Public Performance Symposium- Out of Site Chicago

A Lecture by 

Dimple B Shah 
Live Art in Bangalore ( Karnataka, South India ) 

Formation, Development, and Expansion 

https://www.flowsymposium.org/lectures 

The talk focused on performance art/ live art its initial years of developments from Installations, experimental movements in public spaces with social concerns as a major area of concern it matured state, and expansion over the span of two decades. 

The Performance art scene in Bangalore (Karnataka) became visible and grew organically since 2000. Bangalore in Karnataka has become the nucleus for Performance Art in India. The Bangalore art scene has always been known for its experimental approaches be it Installation art, Performance Art, or New Media art, It is pioneered as the most happening place in India. we could observe a good deal of groundwork and mature evolution of the performance art scene in Bangalore. With numerous experiments in public spaces, those were based largely on social issues as a core concern. Many artists participated in these events doing both interactive and installation work. Bangalore has made a major contribution to this field right from its early period. These attempts resulted in bringing forth new materials, forms, language, and space. Individualist, collaborative, and connecting with land, communities, and public spaces – artists of Bangalore with determination and restlessness responded to their inner calls. Not only installations but also Performance and Sound art found expressions here in those early times.

Dimple B Shah 23rd April 2021 

Negotiating Rituals- Power of Feminine Energy and Body Practice Based Performance Workshop

Negotiating Rituals -Power of Feminine Energy and Body

A performance Workshop in Three sessions  

 

https://www.flowsymposium.org/workshops/dimplebshah

From Devi-Mahatmya:

By you this universe is borne, By you, this world is created, Oh Devi, by you it is protected.

From Shaktisangama Tantra:

The woman is the creator of the universe, the universe is her form; a woman is the foundation of the world, she is the true form of the body.

In woman is the form of all things, of all that lives and moves in the world. There is no jewel rarer than woman, no condition superior to that of a woman.

This performance workshop was a quest to understand and identify the power of Feminine energy /Shakti. The performance workshop will be a process of mind, body, soul to evoke, emerge, and contemplate the feminine energy. Attempt and understand the image of the feminine in our structure of society conflicting state of feminine energy present in both sacred and no sacred state/space and finally arise to one single form of the identity to the feminine Energy. It is a psychosocial paradigm shift present and past how this supreme female energy which is Reflected nurtured to fit the need of society at point placing in most sacredness and other level abusing in a non-humanistic way. It was to study and analyze how this ‘feminine energy' fitted in the cultural/religious context over the period. In what way it emerged, associate, and fit in cultural and religious rituals.

Re-questioning the appropriation and augmenting. To recognize and to celebrate this Feminine form in a psychological /spiritual /body-mind parameter. The workshop will metaphorically connect to yoni /Garbo (womb), where the ritual directly connects to celebrate the power of feminine energy.

The making of the Durga idol starts from collecting clay from prostitutes' place. It is one of the signs where feminine energy is respected and revered in all form sacred non-sacred forms. Different parts of India celebrate this feminine power in different ways. As per the mythological stories, the feminine power /Shakti has 53 0r 108 Shakti Peetha's (Shakti Temples spread across India where each part of a body of Shakti fell when she was cut by Vishnu each body part now becomes the place of worship called as Peetha's. There is a various manifestation of these feminine energies like Durga, Bhiaravi kali Lakshmi Saraswati this feminine manifestation celebrated in their divine forms. The feminine energy becomes the central force of creation visible in the form of Nature and earth.

Dimple B Shah 2nd May 2021

Prayer Of Shaman- Encountering Catharsis

The Quarantine Concerts -Dimple B Shah

1 October 2020

Performance for Out of Site Curated By Carron Little

Prayer of a Shaman Encountering Catharsis

Ho mother! Mother Nature Mother, Earth, Mother womb...

I sow the seven seeds for you...

I try to connect with you...

I carry your weapon in my arms...

I grind the holy medicine...

To heal .to cleanse and to fight...Both inward outward

Reach out inner and outer world….

I speak to you in a language you only understand …..

The language of my soul the language of eternal world ….

I know you are everywhere….

One needs to connect …. One needs to realize ….

The presence….. ho Mother!

 

Prayer of a Shaman – Encountering Catharsis is performance shamanistic ritual act. It is to establish an image of the pandemic goddess who is a healer. Performer attempts to embody the body through a ritual turning into the Pandemic Goddess. The performer body facilitates transmuting the message to her and in the process becoming Goddess herself. The healing happens through various herbal plants usually my performance deals with my audience through one to one interaction since every individual has their own psychological and emotional and physical concerns. My work is built inspired by the reference of goddess image from my cultural roots but not directly portray it just hinting to my connection.

There are a lot of alchemical and medicinal plants used in my performance – like Sacred Plants which are curative and have a lot of health benefits Neem Leaves, (Tulsi) Holy Basil (Ocimum tenuiflorum), Kama Kasturi l ( Ocimum basilicum). Tumbe plant (Leucas Aspera)

and also I shared lemon tea Recipe for healing

I had started my ritual

A week before the actual performance for

Sacred healing. I soaked 7 grain for goddesses and sprouted and planted it. These grains constitute to Goddess. it is an offering to evoke her to invite her to our ritual. It is a spiritual journey for me. The prayer is my language to communicate and performed during the performance. The performance had also impromptu of some prayers overlapping. The sound of grinding the broomstick which is a weapon for healing the clay pot the incense sticks and the clay pot with light ( womb of mother goddess) I wished it was in actual space than in virtual world this space had to experience it was an experiential element in it

https://ess.org/the-quarantine-concerts

Dimple B Shah 1st  October 2020