8th April '11- All the Men I meet are Boys

So when i started making this, it was just not happening as in i kept feeling something was amiss. He cant look so grown up and be a boy at the same time. I still went ahead with it and now it makes sense. Its like all the boys i meet these days my age, they are full grown men, normal but in their heads they are complete boys, not matured yet. heheh so its interesting to see what I've been thinking or observing comes out so blatantly in my work! Woops!

5th April '11-Baggaged Haired Girl

All I knew was that i wanted to make a girl with really big complicated hair. It isn't as big as i wanted but I liked this. I think the hair symbolizes all the complications, the length of a girls confusions and issues. She is a perfectly cute girl with lengthy and knotty issues just like anyone else. Its like she carries her baggage in her hair. haha

28th March '11- Little

8th March '11- Matrimonial

Too many people I know got or are getting married this year and there are a lot of us who aren't getting married. Was wondering about the whole concept of arranged marriage. Since, I was working with Newspaper I  used the matrimonial page of the paper. Covered it with tissue so you get a few words from the ads in the background. But this whole concept of half truth, revealing only some information and the tissue being the metaphor was what i used for this work. Also both the man and woman in the ad are pure, white, clean and as good as they can be. But is that the truth! Who knows!

7th March '11- Miss Grumpy- Work in Progress

So I wanted to try something similar but something different. I wanted to use newspaper as canvas but make it sturdier. So I did manage to make it much tougher and stronger. Also for the Imagery I wanted to use cloth. Just took awhile to figure how the cloth flows and how to make it stay! Well, this is a work in progress, currently it is drying as i doused it in glue! I don't know if it will improve or completely kill the girl but we will see. Will put up final pictures once it is dry!

31st Jan- 5th Feb- The Tarpaulin Princess- Kala Ghoda- 5th of Feb, 5pm

Day 1- 5th Feb, 2011, Kala Ghoda
5pm to 6pm
BLUE
DREAMS OF WATER/ATLANTIS- Transparency

The Tarpaulin Princess
This is a game/ search.

Basic Premise -Two People- A Boy and a Girl (Tarpaulin Princess) have to look for each other. They don’t know each other, they are both wearing clothes made out of blue tarpaulin (dressed from head to toe in blue) and having imagery/portrait of the other person (will be embroidered with offwhite textured cloth and bindis) as hints on their clothes. Using these clues, and with the help of bystanders/people at the fest they have to try and look for each other. Meanwhile,since its the blue day at the street art section, they may get trapped and confused by all the blueness and they may or may not find each other.

The Concept-You have this image of a person you have been looking for, you go through life looking for the person through this picture that you have created. You find people who are close to that description and sometimes you find exactly the person you are looking for. Sometimes you get a glimpse. It’s this game of love or our idea of love these days. We are so sure of what we want that we get unsure when we find it. So this playful game of looking for each other in the street is what I’m interested in as a performance.

The Material-I work a lot with this material Tarpaulin- it is this particular blue that I associate with Bombay. I use this material as a canvas and paint on it using off white masking tape and bindis to create the imagery. So this creating clothes made out of tarpaulin and using simple characters is a natural progression from working in 2d to 3d. And this game is just a fun way to add some blue at Kala Ghoda.

So Please come to Kala Ghoda on the 5th of Feb, by 4.30, the performance starts at 5pm. Come look for the Tarpaulin Princess. Be a part of her search. Let her find what she is looking for or not :)

21 Dec '10- The Family Portrait

I was up early morning and thought I'd shoot something as the light was nice. I began shooting some cloth turbans and then i just wanted to make faces out of them. So i stuck on some bindis and laid them out and they looked so cute. Want to fill one entire wall with these turban figures! Would be so much fun heheh and mental. Aren't they cute?

17,19th Dec '10- My Red Lips Tell A Story

Why The women? Why the red lips, Why the bindis? All these questions I have to constantly figure and answer. When people see some of my work they see this feeling of shyness, timidity, self-consciousness that comes through but at the same time there is a hint of boldness, some sort of provocation, something that wants to breakthrough. And I see it too. Gauze, masking tape, lace all white pure, fragile, easily contaminated are the materials I’m interested in. When I work with these materials there is always a need to break out, to push over with red or a colour or be bold but in one streak. Not completely aggressive but you can see there is provocation and rebellion and non conformity. With this particular series of works I’m going to explore the relationship of mine with this contradiction between shyness and provocation that plays out in my work.

Ive been thinking about doing this shoot for awhile. But couldn't think of who to shoot and was slightly afraid it would look too scary. Well, this weekend i was out of town with friends and I had my camera, and some fabulous, amazing willing friends who were game for a 20 minute photo shoot. It all came together and I'm pleased with the results.

As this was an impromptu, flash shoot I dint get to explore too much but I know I want to continue this path. I have some more ideas and I will soon implement it and put it up.

17 Nov '10- Mr. Eggshells

Although I started this almost a month back, I finished it today. I took eggshells and crushed it and stuck it, now this piece takes at least 3 weeks to dry completely and  it was interesting to see and not touch coz its glue. The glue along with the egg shells makes the piece quite heavy. I decided to stitch the outline and give it bindi features to complete it.

2nd & 3rd Nov '10- Meet the eggs!

I wanted to stitch on the tarpaulin for awhile but yesterday i couldn't find the wool that i got so i used thin thread instead. The thread doesnt make it impactful but the threadwork in always a tedious job. Stitching was amazingly therapeutic. So, I went on  to create some features of the eggs keeping it simple.

18 Oct- Work in Progress

This is completely a work in progress. It was just experimentation to figure the material. This process takes time as it takes upto 1 week for it to dry! So a few more works in line.

This week is a busy week for me so may not be able to put work everyday but next week will make up for it by working twice daily!

13 Sept- Hanging shorts!

Story is quite simple, I cut some jeans into shorts, dint like the shorts, was going to dispose them till I decided to use them. So, I taped the entire thing. Now, that takes time and concentration and  less air coz otherwise the tape sticks more! So while a few hours, the entire shorts were masked. Then I worked on the pockets with bindis which was the main aim of doing this exercise. Ended it with a hanger as a frame and its quite apt. Plus, since Im interested in working with hangers too- it fits. I like the way this piece has evolved. May do a series of it.

12 Oct '10- Hanging!

Ive been wanting to use hangers for awhile. To hang things with it but also use it as a frame. So, I tried just using it with tape and then messed around with it. I also did another piece which i haven't put up yet. I like the idea of incorporating then hanger in the art piece.  The second work on paper, just tore some paper and stuck it together, may put that on a hanger to complete the piece.

29 Sept '10- Getting bigger

I suddenly felt like drawing a face with a big mustache and highlighting it. I did a trial one on paper with red bindis but then i ran out of red bindis. Then i decided to go bigger, using a bigger size of tarpaulin but the same approach. The eyes were a last minute touch. Still not completely sure of that but it makes the moochi man more concerned about the growing mustache!