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

Reverberating Earth

Durational Performance at DER LÄNGSTE TAG / THE LONGEST DAY, Zürich, Switzerland, 21st June 2015.

I had conceived this performance keeping in mind Switzerland, the land of beauty and Nature. I had seen Switzerland in pictures, movie and photographs and had fascination about this beautiful land. My perception was like it is heaven and I wanted to respond to this in my work. Having said that I didn’t wanted to forget where I came from and cultural aspect of my country, my feet fully rooted in my culture and my mind thinking of Switzerland, resonating earth. Metaphorically match with resonance of earth by an act of making PAPAD (round shaped snack, using the act of making the shape as representing earth in the form of drawing).

The idea was to have a long durational performance from morning till evening but attention can be given to me in the evening between 4 pm to 5pm. The PAPAD making is sign of empowerment and self reliance for women in South Asian counties such as India, Pakistan Bangladesh etc., and it is one of the most successful businesses for women coming from poor economic background. I made metaphoric connection to the act of rolling and making PAPAD to vibrating and frequency of earth and ultimately saluting the great land of peace and harmony and also by performing through my body doing PRADAKSHINA (refers to Circumambulation of sacred place) on ground thereby symbolically connecting my body to frequency of the Earth.

Dimple B Shah

2015

Karmic Connection III

Performance at Leonrod-Haus für Kunst und Gelände Dachauer/Schwere-Reiter-Strasse am Leonrodplatz. 114 München. 6th June 2015.

Establishing connection with my audience through an act of "KARMA" (doing) was the whole idea of this performance. This performance highlights the hidden connections. We as human, constantly perform everyday activity and meet people in everyday life, some relations end being close and some at distance, this is automatically build up through our karmic connection and these connections are built with our act and in this process our relationship with other humans is established knowingly and unknowingly. For me it is a matter of personal importance, like whom I meet and how my relation is established with people whom I meet in my life.

I feel definitely there is previous association which I need to realize now and this performance will be an act to reach each and every human whom I meet. Each and every human holds a great importance and they are strongly connected to me. This performance explored how we connect our self to others (Audiences). This performance was an attempt to build bond through the process of interaction one to one in time and space, although my audience comes from different origin, roots, environments, spaces and experience, during the performance we experienced a moment of time and space together and through object as my tool helped them to look into past, present and future, in that moment we are built our bonds and we all recollected our memories of the past and remember in future. 

The audience could make a choice of kind of connection they have with me, spiritual or material through choice of material offered to them to touch. Performance was enhanced with audio and other material to get the impact and created a meditative environment.

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

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

Small Piece of Earth in my Pocket

Performance at Swamy Vivekananda Metro, Bangalore, June 10th, 2014.

This was my last performance for month of June and for Live Art Lab, 2014. Concept of event was ‘Warp-Woof-Weft' at Vivekananda Metro, Bangalore. The central focus for the event was on the subject of art and craft. The location for the performance was Bangalore Santhe, a place created by Bangalore Metro to promote handicraft and small arts and crafts. We chose to work here keeping in mind the fact that crafty elements is missing in contemporary art scene, and generally artists hire local craftsmen to create their work instead of creating themselves. 

My performance for the event was titled “Small Piece of Earth in my Pocket”; I intended to focus on two aspects, one rapid development of urban space leading to constant demand for more land leading to deforestation and other harmful affects to the nature in large and the other aspect is constant shift of lifestyle that is inclined to fast-food culture and other unhealthy practices that is the root cause of all health issues and indirectly effecting the economy and farmers are dragged into this vicious trap. 

I used jute for costume and prepared the whole costume by myself to give personal touch and also involve my craftsmanship. I made number of pockets on the sack to keep small cups that had Ragi sprouts (Finger Millet) , since Ragi (Finger Millet) is the most indigenous crop, also blend of organic food and using jute was intentional since Jute crop is suggested to help conserve deforestation and jute in performance is also metaphorical playing same role. During the performance I tried to merge myself with plants and trees that were grown around on the pillars of metro, on the lane and then I dragged a Banana Tree which was already damaged, paid tribute to the dead tree with flower and then I walked to each audience and distributed cup of (Finger Millet) Ragi sprout that I had on my costume and later we also planted some in the garden there.

