Desicritics Category: Culture: Design

Photo Essay: Circumambulation of the London Fashion Week

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:20:02 EST

You might have heard about the London Fashion Week. On the global fashion calendar, it is right up there with the Milan, Paris and NY ones. Not that I would know as this kind of stuff is a bit foreign to me, being a boring old git who works out in the sticks where the dollar signs roam and grown men weep. In civilisation - read in the centre of town - stuff happens, women exist and fun things like fashion shows occur. As it so happens, I had gone to check out Michelangelo's Dream drawing exhibition and when I stepped out I noticed that the passageway was absolutely infested with utterly gobsmacking, amazingly and totally thoroughly wonderfully excitingly mysteriously beautiful women of all shapes, sizes and colours sporting all sorts of hair styles. So turned right instead of left and circumnavigated the Kaaba of Fashion taking photographs. Only some of the photographs are shown here, see the full Slide Show for bigger resolutions and more photographs.

Two lovely ladies in front of a giant poster.

This kind of fine artistic inquiry requires good infusions of hot drinks, so I sat in front of this temporary coffee shop and ordered a tea.

See what I mean by staggeringly beautiful girls?

Some big shot was being interviewed.

That grey dress was fabulous, looked brilliant, although I am not sure these boots go well with that dress, but then I guess it's a matter of taste.

Another model .

Canon, the camera company, sponsored the London Fashion Week.

Lunch is being served. Low carb, low fat, low calories, low everything in fact!

I couldn't recognise ONE designer on this list, but then again, my designer range runs from Marks and Spencer (for clothes) to Clarks (for shoes). What else does a man want? But here? BLOODY HELL!

I wasn't clear what this was for, but then I figured, it must be for people who have reserved seats. The grammar was a bit weird there though.

Another confusing sign. Catwalk ok, Show ok, Space ok, but combine them and BD gets confused.

It's a tad empty.

Almost all the women had lovely head coverings.

Legs and heels. Cobblestones and heels? You are heading for trouble, young lady!

Backstage I know.

Dont be trashy, recycle. Hmmm, ok. Though trashy in my dictionary means something else entirely ...

Some very interesting photographs on display.

Loo signs, but the woman looks strange…

The number of girls I saw smoking was amazing, why do all these girls smoke so much? Maybe to curb their appetite or deal with the tension and stress?

An unlocked crew door, I was tempted to sneak in…

The photographers entrance.

More young ladies.

More comings and goings. The photographer on the left was wearing the tightest tightest pair of jeans I have ever seen, not good for the health, my friend.

Another smoker.

And this jamboree will happen again next year.

Ideart: Good Karma, Bad Medicine

IdeaSmith — Fri, 5 Mar 2010 17:17:30 EST

A few days earlier I had a thought. The words

Good karma, bad medicine

just formed themselves in my head. I can’t quite explain the thought. It was one of those ideas that just showed itself and vanished before I fully explore it further. It still sounded interesting. I put it up as my Twitter/ Facebook status to see if I could glean anything from it from seeing it in print. Still no luck. It was one of those things that you can just about see from the corner of your eye but never quite catch it straight-on. That’s when it occurred to me that the best way to communicate this thought may be visual and not verbal. And I realized that it had been awhile since I wielded a paintbrush.

The minute I had that thought, the image I needed flashed before my eyes.That was just it. The idea was a picture, not a sentence or story. After that it was just a matter of executing it. Luckily I had a plain black singlet handy and kept waiting for just such a time. A budding artist learns to store away material that could come in useful.

This is a tank top, that I picked up the first time I saw it because it is the thin, stretchy tee-shirt cotton material. There are no big logos or pictures on it and the cut is basic but curved along the sides rather than the straight up-and-down of unisex tees. I hate those since they hang and tug alternately.

The first thing I had to do was figure out a way to get rid of that little logo in the corner (little as it was, it was still in a white rubberprint and stood out) since that would certainly not do with the idea I had in mind. I was out of black paint so I tried dark blue and dark green but the rubber print of the logo showed right through both of these. Finally I coated it with Fevicryl Pearl Black no. 306.

I wanted the picture to be exactly in the middle of the visible area of the tee-shirt. If you are painting a tee-shirt for the first time, I recommend putting it on and marking off the area while still wearing it. Otherwise, one is used to the stark, solid borders of paper and too often the artwork goes over the visible area or looks too small or big. Clothes fall on each person’s body differently and ideally you should always see the garment on the wearer before painting on it. This area usually comes to about 8in x 8in or 20cm x 20cm on my clothes (and I rather smugly report that it turned out a perfect square without using a ruler or even pencil sketching!)

I started with a swirly line using a thin brush and Fevicryl Pearl Spring Green no.311 and then Fevicryl Cerulean Blue no.32. But I realized that a psychedelic design with multiple colours would need to have broad strokes for each colour to be visible and not get lost in too-intricate strokes so I switched brushes. After that it was a random selection of colours applied in strokes, splashes, squiggles and splotches. I painted over in a number of places and in other places I also used the same brush in multiple colours without cleaning the brush. This last gives the effect that you can see to the right of the second dot on the right. The yellow and pink run parallel for a bit before the yellow strikes out on its own. The colours must not be too liquidey if you want this effect since otherwise they’ll merge into each other.

