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.

 

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

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

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

Karmic Connections I

Performance at National Gallery Of Modern Art, Bangalore.

As per Jain philosophy, I strongly believe in Karmic Connections. We come across many people in our life, good or bad, because we may have earlier connections with them.

This performance was about how we connect our self to others. I wanted my audience to see themselves in me, by interacting with me one to one in a time and space. 

Although my audience come from different origin, roots, environment, space and experience. During the performance we are going to experience a moment of time and space together and I  used few objects as my tool to look into the past, present and future. In this moment we are building our bonds and we will all recollect our memories of the past and will look towards the future. In this performance my audience or my fellow performer will not see my face but they will see their reflections (in multiples) on to the small mirrors tied around my face, thereby encounter me in multiple perspectives and connecting with me by seeing themselves in me. It in general understands that, what we are, we see in other people. Most of the time we don’t understand opposite person properly due to our own preconceived ideas and understanding, so sometimes we arrive at positive and sometime negative emotions, hence it might block our real understanding of the person.

In general human tendency is that most of the time we assume and sometime undermine and block our way to really connect with people, It is human nature to like and love our self all the time, visually my attempt will be to show their own multiple faces instead of mine so that they might connect with me.  In this performance I tried to make connection with my audience through object of memories and they are my personal objects which are placed in front of the audience and through that they will try to see me.

Dimple B Shah
2013

Performance, National Gallery Of Modern Art, as part of ACT (Artists Create Together), Co-curated by Lina Vincent & Seema Kohli, Photo Credit Lina Vincent, Bangalore, India.

'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

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

To cleanse from within

Dimple B Shah gives an expression to catharsis through Paintings, Installations and Sculptures

Dimple Shah with her paintings. Photo: Sangeetha Devi Dundoo, The Hindu.

The first installation that greets visitors at Kalakriti Art Gallery is a shower chamber, which Dimple B Shah calls the ‘Katharsis Chamber’. The curtains of the shower place bear psychological theories of Carl Rogers, the process of Calcination and the glass walls of the chamber are lined with rows of tiny bottles. Nothing is here for ornamentation of by accident, says the artist. The bottles are filled with shreds of hair, nails and ash. An recorded audio completes the picture providing the sound of water streaming in.

‘Kartharsis in Forbidden Zones’ is an exhibition of installations, paintings and sculptures that communicate Dimple’s ideas. It took her three and a half years to complete this series, she tells us. “The installations took time. Once I worked on the concept and made detailed sketches, I took help of carpenters and technicians who cut acrylic sheets, wooden and iron planks. I scouted junk shops and found a 100-year-old shop selling old bottles and sourced these for the installation. For another installation, I needed wheels of a cart and after much trial and error, I travelled to Baroda to find the kind of wheels I was looking for,” she says. 

Dimple’s paintings reflect her study of metals, their properties and their effect on our lives. While studying art in Glasgow, she researched on Jain philosophy and imagery. “I came across a book on metals, alchemy and equated what I read to the seven basic planets in astrology and the seven chakras described in yoga. I learnt about lead and it’s correlation to Saturn. I read that nail samples of criminals have an increased lead content in them. I also came to know that women have more traces of copper in them. It was fascinating as I dug deeper into metals and the way they affect us,” she explains. In one of her paintings, Dimple uses a chameleon to represent the changing state of mercury. A glass jar with a sample of the metal corresponding to her paintings and a page from her workbook, detailing her paintings and installation are there for the audience to correlate and introspect.

Dimple completes her work through a performance. She’s been supplementing her work with a performance since her college days in 2001. Her performance has no dialogues, doesn't fall strictly into the realms of theater though Dimple has studied theater. For an earlier exhibition titled Saffron Borders, she gave vent to people’s fear psychosis in the aftermath of the Godhra riots by encircling herself with a ring of fire and reacting to it. “This is the way I connect with people through a visual medium of Painting, Sculpture, Installation of expressing my thoughts by way of performance,” she says. 

What’s interesting is this artist did her bachelors in commerce before shifting gears to fine arts. “After B. Com I realized I was truly interested in arts and did a five-year bachelor course in visual arts, followed by masters in M.S University, Baroda and one year in Glasgow,” she smiles. As a parting shot, she admits installations don’t come cheap. “I am yet to sell any of  them. But I don’t think of returns when I work on an idea,” she says.

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo,

The Hindu, Hyderabad, March 8, 2013

"Kartharsis in Forbidden Zones" an exhibition of Paintings, Illustrations, Prints & Sculpture 

is on at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad till March 13.

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. 

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)

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.