The Floating Magazine's Blog

An online indie publication, thefloatingmagazine.com chronicles the lives & works of contemporary artists & visual communication professionals from Asia & Middle East. On this blog, we write about our day to day musings. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Here’s our new interview.

Images curated by Chirag Wakaskar for Everyday Mumbai

Widely varied narratives of the city of Mumbai converge on Everyday Mumbai’s Instagram account, founded and curated by Mumbai, India based photographer Chirag Wakaskar.

The first ever picture posted on the crowdsourced platform of Everyday Mumbai, on 16th July 2014, was that of a young girl washing clothes at a small body of water; her hair flowing wildly, birds hovering up in the sky above her and a huge smile on her face. The essence of the city, which is often warm and gritty at the same time, is amazingly poured into that photo. Over the last two years, Everyday Mumbai has grown phenomenally in its scope, diversity and popularity.

The photographs, taken by many different established and amateur photographers, are carefully curated by Chirag who had initially started documenting the city on his personal Instagram account. TFM caught up with him to talk about his relationship with the city and his role as Everyday Mumbai’s curator. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/places-chirag-wakaskar-mumbai/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

PREVIEW: Artwork by Beijing, China based visual artist Alice Lin. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Check out our new interview with contemporary Indian artist Dhruvi Acharya!

Artwork by Dhruvi Acharya

Contemporary Indian artist Dhruvi Acharya builds incisive narratives on women in today’s environment, and layers them with delicious dark humor and surrealism. Her works are deeply personal at some level, and yet highly universal. She has an uncanny ability to distance herself from her own world and then translate it in her paintings with critical analysis and wit.

Right from her childhood, Dhruvi has been a compulsive sketcher and drawer. However, it was her move to the US to live with her filmmaker husband, the late Manish Acharya, that really drew her to painting. While acclimatizing herself to a new culture, she first found herself homesick and later, distanced enough from her home country to be able to scrutinize things that she had taken for granted so far. A renewed reading of her childhood comic books Amar Chitra Katha – in which Indian women are often submerged under expectations and stereotypical roles – also became a key inspiration. She did her Master of Fine Arts at the Hoffberger School of Painting, Maryland Institute College of Art in the US.

She is currently busy preparing for her solo show ‘After the fall’ which will be held at Chemould Prescott Road gallery in Mumbai from October 13 to November 19, 2016. TFM caught up with Dhruvi at her lovely sea-facing home-studio in Mumbai for a freewheeling conversation about her life and work. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-dhruvi-acharya/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Our new interview is up.

Photo by Hadi Uddin

While Bangladesh based Hadi Uddin creates ultra commercial works as a fashion photographer forCanvas magazine, his personal works reflect his sharp candor and emotional sensitivity.

His personal project ‘Here for Now’ is a portrait series based in Boirakhali in Rayer Bazar, which is located close to Bangladesh’s capital Dhaka. The project focuses on the heartrending aspects of migration, and the complex ideas of home and freedom. The black & white project ‘Longing’, on the other hand, is sheer poetry in motion. The scope of the series is extensive and highly intriguing. Hadi’s works have so far been exhibited at Chobi Mela VIII International Photography Festival, Photo Kathmandu, Dali International Photography Festival, etc.

Having spent a majority of his time in his photographer father’s studio, Hadi’s relationship with the artform started quite early in life. He eventually joined Pathshala South Asian Media Institute for a formal education in photography. We had a conversation with Hadi about photography and other things. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-hadi-uddin/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Here’s our new interview.

Xuan Loc Xuan dresses up melancholy in vibrant colors in most of her artworks, and the results are breathtaking. Xuan is a freelance illustrator based in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.

She studied graphic design at Ho Chi Minh University of Fine Arts, and started her independent practice four years ago. Xuan is a firm believer in the theory that ‘Life creates arts while arts change life’. We speak to Xuan about her life and arts over an email. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-xuan-loc-xuan/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Our new interview is up.

Artwork by Riyadh, Saudi Arabia based artist Eiman Elgibreen

Riyadh, Saudi Arabia based contemporary artist, curator and educator Eiman Elgibreen gives the adage ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’ a whole new meaning in her works.

One particular work in which she visually compares her veiled self to the universally acclaimed guerilla artist Banksy fascinated us the most. Her works, including this one, often use mixed media, contemporary viral imagery and traditional visuals in surprising ways to raise highly relevant questions about the stereotypes that hound Saudi women and its culture.

Over a few emails, we had a conversation with Eiman about her life and work. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-eiman-elgibreen/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Preview: Xuan Loc Xuan

Artwork by Vietnam based artist Xuan Loc Xuan. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Preview: Eiman Elgibreen

Artwork by Saudi Arabia based artist Eiman Elgibreen. Her interview will be up on TFM next week. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

New stuff!

Hey guys. Sorry for disappearing for a while. We were moving cities and setting up our parent company TFM Studio. It gobbled up a massive chunk of our time and energy, but now that it’s all done we can’t stop stupidly grinning from ear to ear. More about our new city, new makeshift studio and our parent company soon. For now, we just want to leave you with our brand new interview with the Tokyo based photographer Shiho Kito.