This is one design where red (my favorite colour) was not the most striking note. On the contrary, the red quite got lost in the gloss of the other pearly tints so I used it as background in a number of places. When I had covered the entire square, I dabbed on circles with the Fevicryl Pearl Spring Green no.311 and you can see the colours beneath through the thin veneer of the green, in places.

I originally intended to paint the words over this design in black or white. But I realized the paint area was too small to fit in words and besides, it was too striking to waste as background. Besides, there was enough room above and below for lettering.

I tried for a digital-looking font and a religious-looking orange (Fevicryl Metallic Red no. 356) for the words ‘Good Karma’. In contrast the words ‘Bad Medicine’ at the bottom are in a more graffiti-like font in a Fevicryl Pearl Lemon Yellow no. 302.

Finally I noticed that the painted-over patch over the logo in the bottom right corner had dried and was standing out against the black. So I painted on a stretch in the same colour across the tee-shirt, a sort of rough underline the way one would highlight a graffittied sentence.

I’m not sure whether the finer points like font and colour would be noticed but I’m guessing they would register at a sublimnal level. The message just is one of those things. I wore this with worn-out blue jeans, a silver chain double-looped around my neck with a New Age faerie pendant. It got some appreciation. :-)

[
Garment: Sleeveless ladies tee-shirt

Material: Hosiery cotton

Background colour: Solid Black

Paint colours used:

Fevicryl Pearl Black no. 306

Fevicryl Cerulean Blue no. 32

Fevicryl Crimson no. 04

Fevicryl Pearl Spring Green no. 311

Fevicryl Pearl Pink no. 303

Fevicryl Pearl Lemon Yellow no. 302

Fevicryl Pearl Metallic red no. 356

Photo Essay: Hotel Russell in London

Dr Bhaskar Dasgupta — Mon, 8 Feb 2010 00:02:03 EST

In my opinion this is a terracotta monstrosity. The colour jumps out and beats you up as soon as you heave to sighting distance. Something that should be restricted to tiles and pots has transmogrified into this giant crenulated, over engineered, full of nooks and crannies and bits hanging off building. As I described it to my sister, this is a Gothic monstrosity which seems to be a combination of a mad Ludwig Castle, the Lubyanka Prison and the Adams Family Mansion. As it so happens, the building with about 380 rooms was constructed in 1898 by the same firm which was also involved in the building of the Titanic. I am surprised that this building hasn't sunk as well, but apparently the ballroom has similar fittings as that of the Titanic. I did not get a chance to go inside the hotel, but from outside, I think it looks really weird. The architect was Charles Fitzroy Doll. It was bomb damaged during the second world war, but has been restored now. But enough of history, lets get to the photographs.

As you come around the exit of Russell Square Tube Station and then turn left to go to the British Museum, your eyes are drawn to this Lubyanka Prison look. This is the back end of the hotel and I ask you, doesnt this look like a prison? All manky, leprous, with mould growing and worse – green slimy moss hanging off the ledges. At the far end, you can see a square tower, apparently this was modelled after Italian plaza towers. It is just bizarre to see this strange building with various bits almost like bolted on.

You walk on and see one of the side entrances. It has all kinds of strange stuff hanging off it. The panel above the arch says Russell Rooms and the date 18 on the left column and 98 on the right, meaning that this was constructed in 1898.

Very sad looking cherubs on the left and a strange looking sculpture on the right. Looks like a cherub emerging from an exploded sea shell.

Then you keep on walking and your eyes fall on this strange balcony with slender columns with hardly any space between the columns and the wall inside. So it will be almost impossible to walk on that balcony. So is this for the window washers? Surely it's an overkill to have this over sculpted nonsense? The balcony also has a frieze running on the top with shields representing various countries.

By this time you have come to the corner of Bernard Street and Russell Square and you notice a distinct change in the building - the architecture changes, the stone changes, the silhouette changes, everything changes. It is almost like somebody else made the corner, no continuity at all.
Turn the corner and you see the silly balcony extending down the front.

Here’s the front of the Hotel. Now I ask you. Just look at it. It has square frontage, it has round frontage, it has roundels, it has ledges, it has statues, it has shields, it has a balcony, it has round bright green copper triangular Dutch roofs, it has French chateau triangular roofs on the side and then it has couple of limp flags hanging. Welcoming? I think it is about as welcoming as a dank dripping cave in Siberia.

Out of the blue (or terracotta even), there are four statues of four British Queens, sculpted by Henry Charles Fehr, looking glumly down at the street and at the guests who are entering the hotel. Now why on earth would you suddenly hoist these up to look down on your guests? I have no idea. It is not like they stayed at this place or they will be entertaining the guests or anything like that. Very bizarre. And then besides the dirty and dusty look, they are covered with anti pigeon mesh nets, which makes them look even more jaundiced and miserable.

This is at the top of the arch. Its a representation of the Royal Coat of Arms of the United Kingdom with a lion and a unicorn.

The top of the arch has a representation of the shield itself with a bunch of supine lions. Although why on earth are the lions and unicorns being rude and sticking out their tongues I dont understand.

The row of shields which represent various countries continues around the front as well and were designed by W.J Neatby although they are now a bit ragged and miserable. Plus I am sure most of the nations represented would have long since gone or merged or something after the series of wars, boundary and political system changes in the 20th century.

