into positivity.

The act was a ritualistic process both for my audience and me. My audience also vent out there emotions which were negative imprints of the society by impregnate the cow dung with negative words/emotions written on them which was given back to artists, artists then ritualistically tried to convert all those negativity into positive energy. The performance was a combined effort of my audience and me venting out negative thoughts and build positive hope for a positive social changes. This performance was incomplete without audience participation.

Dimple B Shah
2014

Time Lapse - Reliving Past

Interactive Performative Installation & Perofrmance on the footpath, next to Ramkrishna Math, Basavanagudi, 7th June 2014.

A generation which ignores history has no past: and no future. 
- Lazarus Long, from the works of Robert Heinlein

Through this interactive performance audiance had a glimpse of bygone era, the sense of past, a journey and reflection of time to relive the time itself. This was done by showing small still moving images in a kaleidoscope box the old medium to reach out people in the present time. This medium was very popularly used in olden days, commonly used in villages, it is like bringing the past in to present.

The old indigenous kaleidoscope was designed in a new way, film positives of images from the past, where people could get the glimpse of that period. Through this interactive per formative installation. This performance was targeted all kinds of audience’s from School Children, Auto Drivers, Common people, Old people and Women. 

This performance is a journey in itself for me since from the time of hunting for old photos online and reading about them and learning more things which I didn’t knew like the history of National College, the first Abala Ashram and going through life of great personalities was indeed a great learning and inspiration for me. One really feels proud living in such a great place with so much history. The outer body of Kaleidoscope was mix of old imagery and flower print, I had also used custom made helmet which could display multiple portraits at a time, like turning pages of history book, with images of important people get registered and when you remember they pop up in our minds and I stood there wearing that helmet representing all those forgotten faces, it was very a tricky design to execute though, but this was a perfect match to represent all by one unknown.

The costume I had chosen again had to reflect time the pata-patti pant which was used in earlier days only few old people use it and you really need to hunt shop which sell this particular or you need to buy material and get it stitched. I went to shop where this man from past 60 year makes this and I got the costume made for this performance for my size and shop person also shared that now only few old people come there buy this since it no more popular now the track pants are popular.

Dimple B Shah

2014

Law of Attraction

Performance on the pedestrians of National College and its surroundings, K R Road, Basavanagudi, 6th June 2014.

The fourth work in the series. intervention was with college students and common people who don’t know what they actually want, like If I had known early in my life my connection with art, it might have taken me to greater discoveries. Due to present day competitions and pressure, the younger generation is under lot of stress to choose fields which are more in demand rather than pursuing what their actual dreams are.

Through my Performance Intervention and Interaction, I wanted them to write and read what they actually want. I created a big mirror installation on which the audience was asked to write their dreams and that would be shown to the universe so that in some way their wishes would be fulfilled.  

This performance was based on the belief that "like attracts like" by focusing on positive or negative thoughts, one can bring about positive or negative results. It is based on the idea that people and their thoughts are both made from "pure energy", and the belief that like energy attracts like energy. A circular mirror was used to show their real dream and what actually they can become. The audiences were also given a small card with small mirror attached to it so that they could remind themselves and revisit again and again their actual self and dreams.

Dimple B Shah

2014

Forgotten Faces Reliving Past

Basavanagudi Live Art Project performed at footpath next to Ramakrishna Math, 2014

"We need open minds and open hearts when we wrestle with the past and ask questions of it, and the answers it will provide are in nobody's pocket…We should let nobody tell us that they know all that it contains, or try to prescribe or constrain in advance what it has to tell us" - Eamon Duffy, "Faith of our Fathers".

This was my first performance for Basavangudi Project, this performance was about forgotten faces/looking back into important era, a period development of this area from days of its origin. The foundation laid down by great personalities. Remembering their contribution towards development of this area and overall society and looking at the transition over the decades and looking at the present issues connecting past and present.

Since it was first Intervention for this area, I wanted to flip the past to present and introduce my audience with cultural and heritage aspects of one of oldest area of Bangalore. In this performance I dealt with historical aspect of this area, people and issues of senior citizens. Through this performance my attempt was not only to introduce images of famous personalities of the area but also wanted senior citizens to come out and share their bit of past with us who were witness to that era. This was done by myself performing with costume of old time Jubba, Panche and Mysore Peta, my face was covered with black cloth metaphorically representing forgotten personalities and their contributions.

I was also carrying in my hand custom made umbrella with images of famous personalities which  metaphorical represented that we are under their shades and also I circulated one post card with above quotation to audiences and during  the performance I interacted with audience questioning whose image it was and  circulated copies of photos of famous personalities with their names on it, which audiences were suppose to take with them and dig into the history about them. In this process, to my surprise one senior citizen came out with enthusiasm and shared his experience and story of his time and also sang and narrated shloka. This performance was an attempt to reach all kinds of audience, from college students to local people, like auto driver, working women, senior citizens etc.

Dimple B Shah

2014

Awaiting the return of Golden Goddess - Live Performance

At Nimtala Ghat, Kolkata on 26th January, 2014.

