Shiva ready for the ramp....really?

Homoeroticism at it’s peak. Blasphemy? Perhaps. The exhibition is long over (or maybe not) but a certain political group protested the showing and threatened to shut down the gallery. Now that cold just be another from of fanaticism in this ‘secular’ state of ours. But is this a fine example of chasing controversy that begets publicity? At the risk of sounding like a bigot, feel more like a reactionary art that ought to precede repute so your name gets emblazoned across headlines. While this collection may not have had that much of the impact or the repurcussion the artist might have wanted to garner, in all the seriousness that art entails, doesn’t it feel more like a sexual whim more than a representation of something divine? You decide.
I present, Dr Rajat kaanthi Dharr associated with the Ashish Balram Nagpal gallery and his “Shiva ready for the ramp”

In the artist’s own words…
For ages, we have perceived God in the forms depicted to us from generation to generation. Never questioning these
forms or the basis, as to ask, why they are projected the way we see them, for e.g. Lord Brahma sitting on a lotus, Lord
Vishnu with four arms, Goddess Durga presides on a lion. From childhood, I was not very comfortable with this idea.
We believe what we see through our eyes and depict what our mind interprets through our understanding of the world
we live in.
The God's depicted in our mythology could be superior beings from distant planets, scientifically millions of times
advanced in their technology. The same as we have even today. They were responsible and supportive to new civilizations
evolving all over the universe. Directing, showing them the way to develop and making them aware of technology in their
own godly ways. Their prime motive being peace and growth in the universe among the planets that have life. They used
to roam from one planet to another through their advanced vehicles.
Alternately there were some rouge aliens who were hell bent on disturbing the peace, who we named demons, or
rakshasha. Their motive was to gain control over these civilizations and rule. The logic says the God's,
(superior beings) helped the growing civilizations protect themselves from these demons.
I presume when the God's came to earth we were technologically extremely naive so when
they used to travel here in their space ships (vehicles), our ar tists of those times could
not perceive a mechanism so advanced like a space ship. To make the whole idea perceptible to the masses they gave it
the form of a lotus, prosthetic robotic arms as extra hands etc, and these forms continued being passed on from
generation to generation.
But today and the years to come where we have ourselves scientifically advanced, I think its high time we do a
logical makeover of our perception of God, so that the coming generation can relate to Him and the faith stays on.
Gods being a super being with superior intelligence technologically advanced so also friendly.
I believe, that someday we will become highly developed both scientifically and in our thoughts, looking beyond
planet earth and become responsible for supporting new life in some distant part of the universe.
My present series SHIVA “Ready for the ramp” is an attempt to portray the most powerful source in this universe in a
form, which I can relate to, as super being with gadgets which are empowering, and his pet the snake that symbolizes
a heart that loves every creation. Confident and strong sexuality defining the present generation perfectly, the
'Shiva' that every one of us has within us as us.

Turning exotica into a common thread

With an innate ability to weave the subtle nuances and textures of oriental music into movement, Veronica Simas de Souza no longer confines belly dancing to Greek and Turkish nightclubs. As archaic as that thought may be, Veronica or Veve as she is called, believes this oriental dancing mirrors the ''reality where women, as rhythmicpriestess, respond to the music.With a dance background that includes studies and performances in Middle Eastern, African, modern, ballet, and Latin dance forms, Veve’s inspiration to teach the dance came from her Guruji Sunayana Hazarilal from the Banaras Gharana founded by Pt Janaki Prasadjim under whom she trained for Kathak. "My unique, exciting and colorful dance style is the understanding of the very soul of Raks Sharqi combines with a world-fusion repertoire that ranges from samba to interpretive dance,” she says.Veve believes that art should transform. She draws upon her expansive movement vocabulary, wild creativity, goddess inspires spirituality and fierce courage to forge transcendent experiences for her audiences. About the dance form she says, "”I am committed to a powerful and truthful purity of the movement that is, by nature, ecstatic. This is a mesmerizing dance form that emphasise a lot on body isolation, intrinsic movements of the hip, belly and the torso. There's a lot of muscle control and you need a lot of body awareness. With belly dancing, you need to be able to study music and its rhythm. As you progress, it's almost like you can conduct an orchestra with the dancer becoming another instrument of that ensemble. It's about the proficiency of the music and the interpretation of the mood of the rhythm as well as the lyric.”The dance, popularly called belly dance has gone by many names. It developed through the influence of many different areas and continues its long process of development today. Recognized as a dance style of its own rather than it's exotic connotation, Veve has been trying to organize free workshops so people genuinely interested can get to know about the dance form and it's evolvement. Making her way to india the first time around in 2002, she says her decision to teach has nothing to the fact that Asian countries are booming and there's money to be had. “I was in Thailand before I moved here and I heard so much about the country that when I finally visited I just immediately fell in love with it. Dancing is a common thread for all art forms. And with the divrse classical art that is entrenched in this country, how could I not learn.,” she says.In between telling the auto rickshaw driver “Yahan se left, kuchh problem hai? Relax ” to talking about the transcendental progression of the dance, Veve says she has allowed herself to develop a new concept in dance awareness and meditation as well as her communication skills.Her pupils and classes include women of all ages and she believes belly dancing give everbody a tool that paves way for an opportunity to create beautiful movements. “It increases your awareness and forces you t understand how your body moves. Nothing is automatic and anybody can look great with the amount of grace it brings into your body. You become more beautiful.”In her own words, “The beauty is to perform the simplest of movements to the divinity of understanding the intrinsic rhythms of the body”.