Keep on walking to the end and peek around expecting things to get better, but they do not. Same old. Same old boring miserable looking building. With the juxtaposition of the winter trees, it really really looks gloomy.

See the perspective? its dark, dingy, over engineered, small windows, and just looks hugely gothic and ghostly.
Is that the end of surprises? Nope, there are four busts of British Prime Ministers along a line. Now why on earth would you have something like this? Very strange. So would I stay in this place? No way, Jose. But I never thought that I will hate a building, but this comes close to it.
Here is the full slide show

IdeaArt: Rose Garden

IdeaSmith — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 06:54:10 EST

This is part of my series on fabric painting (after Peacock and Kathakali). But this was actually painted much earlier than those two.

I had this terrycot shirt checked orange and white. The overall effect was a sort of mustard. It's not a colour I've ever been fond of or one that flatters me. Painting it was a rather delayed decision since it doesn't occur to one intuitively to paint over something that already has a pattern on it. But I realized that the pattern was neither overwhelming nor highly visible. And it would serve perfectly well as a background.

I used several pictures of roses to figure out the basic geometric shapes and swirl-patterns that I'd need to use. It turned out to be surprisingly easy. I started with a round wavy shape (like little kids drawings of flowers) using black paint (Fevicryl no.02 Black). Then I added more waves and curlicues inside it. After that it's just a matter of colouring and adding leaves.

The painting was actually loads of fun, the messy, splashy way. I made blobs of the basic red paint (Fevicryl no.39 Carmine) on the fabric. Then before it was dry, I daubed on the shimmery pink (Fevicryl no.303 Pearl Pin). The pink was probably an older bottle so it had gone a little creamier while the red, newer was liquidey. The net effect was that the pink stood on its own but blurred into the red at the edges to give a lovely shaded effect. I waited for these to dry before outlining and highlighting in black again.

The leaves were done using a similar principle - outlined in black, filled in with basic green (Fevicryl no.06 Dark Green) and daubed with the shimmery green (Fevicryl no.357 Pearl Metallic Green). And finally redefined with black once that was dry.

The details came in later. I added hairfine strokes of black to show the stems. Tiny buds with triangle-shaped leaves in blue (Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue); these were done with a thin brush dipped in colour and then pressed flat down on the cloth. These were given yellow (Fevicryl no.302 Pearl Lemon Yellow) centers. The leaf veins were lined with bronze (Fevicryl no.355 Pearl Metallic Bronze).

I started intending to only paint the back since it had an unbroken visage (the front has buttons all the way down so it's difficult to do one contiuous painting). Then it looked so good that I added some detail in the front to match the theme.

The front detailing is not uniform copy of the back. While the back is just one pattern of roses scattered all over, the front shows a rose-trellis creeping up on one side and small bouquet-like collection of flowers on the other side that look like they've been plucked off the plant and dropped on the ground.

On the same side, I added a tiny rosebud and leaf detail on the collar.

Garment: Waist-length shirt with short sleeves and collar

Material: Terrycot with tartan texture

Background colour: Orange-brown with white threads running through

Paint colours used:

Fevicryl no.02 Black

Fevicryl no.39 Carmine

Fevicryl no.303 Pearl Pink

Fevicryl no.06 Dark Green

Fevicryl no.357 Pearl Metallic Green

Fevicryl no.355 Pearl Metallic Bronze

Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue

Fevicryl no.302 Pearl Lemon Yellow

Persian Inspired Paradise Gardens

Harold Bergsma — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:55:25 EST

Kashmir! “If there is pairidaeza on earth, this is it, this is it!”

Mogul Emperor Jahangir

The Persian definition of ‘paradise’ may surprise you. It means an enclosed area; an area set aside that has boundaries or walls around it. Now come to think of it, that makes sense. Paradise, heaven as it is spoken of in the holy books, the Bible, the Koran, is a place set aside that is circumscribed, guarded, a special place for the few chosen ones, the faithful.

I love the Biblical descriptions of paradise with its pearly gates, with its rivers that flow through it, its glories described in terms of a variety precious stones. “… the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God: and her light was like unto a stone most precious, even like a jasper stone, clear as crystal; and had a wall great and high and had twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels.”

But where did such ideas come from that ended up in Revelation, in the holy writs? And what was the need for high walls and gate keepers? The Glorious Koran speaks of paradise in many ways, including the idea of a special place in which there is a garden. “Surah VII, 40 Lo, they who deny Our revelations and scorn them, for them the gates of Paradise will not be opened nor will they enter the garden until the camel goeth through the needle’s eye. Thus do we requite the guilty.” Let’s see, that was first mentioned long, long before by a man named Mathew, a Jew, who wrote a gospel. “….It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter heaven.” Math. 19: 24. Yes, people, even prophets do borrow sayings and ideas across cultures and time. I think that is called poetic license.

The authors’ of various of the now held-to-be sacred books, got their inspiration and ideas from the reality of their dry habitat and cultural settings, from the history of their own nations’ growth and other nations around them, from the writings of the wise ones who shared their greatest joys in Persian manuscripts with ‘hues of the green of trees and flowers set in gardens’ painted on the margins. Simply put, cultural borrowing was going on then as it goes on today. In a desert area like San Diego, Balboa Park is our garden; it’s paradise. People have always borrowed ideas from other people. Cultural borrowing of ‘heavenly ideas’ for some becomes the reality for others, with flowers and flowing water fountains in which paisas, annas, pennies and dimes are thrown. ‘Three coins in a fountain.’