Talking to Holy Ganges -The story is not new…I stand on river bank...in front of calm Ganges...which is reflecting the black city and hopeless lights…..the bodies getting heat of fire…the air is smelling death…mourning is everywhere…it is time to mourn for lost souls who were burnt to death….who were dragged, crushed, hit and brutalized they have come long way like these clay pots dragged along the way in small lanes, streets, roads, cities, and country. It time to heal our body and mind which is blacked with pain of lost souls…holy Ganges will you take...burden of these lost souls...We need to heal in mass we need to cover the burnt body we need to cover our wounds we need to heal our minds of not one but in mass, heals our minds and hearts blackened by pain we need the touch of golden Yellow we need touch yellow root…..are we Still Waiting for Golden Goddess..?? 

The last performance of KIPAF event was performed by me in Nimtala Ghats, where the cremations are done near river bank of holy Ganges. The performance was about mass healing where myself and my audience (common people) were healed in a ritualistic act by showering Golden turmeric on me and in exchange I was distributing turmeric root to heal my audience. This work was titled- 'Awaiting for the Golden Goddess', which was comment and concern on issues of rape, especially rape case which happened just two week before the event in Kolkata. This performance was about the use and throw attitude of people with respect to women. In this performance the Turmeric Herb stands for fertility sacredness and also healing elements for rape victims.

My attempt was to provoke general public to ask and make them think, sensitize about the issue and not just think but also act upon it when needed to pledge them in heart to create safe city for women and girls where they can move around safely. The women body needs to be sanitized and cleansed from wounds inflicted and it needs to be healed I walked with yellow dress naturally colored with turmeric water to symbolize the purity fertility, cleansing, Sanitizing and cleansing my body and also I representing the mass women Population, I walked with an audio speaker containing the news of rapes from all over India and cry sounds. The main purpose was to make them feel uncomfortable and provoke them to do something about it and also make an effort to think and act on it when required. I used hundred of small clay pot which is important  in every day culture, object used in  drinking tea and that form a essential element in representing Kolkata and Bengali culture in specifically. 

These Clay pots were tied to each other and were dragged in streets with rope and in process many broken and crushed Metaphorically representing position of women how women body is looked as object of use and throw and how women are carelessly looked up in our society, without much care although they are sensitive, essential and fragile which need to be taken care by us. Clay pots traditional also represented in Indian culture for women womb especially in Gujarat and Kolkata where Goddess Durga/Kali is celebrated as mother during Navrathri and Dasera festivals. 

These pots are lighted with lamps to celebrate the mother hood the power of women. The audience interacted in the ritualistic act of healing and cleansing body by applying the turmeric paste on me and thus participating in community effort to think about the issue.

Dimple B Shah

2014

'Road to Thousand Lights' - Performance at Rangoli Art Center, M.G. Road, Boulevard, Bangalore.

Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's Field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Light is knowledge, light is life, and light is light. 

~Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

'Road to Thousand Lights' is my second project for Live Art Lab which was based on concept of RE COLLECTION and RE P(L)AY of changes in city and especially in MG Boulevard, Bangalore which is transformed into new Space. Rangoli Art Center being a place for cultural exchanges so I thought the subject will be apt for the performance.

Through this work, I wanted to reconnect and reestablish relationship with old traditional Bangalore with the new grown city. Relooking the old historical roads of Bangalore which are transformed with a new look. The new cosmopolitan Bangalore is recognized with IT industries with hustling and bustling night life, meeting the worlds demand, the city has got new status as Silicon city from Garden city with flashing night lights. There city has undergone tremendous change in last decade with long flyovers cutting across the city and accommodating traffic. The city of Bangalore is slowly and gradually losing its charm and becoming like any other metro city of concrete land, where people hardly get the time to think about what they actual need and what they need to see. The people have blinded by more demands of modern lifestyle, the flashy glaring lights, thereby more and more distancing themselves from themselves. In this performance work I wanted to bring this very same message where they see old Bangalore but in the shadow of new light a mix of old and new together.

I was wearing a traditional hair plaits with flowers (Maggie na jade) replaced by light representing the new development in Bangalore the growth of IT industries, Companies burning their night lamps and city replaced with jazzy lights (electronic bill board night light).

The light has more Philosophical and psychological relevance for our life. We have seen people having suicidal tendency when they don’t see much light in their life the light in not in literal sense but more in spiritual context and connected to broader sense of life, having thousands of metaphoric connotations.

As we are progressing to new age of high tech life style people usual distance to real connection to themselves running behind meeting deadlines making money accumulating things. I also wanted my audience to see light beyond light the more inner meaning and metaphors of lights I felt a need of a hour as we are growing we are distancing ourselves from seeing inner and true meaning of light. In my performance I distributed light stick and light toys and postcard as souvenir to remember light, not miss the real meaning of light this was given in exchange of dialogue and seeking answer to question what is light for them.

Dimple B Shah, 2013

Post Oil City And Bangalore Gardens Reloaded

Connecting Ideas - Marta Jakimowicz, Feb 3, 2013, DHNS

The dual exhibition “Post-Oil City: The History of the City’s Future” and “Bangalore Gardens Reloaded” was a very interesting event which strove to interactively connect ideas about the metropolitan past and its environmentally relevant solutions for later as well as the often similarly anchored, innovative efforts and inquiry among architects or urban planners and scientists with those of visual artists.

