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

Forgotten Faces Reliving Past

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

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

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

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

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

Dimple B Shah

2014

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