Let me put this in a more sequential historical perspective. A long time ago, that is around 5th. Century B.C. Persia ruled over a vast kingdom. I mentioned this to our tour guide in Turkey two weeks ago and he had never heard of Persian domination over the area that is now Turkey. It included what today would be Armenia, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Syria, Bulgaria, Turkey, Palestine, Lebanon, Caucasia, some parts of Greece and even as far as what is now Pakistan. Along with their wonderful poetic language were many other of their cultural contributions to these areas of their vast kingdom, one of which was their gardens of ‘paradise’ enclosed by walls or boundaries. That was a new idea to many in those ancient days because gardens were usually utilitarian in nature where crops grew and the only boundaries were those necessary to demarcate property ownership, or fences to keep out goats. The Archmenid idea, that is of having an earthly paradise, became adopted by other peoples and cultures, and what a grand idea it was.

In a publication called, ‘Notes on Iran’, put on the web in May of 2008, as posted by ‘Barry’ there is a discussion about the gardens of paradise that Persia initiated. “The first writer to make reference to a Persian garden using the word ‘paradise’ was the Greek narrator Xenophon. The word appears in Avestan text only in the form of Pairadaeza.” For more than three thousand years, says Barry, quoted above, “…the Persian garden has been the focus of Iranian imagination, influencing the country’s art as well as literature. The lavish use of flowers in such gardens inspired the weaving of floral designs into what are known as garden-carpets.” All around the world garden traditions flourished and they influenced holy writings, literature, architecture and philosophy. Some gardens even hung around, the Hanging Gardens for instance.

Some of these gardens enclosed palaces, pleasure areas for people to stroll, some were private and some were opened to the public during Persian celebrations. Five centuries later this idea of a paradise, of course patterned on the earthly examples set by the Persians, was adopted by the writers of the Old Testament and later on even by the New Testament authors, including the man called St. John the Divine the author of Revelation. Heaven became paradise, or should I say, paradise became heaven. It does not take a great search to find the first references to the garden of paradise, Eden, in the Bible, and it sounded like a great place, surrounded by rivers, fruit trees, happy and un-aggressive animals, flowers, and even a talking serpent. (But that is another story.) Later, paradise as heaven was included in the Glorious Koran many times, with specific references to Eden. In the New Testament there are many statements about paradise and heaven, again, thank you Persia. Do you recognize the words spoken by Jesus on the cross? “This day shalt thou be in paradise with me.”

I just looked at a picture of the Taj Mahal in my bathroom and smiled to myself at the wonderful memories of strolling in that garden around that wonderful marble tomb which brought to mind two Shalimar Gardens, and a variety of other baghs I have visited in Pakistan and India. Kashmir boasts a host of places that are heavenly. The Royal Spring Garden, Chashme Shahi Garden which is dedicated to the Mogul Emperor Shah Jahan is a really lovely place, but it is but a sister garden to two others there in Kashmir, the Shalimar Gardens and Nishat Gardens that I visited, and Nasim Bagh where we put up our tent. The former, Cashme Shahi gets its name from the great female saint of Kashimir, Rupa Bhawani whose name included the family name Sahib, thus Cashme Sahibi. It has been many decades since I have wandered through these gardens, but they were in fact pairidaeza enclosures which would in English make one cry out, Wow! or in Urdu Wah! This is heavenly.

In the March 28, 2008, “Lahore Nama”, there is a wonderful piece that caught my mind and heart, because I used to wander with friend and family in a huge garden in Lahore. It begins, ‘I am homesick so I am posting an old piece on the Majestic Lawrence Gardens of Lahore. …. The writer of the “Lahore Nama” piece then ends this lovely article with words that I could not improve upon, for the emotion they bring or the memories they instill in me. “On a personal note, I have walked for years in the Lawrence Gardens–in solitude and with people. My fondest memories of Lahore are in one way or another linked to this splendid place. Often, my soul wanders there to experience the solace and reconnection that the human spirit yearns for.” (Emphasis mine) Whenever I have wanted to hear the sound of trees, in Lahore or in Landour, I have not been disappointed. Have you ever heard a whispering pine? The bulbuls also love gardens and seem to feature in so many Persian, Urdu and Hindustani poetry.

I am sure my readers will want to add their own gardens to the few I have mentioned. Paradise on earth is thus a mirrored hope for paradise ‘above’. The story goes that Adam and Eve were driven out so they could not partake of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, but their descendents must have inherited the spiritual memories of that ‘first’ garden paradise with them. It may have been in their genes. After all the Ur of the Chaldeas was the home of Abraham, and we could conjecture that he must have known of the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and the stories of Eden. The Chaldeans settled in that area in about 900 B.C. and Ur is an ancient city of the Sumerian civilization, and thus the country of Abraham the father of the Hebrews, whose writings reflect their Persian Empire past. Ur’s ruins are still there today between Baghdad, Iraq and the Persian Gulf.

