Those Beautiful Hands turned 4 today!

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@thosebeautifulhands
Those Beautiful Hands turned 4 today!
Those Beautiful Hands turned 4 today!
Whitescapes
This is an Art Assignment inspired by Odili Donald Odita
Aim: to describe a few white objects in different lightings.
I chose to photograph a cotton fabric on which I placed - an origami crane, a set of earphones, a cotton ball, and pearl earrings.
I have always remembered my earphones to be completely white, (I would describe this white as a premium plasticky one), but when placed next to fabric, it seemed quite dull (and dirty!). The cotton fabric & cotton ball looked more or less of the same shade. But it was the origami crane that, when the surroundings were lit up differently, showed more drastic change in (perceived) colour. The pearls shone similarly in all the pictures, with very less or no change in the intensity of the shine.
After looking at the whites in different scenarios, I can’t think about the other objects, but if I had to name the colour, I would name the earrings to be “white sheen”, and cotton balls to be “white fluff”. Its more to do with the texture rather than the colour, but thats okay.
Cheers to the 50 Shades of White!
Kochi Muziris Biennale - Forming the Pupil of an Eye
Kochi Muziris Biennale is an exhibition of contemporary art that takes place in Kochi once every two years. This year they presented a unique amalgamation of 97 artists from 35 countries, spread across 12 venues, over a period of 3 months.
The biggest venue among the twelve is Aspinwall, where you start with, and can buy tickets. You are given a map, and need to get to different venues to see all the exhibits. Most of the venues themselves are old, picturesque heritage buildings. Spaces like warehouses, empty yards and old bungalows have been loaned out to the biennale for a few months. Eight of these were nearby (in a 2km range) and you can walk/cycle between them.
Visiting the biennale was an amazing experience. I witnessed various art forms – paintings, sketches, sculptures, audios, videos, mixed media, performance and participative pieces, and immersive installations with lengthy and complex narratives. And since much of it was difficult to comprehend, expect to run into anything- and be stunned, overwhelmed, or underwhelmed.
Some of the more vivid and rememberable, my favorite installations were:
1) “Calls” by Yuko Mohri – This Tokyo-based artist gathers familiar, discarded objects, and transforms them into kinetic-sonic installations. Taking up an appropriate white-tiled space, a former laboratory, these delicate pieces interfere with intangible energies such as light, wind, gravity, and electromagnetics, and fill the room with a gentle tinkling music. One can find bells, forks, glasses, horns, magnets, solenoids, ribbon, cloth, coil, all moving in response to friction and force. There is a Japanese belief that the departed ancestors 'call' on their descendants. Her work is a contemporary response to such folk beliefs and customs, by making the invisible visible and heard.
2) “Prime”, a sound installation by Camille Norment - In a room facing the sea, washed by ambient light and sound, is a series of benches playing recordings of deep, resonant voices which are humming tunes which seem raw, and pre-lingual. The hum causes the benches to vibrate. The seats face a wide verandah overlooking the sea. As you sit on the benches, you feel the sound vibrations in your skin and body- it is as though they are physically communicating with you, drawing you into their sphere, evoking something very primal and universal.
3) The much written about “Sea of Pain” by Raul Zurita consists of a large body of dark but shallow seawater that one needs to walk through. At the end of this stretch- you see a wall with Zurita's words. They recall the three-year-old boy Aylan Kurdi, whose image made global headlines in 2015 after he drowned in the Mediterranean Sea amid the European refugee crisis. As you read her dedication to Galip Kurdi, one of the unknown casualties of the Syrian war, with your feet immersed in seawater, you realize the reality of the war on terror and the loss of innocent lives.
4) “Tale of the god of the kiln” by Takayuki Yamamoto – In a dark room, lies the sculpted figure of a man lying face-up on a platform, with one arm outstretched- an artist presumably. He throws a small golden ball from his belly button every once in a while. This work becomes the avatar of an artist wanting to make money out of nothing. As if from his concepts and ideas he can make gold from air.
5) “The Pyramid of Exiled Poets” by Ales Šteger is a huge Egyptian styled pyramid, built with wood, bamboo matting, cow dung and mud. The pyramid is a tribute to poets who had been cast-out of their country for publishing their writings. Take a stroll inside, in the dark, and you can hear a chorus of overlapping voices – poets reciting their work, in multiple languages, as if troubled by the open!
6) “Dwelling Kappiri Spirits” by Gabriel Lester - This installation featured a tilted wooden room with windows covered with white curtains. The lace curtains seem to flow out of the windows, capturing a non-existent breeze, capturing that moment of time – like a freeze-frame. An accompanying audio/visual of waves crashing around in the background points to what has happened (a strong breeze blew through) and what might happen (the house may fall over). To add to it -inside the house is a forever burning cigar— an offering to the Kappiri Muthappan, the local Kochi deity that represents the African slaves that were killed here after the Dutch ousted the Portuguese colonial rulers. It is a seductive, trippy and haunting image and a space for remembrance, to recall the history that we now inhabit.
7) An exhibit of Kashmir photos by Bharat Sikka in Anand Warehouse: The warehouse – a dilapidated structure with the smell of spices wafting in was inseparable from the images themselves. One is overwhelmed by how far removed and alone the people shown must be, living in the war-stricken region. Kashmir presents such beautiful landscapes that one would feel blessed and well as unfortunate in staying there.
