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Event

Attend: ‘Noise Life’, sound and video exhibition

The Desire Machine Collective will unveil their first solo exhibition in India this evening at the Max Mueller Bhavan, Kala Ghoda.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

This evening, the Goethe Institut/Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai and Project 88 will host Desire Machine Collective’s (DMC) first solo exhibition in India. Noise Life is DMC’s new video and sound work, historicising the representation of Assam. In it, the artist duo engages French philosophers Gilles Deleuze and Felix Guattari’s term ‘schizoanalysis’, which privileges empirical sensation and intensity over meaning.

More personal than other works by DMC, the piece points to excessive states of perception occurring in exceptional experiences of blindness or deafness. The work overwhelms the viewer with a chaos of sensations, and attempts to convey how we make complex sense of our lives and express our experiences.

While the videos will be displayed at Project 88, DMC continues their engagement with schizoanalysis at Galerie Max Mueller by using hundreds of photographic works of a single motion to create the illusion of movement. Additionally, Alt-rock band Digital Suicide will perform at Galerie Max Mueller at 6.15 pm during the opening.

Head to Galerie Max Mueller, Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Mumbai, Kalaghoda, at 6.00 pm, and 7.30 pm at Project 88, BMP building, NA Sawant Marg, Colaba.

(Picture courtesy DMC and Max Mueller Bhavan)

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Do

Two events to liven up your Monday

Mondays start the working week, but there’s no reason you should have a sombre evening. Pick from two events today.

Yes, Mondays sure are a painful day of the week to go through, but why not set the stage for a cheerful Tuesday with some dance and art? Today, two events – one on classical dance from Assam and the other, an art showing at Colaba, are worth checking out.

#1: Sattriya: Classical dance of Assam

India is home to some exceptional forms of dance, with each state boasting of it’s own kind. On October 28, Dr Sunil Kothari will give an illustrated talk on ‘Sattriya’, the classical dance of Assam, with excerpts from a DVD on the Sattras, or Monsatries, on Majuli island on the banks of the river Brahmaputra, at Jnanapravaha.

The Sattras have been practicing a form of devotional dance for the past 500 years, written and directed by the 15th century scholar and the Neo-Vaishnavite saint Sankaradeva. He propagated ‘Eka Nama Sharan’ and his dance drama from ‘Ankiya Bhaona’ has morphed into a classical dance Sattriya, which is now recognised as the eighth Indian classical dance form.

Dr Kothari will be accompanied by Prateesha Suresh, an exponent of Sattriya to perform the salient features of this rare form.

Padma Shree and Sangeet Natak Akademi awardee, dance historian, scholar, author and critic Dr Sunil Kothari, is a former Dean and Professor at the School of Arts and Aesthetics, JNU, New Delhi. He has authored several books on dance including ones on Bharatnatyam, Kathak, Odissi, Kuchipudi and New Directions in Indian Dance. A Fullbright Professor, he has lectured at several universities in India and abroad.

Head to Jnanapravaha, Queen’s Mansion, 3rd Floor, Ghanshyam Talwatkar Marg, beside Cathedral Middle School, Fort. The event starts at 6 pm. Entry is free but on a first come, first serve basis and seating is limited. Call 022 2207 2974/75 or look up www.jp-india.org.

#2: Solo showing: Perceptions from the Precipice

marriage of fishes, gopikrishnaKerala-based artist Gopikrishna’s solo show titled Perceptions from the Precipice opens at Art Musings, Colaba, today.

The paintings are in oils and watercolours, where humans and animals interact together in a mythical space born out of the artist’s imagination. A storyteller at heart, Gopikrishna paints vivid scenes with his mythical creatures and characters and the effect is as mesmerising as pages from any fairytale. Myriad hues combined with fluid but defined forms add a dimension of surrealism to these works. The ordinary and the impossible, unity and solititude, illumination and darkness, all come together in a seamless harmony in the series.

The works were painted in a two-year time span, between 2011 to 2013. According to the artist, “This body of paintings represent what has been glimpsed, experienced, memorised and realised through this period. Life, as always, has been a traverse through pinnacles and ravines. Paintings thus born bear evidence of the secretive existences perceived from the precipices of life. They reveal a state of timelessness as unaffected by the bangs of the time-bound. They see out the spiritual fibres deeply hidden in the structure of the life-forms.”

The show opens on Monday,October 28 and goes on till December 5.The artist will be present at the opening. Catch the showing at Art Musings, 1, Admiralty Building, Colaba Cross Lane. Call 022 2216 3339/2218 6071 for details.