So, the Hebrews are linked to Persia in a very real way through their spiritual father Abraham. Genesis stories and memories of home, of heavenly gardens, of how all of world began were part of the origin myths that were carried into the subsequent religious texts, including the Old Testament documents and became part of the writings in the world’s great mono-theistic religions. Ah, pairidaeza may be the whispering pine or quaking aspen reconnections that the human spirit longs for, asman, new and glorious heavenly green gardens with fruit trees and high walls made of jasper and twelve pearly gates for us, we, the desert folk from dry and thirsty lands of the Northwest Frontier Province of what was then India, now Pakistan, or parched southern California. Kew Gardens anyone?

Ideart: Kathakali

IdeaSmith — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 03:10:37 EDT

I'm fascinated by Indian designs, motifs and art forms. Such vibrant colour! Such dazzling variety! I did a set of pieces called 'Tandav' using motifs and images from Indian dance forms. Sadly enough I didn't think to take pictures back then and most of those garments have been worn out and discarded.

Kathakali (for the uninitiated) is a classical dance form from Kerala. The movements are small and detailed, all in the eyes and fingers. The costumes, especially for the men are the most delightful part of the dance. The make-up and costume apparently take upto 6 hours to don. I was fascinated by the plethora of colours on the Kathakali costume. This is my tribute to this grand art.

I used a plain black terrycot vest. It was a few years old and unused because it was too broad for me and the fabric wasn't the soft, clingy variety that would look good, loose. It turned out to be perfect for holding an elaborate, heavy paint picture and the black background was just what I needed to offset all the colours. Black is the one colour that you won't find in a traditional Hindu costume so it brought out the other colours really well.

I looked up a number of photographs of Kathakali costumes before settling on this design. Instead of a complete costume as I had originally planned, I decided to concentrate on only the face since I felt the detailing of jewellery and make-up was a masterpiece in itself. My painting is a close-up of just the face of a Kathakali dance hero. The final result was a mixture of several different costumes that I saw.

The painting looks very elaborate but was actually very simple to execute. The lines were clean, I didn't need to use any shading and the drama in the piece comes from the vibrant colours.

I outlined the face with a sliver of soap. The outline took several tries before I could get it to be perfectly symmetrical and even then I did make one side slightly larger. The thing about fabric paints is that you never erase, you just paint over or improvise, which is what I did here. The curve on the right of the face was actually smoothened out by painting over with Fevicryl no.02 Black. Okay, I cheated. :-)

The bottom piece is Fevicryl no.27 White. I refrained from using silver (even though it would catch the light well) because I wanted to retain the authenticity of the image. The jewellery was Fevicryl no.352 Pearl Metallic Gold and for the sapphires, I used Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue. I had actually used plain red for the jewels but it didn't look as impressive, especially since the swirls on the headpiece were the same colour, so I painted over with the metallic range.

Initially I had thought I'd leave the eyebrows and kohl edging unpainted since the background was black. However after finishing the rest of the piece, those areas looked dull (on account of the shiny dry paint) so I finished them up with Fevicryl no.02 Black. I also outlined every border between two colours in the same black. This makes the colours stand out better and should be used only when shading is not used.

Incidentally I painted this piece when I was nearing the end of my colour stock so I also used the opportunity to clear out the little remaining paint that I had in most of my bottles. Hence there are some uneven splashes of colour here and there that are not duplicated elsewhere (because I ran out of that shade!). I think it adds to the vibrancy of the piece without any one colour making a statement in itself. I wanted the facial green and white edging to be the central focus.

The one tricky bit was the face itself. Having finished the big areas of colour, I was left with a bright piece which did not quite look human. Adding lines on a sketch of a face is always risky since it can make your subject look old. I used a hairfine brush to add a few strokes for nose. The laugh lines were an afterthought and I actually drew them too long which made the face look pulled down. So I corrected by painting over with the facial green. A couple of spots on the right corner of the face and little dash under the lower lip made it seem more human.

Since the vest was still too big for me, with gaping, wide armholes, I teamed this up with a bright green FabIndia shirt. The shirt itself was an impulse buy and I didn't quite know what to wear it with since the cut was too severe for casual wear and the colour too bright for office. Since only the sleeves are visible, it matched the green face paint of the dancer well. I've always worn this with classic blue straight-fit jeans but I dare say straight black pants could add a slightly more evening-formal look. If I was feeling upto going all gypsy, I'd wear this over a flowing skirt.

(If you like this piece, watch for Desert Dancers, another other Tandav piece that I'll write about, shortly)

Series: Tandav

Garment: Sleeveless waist-length vest

Material: Terrycot

Background colour: Black

Paint colours used:

Fevicryl no.27 White

Fevicryl no.o2 Black

Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue

Fevicryl no.352 Pearl Metallic Gold

Yellow

Green

Sand Art

rads — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 08:15:20 EDT

Here I am talking specifically about welcome signs drawn outside of doors in India. The kind that is unique, original and takes different forms, the symbol of our culture and the fascination it invokes in all who lay eyes on it.

I speak about : Muggulu (telugu) Kolam (Tamil) and Rangoli (hindi)

My mom has a large collection of different kinds muggulu (kolams/rangolis) back home. Every year, as the festive season approached, she'd open her book up and brush up on them and practice on stolen sheets of paper from our note books. I remember her being very possessive about her collection. She did not share her designs with anyone, nor did she allow us to flip the pages without her permission.

There were all kinds.

Dots circled by squiggles and dots connected by lines.

There were no dot designs too.