Dimple B Shah
2014

Goddesses from Common Grounds

A 4km group walk of students & local working ladies, Performance at Basavanagudi, 8th June, 2014.

This performance was Basavanagudi Live Art Projcects last performance and a major intervention. It was basically my reaction to harassment done to one women near Gavigangadesvara Temple. It was there in the news for quite long. One Auto driver harassed a group of women, though this place is much safe for women still one or two such incident happens. Recently crime rates have increased in this vecinity, this triggered the thought of doing a silent walk where household working women and college student would participate, it is basically to gain respect and dignity for women. 

The work was titled Goddesses from Common Grounds a group walk. In todays day to day life there is a never ending concern on safety of women in society, this performance is a small act to Reframe issues of women of all strata, the concern is same to gain importance of their dignity safety and respect.

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

Conversation with Darkness

Project 560 (Art Adda) Performance at Old Coal Depot, 2014

In alchemy the matter that was there before all other matter is called the 'Prima Materia'. This was the original substance from which all alchemical transmutation manifested. Coal is the prima materia for the construction of diamonds. Over thousands of years through the alchemy of time, pressure and gravity forms the coal and the prima materia becomes the diamond. Through the prism the white light of the sun shines through. This light is broken up into the spectrum of colors that make up our world. So, through the process of the alchemy of our planet, the coal is compressed into the multifaceted crystal that shines the colors of black through its prism. But now these colors are not coagulated and mixed into the color black - they have been separated and shine with their own radiance. This is a great example of metaphor and how it relates separate items within the same universality. It can be said that the process of time and compression brought forth the diamond. The alchemical earth created this substance from the basest of matter. Within the confines of this matter was the diamond. It was always there - it just needed time and gravity to transmute.

This performance was to understand the journey of coal how it is related to spiritual, philosophical & environmental aspect of life. My attempt was to dwell in darkness of the coal in a metaphoric sense. 

Through this performance audience and I related ourselves to coal and went through the process to understand the journey of coal itself. The performance was essentially to sit on mound of coal and to become one and contemplate in its blackness or darkness something that is living through ages - 400 million years. 

The coal which is also called a fossil fuel because it was formation from the remains of vegetation that grew as long as 400 million years ago. It is often referred to as "buried sunshine", because the plants which formed coal captured energy from the sun through photosynthesis to create the compounds that make up plant tissues. The most important element in the plant material is carbon, through which gives coal most of its energy. In Alchemy the Alchemist often referred to it as a miner. Coal also fits into this symbolic motif. Its meaning has to do with digging deep into the Earth, (Earth symbolizes Nature in its primitive state) to find the Prima Material, of which coal is a symbol. Coal is carbon, life on Earth is carbon-based, and over time coal can be turned into a diamond. The goal of alchemy is to emulate this natural process, but do it much quicker. The coal miner seeks to turn his own body/mind (which metaphorically begins as coal) into the perfected stone that is a diamond.

Dimple B Shah

2014

Basavanagudi Live Art Project (Reliving Past, Present and Future) - Performances by Dimple B Shah

Basavanagudi Live Art Project (Reliving Past, Present and Future) is an Artist Initiative by Dimple B Shah funded by India Foundation for Arts through Project 560. The event will be from April 24th to June 8, 2014.

