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Showing posts from March, 2014

First National Exhibition @ Lalit Kala - New Delhi

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How one should react on a news that his or her work is selected for National Level competition conducted by Lalit Kala Akademi - New Delhi?  Yeah, I felt good when I received one mail from Lalit Kala Akademi asking me to send the original artwork for the second round of jury. But I was not so excited that time, for being shortlisted, as my mind was saying that it’s not a big thing. It might be because I did not want to send my entry this time. I send my work at the last moment with a thought that nothing would happen. I remember, one of my professors, ex HoD, department of Art Education, Jamia Millia Islamia, Mr. M.G. Kidwai, used to tell me that all these competitions are like winning a lottery ticket. Sending your entry just means that you are buying a lottery ticket and you will not win the lottery until and unless you don’t buy one. He motivated me  always  to send the entries for awards and competitions.  When I read this article in The Hindu, dated March 20, 201

Project - We Are the Lights, Within.

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Being born and brought up in a Hindu family, the idea that we humans carry the flame having the same properties of flame from God's big ' Hawan-Kund ' (Flame from God’s supreme sacrificial fire) was known to me. The imagery of the soul got affirmed from the 'Pauranic' movies of 70's and 80's in which a devotees' soul would be getting mingled with 'Vishnu' or some other deity. The Project - we are the lights, within , is the result of this affirmed belief that stayed throughout my life even though my practices changed from hard core religion to liberal self motivated spirituality. But the content remains the same; the purpose remains the same - 'to know who I am, what is the purpose of my life, what I am doing here etc.’ top: Origination, middle: Evolution, bottom right: Realizaion, bottom left: Actualization.  The final four images of the project - namely Origination, Evolution, Realization and Actualization are mainly the diff

Ukieri Workshop presentation @ HCU

'What they will Excavate in 12,014 C.E.' - Video Art Installation When I was working on preparing a portrait of the space I am living - Hyderabad Central University, two words came into existence in my Art practice vocabulary - Primal and Primitive, Which themselves are connected to my search for the origin.  The idea of this video started from the thought of making something big and permanent using very raw and primary material. The quest for permanent leads me to the entrance gate of university campus, where a big cliff witnesses every passerby. I thought of adding my presence in the record book of that cliff. So I made a drawing on that cliff with a piece of coal and video graphed the process. After finishing that drawing, I asked myself what will happen to this work and drawing after few years as urbanization is changing the rocky landscape of the city. Then all of a sudden I felt that this cliff can be the story teller of our civilization after 10