8) In an installation in TKM Warehouse – “Out of Ousia”, Alisja Kwade creates an environment that plays on our understanding of surroundings and reality. It consist of a two-sided concrete wall, a double mirror and a large glass, to chart out 4 quadrants. As you circle the work, the elements in each quadrant seem to bleed into each other, jumbling the perception of what is a verifiable object and what is its makeshift double.
9) All over the Fort Kochi area, I could see white walls, with paragraphs neatly hand-painted over them in black and red. Turns out that Argentine writer Sergio Chejfec is presenting pages from his novel –Baroni, in his tribute to Venezuelan artist Rafaela Baroni, whose work largely remains undocumented.
10) Samooha collective – a bamboo-based architectural installation which displays the nature of life, work and culture in Santhenagar, one of Mumbai’s largest informal communities. Animated with audio, video and large photographic materials, it explores the language, heritage, tradition and habits of the residents.
Each artist brought with them elements from their practice and infused them with inspiration from this setup, to create site-specific installations that offer beauty and wonder. Free from the commercial pressure of having to sell their work, this biennale gives birth to a different kind of artistic expression- which is why it is so important for us to step out of the more familiar museum or gallery spaces and view art in a different context such as this.
Just in case this isn’t already evident, I absolutely loved the Kochi-Muziris Biennale. It was really big and I had not seen anything like this before. Apart from the twelve main venues, there were numerous collaborative and student projects dotted here and there. And with street art in every nook and corner of Fort Kochi, it becomes one big open air art gallery!
Have been painting hippy cats and pretty houses this week... :) first one is acrylic on canvas and second is watercolor. Inspired by wonderful artists.
Moving to Bombay! We made a cute art map of Kolhapur as a farewell to the city.
How to make? We drew the map from Google Maps and then marked the landmarks and our favourite spots. Then we painted according to the natural elevation, forest cover, water body etc. Then we added the compass & cartouche to give it that ancient look. And done! Oh and just to clarify, when I say ‘we did this’, I meant I did the inspiring/ pestering and she did the painting.
Bird of Paradise flower.
Watercolor on 180gsm cold-pressed paper.
A gift for my sister!
Watercolor trials on the beautiful thick 180gsm I bought the other day..
The making of Lord Ganesha
Sculpture is a three dimensional art.Sculpting with clay is fun and challenging. You almost need no tools, only time.
I took about 500 grams of natural clay and shaped it using my hands. This photo show his first incarnation, no puns intended.
The fun starts now. It is also from here that the challenge starts, and it starts becoming time-consuming. I start adding little things around the main shape. Things like additional hands, tusks, back-drop for the crown etc.
I added the mushikam (mouse) in the end. From here on, its as many fine details as you can add. Later, I used a pointed wooden stick to engrave the decorative details. A picture of the final sculpture:
Dreamy illustrations are deceptively easy. All you need to do is Draw, Paint, Outline, Scan and Edit. Took me a total of 2 hours to make this beauty! Cheers to many more to come! If you want to get inspired, do check out my all time favourite graphic artists Vimal Chandran, Shilo Shiv Suleiman, Zen Pencils and Grant Snider!
I had bought a t-shirt on BITSians Day 2014, but the University logo was in just two colors. So what? I painted it!!
A Quilled Peacock.
A Peacock Panting.
I like peacocks. Aren't they just so glamorous?
Tatting - a craft for people with leisure
I say this because unlike crochet, tatting is very fine, very detailed, very delicate, and quite time consuming…although look at how beautiful a finished product can be!
This must have taken days and days of work! Just look and admire the neat trims of rings, and the teeny-tiny connected picot loops.
Tatting is an ancient form of lace making, originating from Europe, traditionally frequented by upper class ladies due to the enormous time involved.
Tatting consists of very few basic stitches (rings, picots, and chains). Once you master these stitches, it doesn’t take long to be able to look closely at any design and understand how it is done. There are a ton of devoted to tatting and a million patterns on the internet. There are many blogs on how to read patterns too.
What I did:- I’m typically a self-taught crafter. I picked up my mom’s tatting shuttle, and I looked up a few old books which she had. They were literally falling into pieces – and understood to go about the technique - how the picots join into the rings and create fabulous patterns.
I started with this basic edge pattern that I’d seen my mom making a couple of times.
After a few knots and errors, a beautiful trim of rings and connected picots emerged. After that first hurdle, it didn't take long to make a meter of this pattern, for a handkerchief.
The next thing I tried was this square motif:
My objective, finally, was to join a couple of these (~10) together to make a runner or something.
I found tatting to be a very fulfilling hobby - it is easy to learn (contrary to how you might feel when viewing the incredible complexity of designs that result from tatting projects) and there are a vast array of projects available to the avid tatter. Tatting designs are elegant and useful on many objects - doilies, runners, collars, table covers, handkerchiefs, pillow edgings, and many more.
There’s definitely a lot to be said about craft that can fit in a pocket! I think, sometimes, that if I quit my job today, I'd never be bored because I have so many interests! :)
Basic instructions on using a shuttle, and making rings and picots can be found here.
Go ahead, make the world a beautiful place!
Another wall painting. The eclectic tree. Inspired by Radiohead album cover.
Titled 'Mass of heads' I painted this on the wall of my room.
To see a video of the painting in action check out this video.