Then, there were designs with even number of dots and the odd numbers. Some went all the way to one, while some stopped short at 3. Some had a pattern to them.

15, 13(2) 11, 9(2), 7, 5- she'd pencil the top of the page.

There was an order to all those squiggles that wound serpentine in and out and dodged the little islands of rice flour. Yes, there would be a once a month purchase of Kolamaavu or Muggupindi - a mixture of calcium and /or chalk. It was heavy in texture, and fell thickly across the wet earth. There was a knack of letting the flour flow smooth and even as one drew lines and curves in the wee hours. It was a special treat when my mother would allow me to try my hand at it. The smaller tinier lesser traffic doorways was given to me. To practice and I would.

It was a special joy to see the white powder fall ever so gently as my index finger and thumb would clasp a tiny bit and move within half an inch over the wet floor, leaving a white trail behind. The one that would form boundaries and create mazes for the ants. The ones that the ants would feed on eventually to make their way across.

Am sure there's an interesting history to why this little art started and how it evolved. I should perhaps go read up on it.

In the meanwhile, I wanted to ask this. How many really serious muggu/kolam/rangoli folks are out there today? No, am not talking about competitions and filling the boundaries of these shapes with colors and flowers alone, but some serious pattern drawing? In this day and age when nights and mornings have merged to one with busy schedules and the space that's reserved for this artwork has been taken over by cycles parked outside, or the narrow alleys that have been created by apartments spilling over? The last time I was over, I saw little hurried dashes in place of beautiful intricate sparkling art. It was disappointing.

On special occasions such as Diwali, Navaratri, Ganesh Puja, or Varalakshmi Vratam day, or Ugadi, I try and do a small colorful muggu outside our front door. It's with colored sidewalk chalk, not rice flour. Sidewalk art at its best.

I use whatever colors I can salvage from the tub from munchkin's corner in the garage. It feels good. It feels like a home when I have that spread outside. People who come home have always remarked (and some with an amused snicker) on how I can remember and continue to keep up a failing tradition, here outside India.

I shock folks occasionally and invariably get a kick out of it. It's entertaining, correct? How else does one spice up a suburbian life, with three kids (I'd love to say a dog, but if I do, that would make me husband-less, so I refrain) doing the mundane soccer mom thing?

So my quick to pull out of the chalkbox, apart from drawing a padma:

is this squiggly one:

It's 7-5-3-1 and it's really very simple.

So you tell me, do you do an occasional Kolam/Muggu/rangoli outside your home? Special occasions? Do you personally know how to draw a couple? From memory? Is there favorite? Have you stopped doing it? Why?

The Wall Project: BMC Plays Tom Sawyer, Everyone Wins!

IdeaSmith — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 09:59:31 EDT

It has been nearly a week now since The Wall Project and I’m so happy to say that it was a stupendous, tremendous, awesome success! I was thrilled to have been part of the event. The photographs are still surfacing on Facebook, people tagging each other and comparing notes.

Having put out an ‘official’ call on Twitter, I know I really should have been at the venue by the stipulated 8a.m. but I plead a swine flu scare which made me stay in bed with the sniffles till afternoon. Thankfully for me, my dear Aditya shook me out of my hypochondriacal stupor with a,

You really don’t know what you’re missing! Take care of yourself and I hope you feel better soon.

Hain! Such things could not be endured so like a flash we were out of bed and chugging our way to Mahim station. Since I got there only half-way through the day, I missed picking out one of the early spots close to the station entrance. Still, I’d like to think that the quality of the paintings improve as you move from Mahim to Matunga. Heh, ‘my’ wall and those of my friends are nearly at the end, right next to Matunga Road station! ;-)

The BMC had provided paints, brushes and thoughtfully, a tanker full of water to splash up. On Day 1, I even managed to get a lift from them from the station, all the way down to my wall. Aditya, Rehab, Spitphyre and Vagrant Seeker had been already and created their colourful collage, replete with Twitter ids. They also very thoughtfully helped me start up my first wall project and left me to fill in the end details.

Since the BMC came around to wrap up by around 5:30pm, I’m afraid it turned out to be a rather rushed job. The results can be seen on a pinky-pink wall with green swirly things and bleeding red eyes, almost opposite to the J&J building. I was gunning for a psychedelic design but I’m afraid it ended up being more kiddy crayoney.

[/caption]

I also managed to carefully white-wash the wall on its immediate left, layering on the paint evenly. When the BMC guys took away my paints, I vowed to get back early the next day and start on the white wall.

[/caption]

Rather unfortunately the next day too, my sleepy somnambulistic side surfaced and I ended up getting there only around noon (Aditya, stop laughing! You also turned up at exactly the same time!). To my grimacing-frowny dismay, the whitewashed wall had been taken over by a family. What’s more, my carefully even-toned whitewash was being covered meticulously by layer over layer of blue-black. Ah well, I cut my losses and decided to look for another wall further up.

Happily I bumped into Shawn, Wanderblah, Jayant, Spitphyre, Aniceto and Jai at the end of the road. The corner after the tree seemed to become ‘ours’ as we set up our mini-studio there, piling up our backpacks onto the carriers of the taxis close by and painting the adjacent walls. We were joined in the middle of the day by Ashwin, Princila and Sayan. Princila took up the brush to paint a little something right under my painting. She says it’s a man being splashed with paint but I personally think it looks like a guy running away from the spotlight…which inspired me to spray an ‘AnonyMouse’ next to it.