Photograph by Shiho Kito

Photographer Shiho Kito’s work often moves between the past and present, and amongst the places she calls home. Shiho was born and brought up in Japan, and found herself in a “foreign” land only when she traveled to Vietnam as a 20 year old. After this, she went to the UK to not only continue her education in photography, but to wholeheartedly embrace the English language. And then, a chance meeting with India as an exchange student led to a committed relationship with the city of Ahmedabad – its people, its past and its strange complexities. 

She is currently based in Tokyo with her partner and an adopted cat, and travels to the UK and India quite regularly. Her work, of course, moves along with her in every which way. Her project Pikari, for example, was planted in Japan and bloomed in India. I had a conversation with Shiho – who is also a curator and teacher – over Skype about these three places and their influence on her work, among other things. 

Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/places-shiho-kito-japan-india-uk/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

We interviewed Dubai based fashion photographer Tejal Patni

Photograph by Tejal Patni 

With vivid imagination and a unique vision of beauty and future, Dubai based photographer and director Tejal Patni is on his way to join the elite league of the best fashion photographers in the world.

Tejal was born and brought up in India and moved to Dubai in the 1980s. He graduated from Sir JJ School of Applied Arts in Mumbai, and later studied filmmaking at the London Film Academy. Over the years, he has worked with some of the biggest fashion brands across the world including Harvey Nichols, Bloomingdale’s, Caprese, and magazines like GQ, Grazia, Harper’s Bazaar, etc. The annual calendar he creates for the Middle East’s premium fashion brand Splash has been highly instrumental in getting him a much deserved wider recognition. And that’s not surprising at all because his sharp instincts, his inspirations and his unique vision – all come together on the stage of Splash calendar every year to give a spellbinding performance.

Over a few emails and a phone call, we have a conversation with the man himself about his work and life. Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-tejal-patni/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Posters by Yael Bronner Rubin

This is so special for us. One of our featured artists, Yael Bronner Rubin, created these lovely posters based on our conversation with her. And she has now planted ideas in our head to do something similar with our other artists. Check out the posters: 

Here’s another one: 

And another:

The last one: 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Preview: Tejal Patni

Artwork by Dubai based photographer Tejal Patni. His interview will be up on TFM next week. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Our new interview is up.

Can Çetinkaya is a man of very few words, but we’ll live with that as his portraits create a glorious whirlpool of stories that we find ourselves completely lost in. Can is an illustrator and artist from Ankara, Turkey.

Can studied graphic design from Dokuz Eylul University in Izmir, Turkey. Though he admits that his interest was heavily tilted towards illustration, and he tried avoiding the “design” part as much as he could. For his commercial works, he has created portraits of many popular culture figures like fictional characters, actors, authors, etc. Most of his personal work also consists of textured portraits of women, packed with deep emotions and often popping out of the screen like three-dimensional characters.

Read more: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-can-cetinkaya/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Our new interview is up!

Contemporary artist Yael Bronner Rubin was born in South Africa, brought up in Israel, and is now based in Hong Kong. Her highly diverse experiences in these places form an integral part of her work.

Yael’s work reinforces the idea of the ‘Places’ column so perfectly. Places, as we mentioned in our first interview, explores the idea of how the different places we experience – and the distances we cover in between – often play a giant role in our creativity. Yael moved from South Africa to Israel when she was about six years old. She finished most of her primary education in Israel (Hamidrasha School of Art in Beit Berl) before moving to Hong Kong to join Savannah College of Art & Design (SCAD) to do an MFA in photography in 2011. Her work often consists of vivid photographic collages to convey the diversity of her “transcultural life”.

Through a long Facebook voice conversation, we spoke to Yael about her relationships with the places she has been a part of and how they influence her creative work and process. 

Read on: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/places-yael-bronner-rubin-south-africa-israel-hongkong/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Our new interview is up.

Artwork by Esther Goh

This week we have Singapore based illustrator and designer Esther Goh.  Reality and fiction make great bedfellows in Esther Goh’s work. Woven with many different layers, her work often falls into the realms of magic realism and dark humor.

Esther has worked with agencies like AKQA in Shanghai and Kinetic in Singapore before she started operating independently. She now participates in a lot of group exhibitions and collaborates with different brands. Her work has been recognized by platforms like Cannes Lions, D&AD and The One Show, and by many creative publications as well.

Before any further ado, we’ll just let Esther tell us more about herself and her work through this interview: http://thefloatingmagazine.com/people-esther-goh/

[thefloatingmag-blog]

Preview: Esther Goh

‘Tsunami’ Artwork by Singapore based visual artist Esther Goh. Her interview will be up tomorrow. 

[thefloatingmag-blog]

LOOK: Huda Beydoun

In the second edition of our column LOOK, we have Saudi Arabia based artist Huda Beydoun: https://www.behance.net/hudabeydoun