Moments of consciousness

Defying the framework of conventional still camera, Vishwanath Math's "Moments of Consciousness" displays images captured from video clips to create graphic art. The displayed work include 40 frames of video installation and prints on archival paper.
"My current exhibition ‘Moments of Consciousness’ is a confluence of images captured from video and then imbued wih my own aesthetic expressions,"says the artist. He has experimented with video footage from his own experimental films and worked upon them graphically using photoshop to create these images and decided to call it "ClipoGrafee". Asked about the unusual type of work Vishwanath replies, "The images when layed on the time line, its thousands of subliminal frames transcend the threshold of the subconscious, beckoning our consciousness to make a final choice." ClipoGrafee has been established as a new medium of expression from the artist's need to assert himself.
"It is an exhilarating but ardous process. To finally zero in on one particular frame, one has to scan through thousands of frames; because on an average 25 frames exist in one second of video footage. Sometimes I have used 2 or 3 frames overlapping them to create one final image," says Vishwanath.
For him, art is an expression of oneself using various mediums. He has dabbled in multi-tasking as a commercial artist, photographer and cameraman for feature films, corporate films, documentaries and music videos providing him the requisite skills for his subjugated passions — photography and painting. He had a video installation for New York based artist Kim Sooja. This provided him the experience of working with international artists and the vision to pursue his own vision with fervour. Through this, he started applying his gained technology to infuse life into his works of art which has culminated into his current exhibition.
"Instead of using conventional tools like paint and canvas or a still camera, I decided to experiment and this new medium of expression evolved. I do not want to be bogged down by the limitations of any one medium. The world is yours to conquer and one can experiment," says the artist.
His exhibition includes a varied interplay of colours with the imagery. "None of the work on display is manipulated, rather captured in the moment to be seen in the context of the persons consciousness," says the artist. He has worked on this collection for over a period of three years .
Vishwanath has had several exhibitions and group shows but this is his first solo exhibition.

Although his response were almost monosyllabic, i kind of sensed some depth and sincerity in his voice. Also i received three documents (from his PR and himself) which contained the same material only with a certain variation in usage of tenses and first-second person response. He was also kind enough to send me an interview that someone else had done on him earlier. He also asked me to view his entire work and perhaps we'll talk more on it. Still sincere. Amen.

Equilibrium

18 year old takes on the art world
Maaria Sayed, the 18 year old granddaughter of former Chief Minister of Maharashtra, Mr A.R Antulay forays into the art world with her painting exhibition titled "A Raw Teenage Retina." With 46 canvasses to be displayed, she has worked on her paintings over a period of three years.
Medium of choice: oil, acrylic and charcoal.
Maaria drew inspiration for her paintings through the life she leads as a teenager and hence the title of her exhibition. Her theme for her paintings is her need to attain equilibrium as a person. She says the strong influence of religion and her firm belief in it has helped her find a certain balance which translates into her art, a few of which features writings in arabic.
Her paintings have been worked around five themes which include teenage dreams, women empowerment, standardisation of society, the environment and spirituality. Her paintings explore themes of ethnocentrism and xenocentrism through the usage of many colours and heavy texturing. What is unique about the young artists' paintings are the usage of wooden frames, each one of them different from the other indicative of certain obstruction that the artist had to face due to 'our cocktail culture.' She describes her work as 'raw, rugged and unfinished' and rightly so with uneven usage of heavy and dark wooden frames. "I believe that the painting is the soul and the frame the body," she adds. Each one of her rugged frames are uniquely designed in tune with the mood of her paintings. As the artist says, "My paintings would be incomplete without the frames."
This strong, idealistic youth first published her book "My thoughts at sixteen" when she was just seventeen years old with a grand launch by none other than Shobha De. "A Raw Teenage Retina" will be unveiled by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Maharashtra Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh at Blue Sea, Worli seaface, Mumbai on the 12th of April.
Speaking of her themes, Maaria talks about how teenagers should be allowed to dream and dream big without any restriction and be given the complete freedom to persue what they want. The need to confirm to ideals laid out by society only leads to standardisation 'due to which we crave our sense of identity' which brings us to her second theme. The 'cocktail culture' that she finely mouths leaves us lingering between the explorer and the curious side and the valued and stubborn side, according to her. "Diversity in unity...that's what we have now.." When it comes to her theme of women empowerment, she describes how women need to be looked beyond just being beautiful objects and women empowerment and expression in its truer sense rather than just the thought of it. Interestingly, her theme on the environment talks about how when we destroy the earth, we destroy ourselves and this creation of negative energy needs to be rid of. Harmony with the environment can only cause us to radiate the individuality that we all possess. for her spirituality is religion and it is with religion that spirituality lies. Her faith brings her closer to her roots adds she.
When asked if she had ever been trained or taken art classes, she says all that she creates are her vent to express herself which puts a strong inclination on all her work. Maaria says shes always been a performer and she won't do anything unless convinced of it. She's never studied anybody else's art which she adds can only limit ones ability. her entire work is her expression of extreme emotions, "i can't be running down the streets telling people what i feel...so i translate that energy into whatever i'm working on."
She's a normal teenager. that is if normal is being published at 17, galka paintings at 18, teaching spech and drama at Trinity (for which she is qualified!) and still manages time for her English Literature classes at one of the country's premier colleges.
Maaria's self confidence and warm nature is really infectious. I wonder why she has an extra 'a' to her name? well i'll just have to wait and find out on the 12th because 'lil ol' me has been specially invited to her opening!