(Compiled by Medha Kulkarni. Pictures courtesy www.jp-india.org and artmusings.net)

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Guest writer

Mumbai is my lover

What makes all of us fall in love with this city? And is there a simple answer to this question?
Purva Desaiby Purva Desai

I’ve often wondered what’s kept me stuck to a city like Mumbai, to the point where I’m hostile about the idea of moving any place else. Wherever I go, I invariably begin to compare it to Mumbai.

Maybe I got Bombay-genised long ago, in the days when we partied till 5:00 am and going to J49 toh boss banta hi banta tha. I can’t pinpoint and explain to perplexed lovers of open spaces and believers of a quality life that for me, this is the best place to be. They keep asking ‘Why?’

Why? Because of everything. Terminology, food, places, people…I can go on and on.

I’ve observed on my travels that I’m a hopeless homesick who finds something missing in most places and which I feel Bom-Mumbai has – a vibrating, pulsating, encompassing heart!

I find it in the midst of a flood when the whole city is swimming and strangers parade in complete darkness, holding your hand and singing songs to cheer you and ensure you reach home safely.

I find it in the midst of a terrorist attack where the whole city marches courageously to Colaba to show that we love one religion: humanity.

I find it at a cricket match at Wankhede Stadium where everybody is cheering Sachin Tendulkar – then there’s no Gujarati, Maharashtrian, Punjabi, Sindhi, Parsi. We all belong to one caste. And when the whole city is out on the streets, celebrating and cheering till the wee hours of morning.

food in mumbaiI find it in the food – in the vada pavs, dabelis, pav bhaji, sev puri, ussal, missal and bhajjiyas. Here aloo pyaaj becomes kanda batata.

I find it in people even though you live alone – no one can be a stranger here. Your tai, bai, dhobi and bhajiwallah become the friends you talk to daily.

I find it in the chaos- the fast pace, lack of living space, the hurry to catch that train or run after that BEST bus. But in the end, you’ll always make it.

I find it in an autorickshaw where you are safe and secure in the hands of a rickshawwallah even at 2:00 am. Never mind his spitting (mostly paan) or the race he’s having with the BEST bus. Ignore that and you’ll survive.

I find it in Colaba where you realise that Shantaram makes you see the place in a whole new light and you wonder if foreigners know Mumbai more than you do. Maybe they do…heavy rain in mumbai

I find it on the streets where Zara, Forever New, Mango, Ann Taylor and FCUK all come under one roof for cheap – it’s surplus but still ORIGINAL.

I find it in the bars, clubs and restaurants where you’re as valued as a Bollywood star or celebrity.

In the end, maybe I’ve said too much or maybe I have not said enough. I can make endless comparisons, use metaphors, similes and give ‘hajjaar’ explanations, but the realisation is always one and always the same – I’ll have an eternal love affair with this city.

More things to love about Mumbai:

Purva Desai is an entertainment journalist with The Times of India (online). The Santacruz resident says she is up for anything spontaneous but that apart, she loves traveling, exploring different cultures and cuisines and meeting new people, apart from having a passion for yoga, dancing, reading, cooking and films.

(Pictures courtesy www.guardian.co.uk, www.bbc.co.uk, gulfnews.com, creative.sulekha.com, www.arrivalguides.com, blogs.wsj.com, winnersdelhinews.com, postnoon.com, www.indianaturewatch.net, kaapiandart.blogspot.com, www.buzzintown.com, www.desicolours.com, goindia.about.com)

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Hum log

‘The only obligation you should have is to your craft’

SA artist William Kentridge’s mantra is amazingly simple: he believes that to appreciate art, one just needs an open mind.
by Salil Jayakar

On a visit to India, South African artist William Kentridge and his wife were taking a walk through the lanes of Colaba, Mumbai. His wife saw a sign pointing to Tushar Jiwarajka’s Volte Art Gallery, where the artist and the gallery owner had a chance encounter. Jiwarajka expressed his desire to exhibit Kentridge’s work and the rest, as the saying goes, is history.

‘Poems I used to know’, Kentridge’s first solo India exhibition was showcased at Volte for nearly two months from February to March this year. It included ‘I am not me, the horse is not mine’, an installation of eight projected film fragments, a series of flipbook films, two large drawings over multiple book pages, fragmented sculptures, a large tapestry, and several prints.

Now back home in South Africa, Kentridge expressed his “delight” to have an exhibition in Mumbai. “I was curious to see how my work would be received in a post colonial country other than South Africa, outside the periphery of Europe or America where I usually showcase my work,” he says.  According to him, the reality of atrocities isn’t native only to South Africa or India. “Every country has had its fair share of demons to deal with. The core theme of many of my works wishes to drive home the unifying point of finding that elusive form of optimism amidst the disparaging gloom surrounding us.”