Basavanagudi is one of the oldest dwellings in the city and has many Temples, Religious Places and Oldest Educational Institutions that has rich history. People from this place has major contribution in the field of theater, Literature and Cultural Development of the City. The very well-known Lankesh Patrike is also based here and also notable theater personalities have grown up here. The Bull Temple, Gavi Gangadhareshwara Temple, Ramanjaneya Gudda / Temple, Ramakrishna Ashram, Shankar Math and The Flower Market in Gandhi Bazaar all these places have great relevance in the City Map and also played important role. There are many Educational Institution both in Engineering and Art Field that have great contributions to this area. Over the years despite many people migrating here from different places and part of city it has not lost its charm though the new flyover and construction of new metro line is redefining its beauty. Even today we meet lot of people living in old buildings that has history of 70, 80 years, and still exists representing the good old days and charm of that era. The project is basically to do intervention in form of performances in this area on streets of Basavanagudi. This Project is intent to build intervention in Public Space and create more space for Performances Art.

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

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

I am - Live Performance, Lagos, Nigeria.

From the Series of Cry from the Dark - UPDC Lekki Estate, Lagos Nigeria, Dec 19th 2013

In recent performance which was done as part of Afiriperfoma International residency in Lagos, Nigeria. The first performance was done in NKEM Gallery in UPDC Lekki Estate in Lagos on 19th December 2013, which was also part of international symposium on Contemporary Performance Art. This work again an extension of my work from Black fever performed in Delhi the national capital.

This performance was done keeping in social and cultural aspect of Nigerian especially in focus to Yoruba culture in mind. This was done with intervention by Nigerian artist who wrote Yoruba names of girls on my face. Visually In this performance I used small baby frock which were stamped with impression of female uterus image on them and with each shout of ' I am…' one name of Yoruba girl was added to my face which marked existence of birth /death and rape crime of each girl every minute in Nigerian scenario overall global scenario. 

In recent statistical report done on rape crime in India it was found that every 20 minute a rape crime happen so we consider in global scenario it might be every minute or even second such crime are inflicted on women. 

This highly alarming rate in which crime happens and it is issue of great concern and also after such crime happen how much is justice done to victims how many criminal are punished and how much a society learn from this what kind of justice is done ? 

What happens to these victims later whether they get respect and dignity in society there are so many such issue which I want my audience to think about. What about their identity and these names punch marks their 'Existence' and which they have to regain their dignity and identity in society.

Dimple B Shah 

2013

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

The Black Fever - Live Performance in Delhi

This performance was about the darker shade of society. We are constantly bombarded with socio- political and religious issues in India. Every day we are bombarded with news of rape crime and even now when I am writing this the new rape case shown in News and might be even when I am performing some rape might be happening in any corner of our country every minute.  Every day we are left with feeling of helplessness with situation this news keep on circulating in one form or other form and we feel entangled with such unpleasant and insecure life with no hope for any good future.

Visually I wore black mourning dress with face covered with see through black mirrors that reflects audience face; simultaneously I could see audience, though audience could only see their reflection in Black. I have chosen black costume, to mourn, to show dark feeling and wound which has grown like black patch/reflection of society. I had conceived this idea keeping in mind the capital city New Delhi, since the news of Nirbhaiya, there had been no change in social security of women and especially girls and we have been seeing only an alarming amount of crime rates day by day in the villages, town and major cities in India. I really don’t understand why there is such a rise in such crimes may be  because those who  break laws and who does the crime  don’t have any more fear to be caught and punished, may be also due to decrease in moral values and respect to women or should we blame Bollywood items number and vulgar songs for this? We need to question and also seek out for answers about like what kind of mind set of people in the society is? Why women are not secure in India?  Once known for its moral and ethical values. 

The performance was done in highly populated area with migrated population from villages around and African population in Khirkee Village, Delhi and I used multiple audio receivers to interact with people in public space. The attempt was to bombard news to my audience just like News channels to a level of intolerance, to make them react and become sensitive towards issues of security and respect to women and voice their concern, rather than being passive to situations, I wanted my audience to react and become sensitive to issues rather than neglecting it as it has become a common news.

This performance was well received by people, some with very strange reaction they wanted me to pay to hear the audio and some seriously indulging in issue and inquiring whether I am activist or social worker etc., there were some more strange reaction since one audio was to calm them but they thought it was Bollywood music and tried to find out what song it was about.

Dimple B Shah

2013

All are Welcome to the Live Art Lab 2012

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.