I never imagined painting a wall could be so much fun and I realize in retrospect that it was only because it was such a community event. None of my art classes or solo ventures have been as thrilling as the weekend I spent with these amazing guys. We poked fun at each other’s artwork, we photographed together and each other in weird poses (and continue to leave silly comments on each other’s FB albums), we shared paints and brushes, we mixed up our ideas and added to each other’s work. It was such a lovely, brilliant day!

[/caption]

We also received our 10 seconds of fame when Aparna brought in an interview on UTVi (aired yesterday and to be repeated on the weekend; youtube video to be linked shortly). Their anchor was very prettily (and somewhat unsuitably) dressed in a lavender formal shirt, wherein she borrowed my paint-streaked apron (already smuggled out of mum’s kitchen). That’s the one that you see on her in the video. :D

[/caption]

There was a spot of unpleasantness when we tussled for the plastic stool and spray paint cans with our neighbors, one of whom left after uttering a diabolical statement that the paintings may not be around the next day.

But the ickiest part of the day wasn’t the mean neighbors or the blue-paint which turned out to be a shitty brown. It was the attack of the Twitter vandals. If you’ve been around on the Twitterverse, you’ll know who I’m talking about. I’m rather embarrassed to admit that I invited the leader of that gang to visit the wall and join us in the project, earlier in the day. Of course I had no way of knowing that his version of contributing to The Wall Project would be to spray-paint his own name on other people’s good work, mess around with some really fantastic paintings, take stupid dirty photos of the wall and finally to add insult to injury, tweet that,

We’re done desecrating the wall project.

I’m embarrassed to say that I know this man. Most of the tweeple who were around that day have unfollowed the vandals in question. The leader of that gang has since initiated a ‘clean-up’ effort and accordingly tweeted pictures of his effort. But as far as I’m concerned, I’m left with a the thought that,

That’s just uncool. Only for losers, dude.

‘Nuff said.

The highlight of our day was the Twitter wall that we painted in our far corner. One panel was painstakingly painted shiny blue (we couldn’t get the pale sky blue of Twitter) long after everyone else had packed up. And then we recreated a Twitter timeline with actual tweets from the gang that was there. I’m so proud of us for this one guys, you all rock!

Though the Project spanned only two days, people are still talking about it. There’s newpapers, the TV interview and loads and loads of photographs circulating on Facebook and discussions still happening. Yes, the BMC may have pulled a Tom Sawyer on us but what the hell, it was fun, wasn’t it (aching bones notwithstanding)?!

[/caption]

[/caption]

[/caption]

[/caption]

And here are the results of the brilliant efforts of the wonderful people I was with.

[/caption]

[/caption]

[/caption]

[/caption]

And here's my piece de resistance (I hope that was used in the right context *gulp*) - my own wall!!! **DRUM ROLL**

Here's the chess board representing order and structure, being ripped apart by a hand (whose model was a street kid called Sultan). A conversation with Sultan resulted in the painting of a crown and then a king who looked like a queen. Hence that's the Red Queen looking very happy over the breakdown of order.

\[/caption]

And finally, the resultant chaos, also known as the hungama inside my head or as you know it - theideasmithy.com. TADA!!! Incidently I stand accused of using up half of BMC's paint supplies on one wall. I've also been diagnosed by the God of Gas as suffering from a disorder that makes me scared of blank spaces in art. Ah, mea culpa. See for yourself -

\[/caption]

Incidentally I rode down to Tulsi Pipe Road the next night because I just couldn’t resist taking one more look. While all the other paintings in our corner were intact and looking quite brilliant in the night, I was most dismayed to find that Setto’s imaginative pink piggy in a suit had been splashed with a dab of red paint running down from the pig’s nose. Agitated, I spoke to him and told him about it. I was quite unprepared to hear him chuckle and say that he wished he had been there when it was done, he’d have shot a video. I asked him how he could possibly feel that way, I felt so bad when I saw it vandalized. Very wisely and oh so cooly he replied,

Hmmm... its graffiti. You know the fact someone did that makes me happy, coz that was what the party needed. Something unorganized…chaotic…the whole scene was too much like a 'slumming' party. Whoever did that is adding another layer to the image..and whoever follows him is doing so too.

[/caption]

Hmm, that’s food for thought. That is what street art is about I guess. And that’s what this city is about. Layers over layers. Colour and cheating, fights and fun, friends and vandals, silliness and talent. It’s just Mumbai.

Some other posts about the Wall Project:

Jhayu - "On Dirty Walls, Sundays and Stained Fingers"

Punk Polka Dots - "When India Takes 2 Steps Forward.."

Aditya (on Facebook Notes) - "Food, Drink, Writing And The Wall Project"

Deepa - "The Wall Project August 15, 2009"

*All the photographs in this piece have been taken by Wanderblah, Jhayu, Spitphyre and Aditya.

IDEART: Peacock

IdeaSmith — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 06:58:01 EDT

This is the first of a series of posts on my artistic experiments. I realised that since each work is a story in visual form, I can write a post about it too. This is one of my recent success stories. I've only worn it twice!