An artist, painter, sculptor and theatre and opera director, Kentridge’s work has been seen at the Metropolitan Opera and the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York, the Louvre and the Jeu de Paume in Paris, the Albertina Museum in Vienna and La Scala in Milan. He received the Kyoto Prize in 2010. Yet, for all his work with different mediums and formats, charcoal paintings are a favourite. “All my work is rooted in drawing, as a primary medium. I guess charcoal paintings would be a personal favourite,” he says.

Kentridge confessed that he has a limited understanding of the art in India and knows very little about India’s art world. At the same time he saw a lot of similarities between the work done here and in his home country of South Africa. As he puts it, “I am astonished at the range of work and the ambition of scale that is being done here. Having seen work by a few well-known Indian artists, I look forward to discovering more in my subsequent visits to the country.”

For artists worldwide who are constantly in conflict with people and religions for offending sensibilities or hurting religious sentiments, Kentridge firmly believes that an artist has no obligation to either. “Your art is your own and the only obligation you should have is to your craft.”

Finally, for the layman who has no knowledge of art, Kentridge has these words of advice, “Anybody can appreciate art. You don’t have to be an art aficionado. All you need is an open mind to embrace creativity.”

(Pictures courtesy William Kentridge)

Categories
Diaries

Of 10 million invisible children

Unknown to mainstream society, an entire generation of construction workers’ children is growing up without an education or familial support.
by The Editors | editor@themetrognome.in

Part III of the ‘Little People’ series

‘By 2025, more than half of India will be urbanised. Our fast growing cities are built by millions of poor migrant labourers who live on construction sites with their families and enjoy hardly any of the benefits of India’s growth. Since both parents work, very young children are placed in the care of older siblings, or left to fend for themselves in the midst of the hazards of building sites. More than 10 million children live this way.’

– from a booklet by Mumbai Mobile Creches

We know there are children in slums. We know that our domestic help has enrolled her children in a municipal school. We see the little servant kid in the next building every morning as she walks a grumpy child, not much younger than her, walk her ward to the bus stop. There are others who loll about outside shops, drinking in the sights and smells of the city and scarpering off when asked a lot of questions.

Some children are truly invisible. Like the ones that are born on construction sites. They get left behind in a quickly-built shanty a mere walk away from cement mixers that do their thing, and these little ones’ parents put in a day’s work loading and unloading trucks, or carrying bricks up several flights of just-hewn stairs. What do these children do? Do they go to school? Have they ever been inside one? Is there life an endless blur of play?

Far from the eyes of the city, in the several hundred construction sites dotting Mumbai, the children of construction workers grow up in shanties, grappling daily with abject poverty and the many illnesses that come with dire living conditions. Rootless, shifting from place to place with their parents as one site closes and another one starts, these children receive no formal education and often start working at a very young age.

Colaba-based NGO Mumbai Mobile Creches (MMC) is probably the only organisation currently working for this invisible class of children, giving them an education and the upbringing that can help absorb them in mainstream society. The NGO runs day-care centres on sites that have at least 25 children on the site, and these conduct training programmes for early childhood development. “At any point of time, we have 25 centres operational. Last year, we reached 4,000 children,” says Anita Veermani, Manager, Grants and Communications, MMC.

At each centre, children are provided with basic lessons and three meals a day, six days a week. “Our nutrition programme is comprehensive – we provide medicines, multivitamins, calcium supplements and we have regular doctors visits also,” Anita says, adding that unhygienic living conditions and no access to proper medical care results in the children having skin and eye infections, and a lot of them have lice. “The children are often malnourished, they have worms, they have cough and fever and also a host of injuries,” Anita says.

A staggering fact is that construction workers come to Mumbai from 17 Indian states and two other countries, and most of them stay on for a period of about five years. “We try our best to reach as many children as we can,” Anita says. “But it is more important to get the mothers involved, and a bigger challenge is getting teachers. About 40 per cent of our teachers are women from construction sites who signed up to teach the children,” she adds.

“It is not always possible for each child to enrol in a BMC school, though we have had success on that front as well. Some of our children have grown up and come back to associate with us. Others have taken up site-related skills, like painting.

These children are not exposed to mainstream society, so they remain excluded from the benefits that other children receive. These families keep moving about so much, that even after we have trained the child and brought him up to a certain grade, he may not be able to join a full time school. Our endeavour is to see that they move up the chain, that there is some stability in their lives,” Anita says.

What MMC has done so far:

4,785 children reached

92 PAN cards obtained for the community

6 bank accounts opened for the community

6,233 incidences of illness identified

5,871 vaccinations facilitated

Diaries is a weekly series of stories on one issue. ‘Little People’ is a series of three stories on the education of underprivileged children in Mumbai. 

 

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