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 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

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

Shadows Of The Past

Footpath next to Ramakrishna Math, Ramakrishna Circle, Basavanagudi, Bangalore, 2014

The second intervention of performance was basically to have interactive interventions with senior citizens who could share oral history of their period share more stories and talk about the time their experience. This performance was about making space for interaction and exchange ideas about the past with the people who have lived and experienced it. This space there was mix of present and past and future in making. This installation was traditional Chappra usually built for marriage occasion but I used it as small Mantapa, a stage where people could come and relax, hear audio, read books and also share their experiences and stories. So it was like small Palce to Sit (Katte) could come and relax. I had also lot of small book to read about philosophy, yoga and poems of DVG- Mannku Thimanna Kagga etc.

After the first event there was feedback from audience and the art fraternity. There were also demands from the public to give them space to share their experiences. I gave thought to it and carefully brought these elements into the program and reworked it along with the already planned second performance. The idea was to build a coconut leaf ‘Chappra’ (traditional festive shelter) and have seating arrangements for senior citizens in it so that they could enter into the shade, relax and hear an audio track before moving forward.

By improvising and modifying my idea to involve senior citizens for conversation, I gained the opportunity to document oral histories of the past of Basavangudi as experienced and remembered by them, since they were witness to it. 

The experience of this long duration interaction and performance was valuable since many senior citizens came forward to share their histories. For those who came in the morning, I had prepared a Kannada script about my concept; it had information about my work. Many could not respond immediately since they were passing by with some other work in hand but they returned later in the afternoon and shared amazing stories.

One man told two stories, one about a snake that understood human language and another about a person who could turn water into yellow color with his magical powers. One more person who is a history teacher in a local college had lot to share about the place. Later a gentleman came up with his own poetry written spontaneously after reading my script, and using information from that. He shared this with Mamta Sagar and other people around. The traditional Mantapa was further used by Mamta Sagar for her performance to narrate a poem on 'Kansugallu' ('Dreams') which she had collected from public interaction. We had also given empty cards to people much before performance to write two lines about dreams and many contributed for it. In an interesting case one lady was hesitant to share her dreams and Mamta had to tell her own dreams in exchange, and then she was ready to share.

I felt the Mantappa had created a great platform, a space where past, present and future came together. I had great sense of satisfaction after doing this installation and performance, though initially it was a challenge to find the right people to construct it.

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

Soul Purpose -Channel 6

Sheet Happen -Time Out Bangalore

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Ajay Krishnan
Time Out Bangalore
October 01 2010 7.14am

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.