The event enabled by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart in co-operation with ARCH+ and the Max Mueller Bhavan here was part of the German curator Elke Falat’s project to be realised in different countries and continents. It had three parts that evidently and not so evidently added to one another and framed one another. 

The main element that remains the same in diverse locations belongs to the precise charts and drawings presenting innovative, ecology-friendly plans for city buildings, waste managements, transport and such. The several cases for study were brought to the Visvesvaraya Museum (January 18 to February 3) and shown in such a way together with the art works by Bangalore artists as to nearly mingle with the venue’s own scientific display, thus underscoring the linkages of purpose and method behind all the participating agents.  

The artists were asked to “critically react to Post-Oil City in the local context, to develop utopias and question them” considering the recent boom growth of the city that has altered its garden-like character. One may suspect that there perhaps was not enough time for sustained work on the ambitious aim, since the new contributions addressing it directly were infrequent, most addressing the contemporary city phenomenon either in a broader manner relating to a diversity of angles or sourcing from already available work in an akin manner. 

Although the whole was rich and included a number of really good concepts and their visual expressions, the level was not exactly even. Another problem may have been one regarding the accessibility of intended meaning when presented in a public, educatory space. The main hall lined up by cases with urban plans seemed to be held together by its focus on the vast floor installation by Sunoj D, whose multi-seed balls with planting instructions evoked both unnatural farming conditions and a longing to overcome those.

While Ayisha Abraham’s video collage of old home movies conjured a sense of dynamic, vivacious history informing the present and Suresh Jayaram’s quilt hanging paid an emotional homage to the once green city, many artists dealt with difficult issues of Bangalore metamorphosing beyond its capacity. If on a somewhat literal note, Bhavani G D offered a video documentation of lakes depleted of water and Raghu Kondur depicted the dangers of construction labour, Suresh Kumar G resorted to a personal gesture filling an enclosure for vermin-compost with plastic trash. 

Among the best contributions one found Dimple B Shah’s noisy, hard and threatening cubicle of urban claustrophobia and Surekha’s Ragi crop growing from a field of discarded computer keyboards, besides the nostalgic lament for the absence of sparrows by Mangala Anebermath. Two exceptional works delved into subtler but significant changes in the occurring: one being the multimedia installation by Bharathesh G D attuning itself to the emergent connections between people and city grids, objects and materials, the other the text-based questioning of mutating relationships between contrasting notions by Prayas Abhinav. Thinking about the shape of the future, a calamitous outcome was foreseen by a gas-masked Madhu D in his performance photograph against felled trees. Nandesh Shanthi Prakash, nonetheless, chose an optimistic prospect of canvassing for alternative energy in his bicycle-born distribution of bright toy windmills. 

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)

Dual Paradox - Parallel Existence. Live Performance for Live Art Lab 2012 at Rasa Art Gallery

As a performance artist I wanted to work on public interactive based project, in this direction I collaborated with Live Art Lab, Bangalore, which is initiated by group of artists including me, providing platform for National and International artists to share their works and take up workshops for students and upcoming performers in Bangalore. And also encourage to do experiments in performance art. Live Art Lab conducted its first event where six members  of the Lab, four young artists and students participated.

My performance was titled DUAL PARADOX - Parallel Existence, in this performance I dealt with existential elements which talks about general psychology, that deals with mass hysteria and viral disease in the society and one of sociological aspect which we encounter in our everyday life. I have tried to resurface paradox that is lead by Aspirations - Virtue and there co-existence. This performance brings two contrasting state (fame and anonymity) in one frame, questioning the parallel existence of both in our society. The common frame will not only bring in the two individuals but also their life stories and backgrounds that they come from, you can accept or neither deny/ignore any one. Paradoxical juxtapositions of coexistence while suggesting a more truthful and harmonious possibility of coexistence between two extremes.

The act is like a truth which you can neither accept nor can reject totally which we encounter in our everyday life and consciously questioning our minds with our own identity and entity. Sometimes many of us still keep on juggling between these two positions in these frames sometimes as anonymous and sometime other.

The constant struggle by the large anonymous population to achieve fame, if we consider there are large populations that remain in anonymity and about 15 percent in other half in fame. How this works out when they are put in one frame? The performance also ponders around the well known statement "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes." This also brings in question of immortality of name in history books, the questions based on existence like - if they are not famous then does it equals to non existence or no voices heard, hordes of question related to identity and existence.

"Fame" once this was held only by a privileged few, fame went hand-in-hand with respect and hard work. To be famous meant that you had achieved something noteworthy, or had an exceptional talent. But things have changed, as demonstrated by the number of untalented people who are currently famous. Why has there been such a shift and why has the desire for fame become such a powerful motivation for so many people?

I would like to thank friends and artists present, for there overwhelming response to the event and active participation by lot of young talents, with great enthusiasm and spirit and making this event a Festival. Thank you Live Art Lab Members, Bar 1 Members and Rasa Gallery for the support.