~o~o~o~o~o~o~

Purple was an unusual colour for a background. This was a pretty dark shade, almost a brinjal-like shade so light and bright colours would show well. However unlike black that has a solid personality of its own and pretty much offsets anything that contrasts it, purple is a more - shall we say - malleable colour? The combination of colours you choose, sets the tone for how you interpret purple.

For example, teamed with vermillion and gold, it would cue royalty, the way monarchs of old would wear it. You'd imagine velvet (purple) edged with rich brocade (the other colours). On the other hand matched with hot pink, it would be more funky-punk. Line up purple with black and you have futuristic, especially if edged with silver.

I decided to try a different tack. I've always been fascinated by the peacock's spectrum of colours. Vibrant blues, indigo, violet, green, turquoise and yellow. It was probably a bit of a risk putting all those against a purple background since purple does belong to a related colour-family (on account of the blue but different because of the red in it).

The garment is a thin cotton vest that I bought off the roadside. The fabric was thin enough to absorb all the paint and stiffen when it dried, which was ideal since I was painting across the whole front and it would lose appeal unless the entire picture was on display.

I'm not great at sketching animals so I decided to focus on the vivid colours instead. There was no sketching involved here. I just lined the peacock's head in thin white line (which was subsequently coloured over) and went splash-dunk into a riot of colour (my favorite technique). I think it came out pretty well.

For each feather, I started with the outer-most colour (Fevicryl no.12 Light Green) and then painted over with each inner layer in the following order - Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue, Fevicryl no.352 Pearl Metallic Gold and Fevicryl no.46 Bamboo. I touched up a few of the feathers with Fevicryl no.305 Pearl Blue so the sheen in the colour would catch the light. The plumes and eye were done in Fevicryl no.301 Pearl White while the beak was Fevicryl no.355 Pearl Metallic Bronze.

I have a dusky skin tone which normally looks sallow with such a dark colour but since it is matched by the feather highlights and contrasted by the bright blues and greens, I think I carry it off well. I team it up with jeans, usually a dark blue. The last time I wore this, a gusty wind swirled around making me feel like I really was welcoming the monsoon.

Garment: Loose waist-level vest

Material: Thin cotton

Background colour: Purple

Paint colours used:

Fevicryl no.12 Light Green

Fevicryl no.46 Bamboo

Fevicryl no.32 Cerulean Blue

Fevicryl no.301 Pearl White

Fevicryl no.305 Pearl Blue

Fevicryl no.352 Pearl Metallic Gold

Fevicryl no.355 Pearl Metallic Bronze

The Magic of 'Pata Chitra'

Tanay Behera — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 04:02:46 EDT

Come to think of it, the winter season is famous for something, which is the biggest form of celebration in an Indian family, the marriage function. I do not understand the nitty gritty about why only this part of the year, but know for a fact that from May to July and again from November to February of the calendar, is the season for marriage functions in India. All I know is that these months are considered auspicious for the event.

A couple of months back my elder brother got married and like a similar function in any part of India, it was marked by a riot of colors, get-together of relatives and friends from within the country and abroad, gossip among the guests, sumptuous food, glittery jewelery, shimmering attires, and lots of naach, gaana dancing to the tunes of the latest Bollywood hits.

But to add a paaka desi-flavor to all these, to showcase something that is authentic and to patronize a dying art form, my maa had her own charter. She had planned for miniature paintings to be done on few walls of the house. She had contacted the artists and made the entire blueprint for her project from planning to its execution.

The art form that was followed is from the school of 'Pata Chitra'. 'Pata' in Sanskrit means piece of cloth and 'Chitra' means painting or picture. This art form is defined by its use of rich colors made out of vegetables and mineral extracts, its portrayal of pure and simple themes, depicting a combination of folk and classical elements and is not limited to religious themes.

In the picture below, the theme is that of a marriage and it is painted in the style of an oleograph on the wall. But as you can see, there is deviation from the basics here, synthetic paints are used, unlike the colors made out of vegetables and mineral extracts.

The digression from the fundamentals was done because the base for the painting was not a piece of cloth but a concrete wall.

The colors are bright and possess a peculiar charm, very distinct and a remarkably original art form. As I was writing this post, it also reminded me of an excellent project work that one of my friends had done, while he was a Product Design student at National Institute of Design, Ahmedabad. He had spent close to one and a half months in a village, Raghurajpur where artisans create sheer poetry on pieces of treated cloth or dried palm leaves or paper and learnt the fine nuances of this art form. More about Raghurajpur here.

The 'kolam' on the floor of the marriage 'mandap'(platform) was also done by the same artists who did the work on walls.

Do not miss a very interesting article by Raji on 'The Kolam Festival' at the Mylapore festival.

But what is hurting is that these timeless art forms are loosing their value with the advent of modernity. To cite an example, take the case of 'Pata Chitra', the entire process starting from the design to the final output is managed manually by artisans. It's the creation of their deft fingers and immeasurable imagination, an art form whose intricacies are passed from one generation to another. But duplicates of such paintings are made these days using modern printing capabilities. So the artists feel their authentic creations do not have as big an audience as for faux products. Many artisans leave the villages to find menial jobs in cities and towns to make a living. Sad but true.

Now, I know why my maa wanted those paintings, it was to showcase the creativity of the bunch of smart artisans, who need support. Don't you endorse, her thinking?

Check the pics here, they look better against a black background.