Arty Party!

Alright so I've been sick and lazy and not venturing out into the world - instead I've been hiding at home and trying to write a poem a day for the month of April but I digress. There was this event I really wanted to check out but it coincided with Easter and so I couldn't go. I did the next best thing and asked a friend to guest blog this one for me - which is a good idea I think to have guest writers instead of me rambling on :) So cue in Jai Ranjit aka Zaiu..

Being Easter Sunday, Rochelle was being the nice girl that she is, and spent the day doing Easter-y things with the family. Since she couldn’t make it to the event I’m about to tell you about, she asked me to fill in for her. I’m not kidding when I say that I clapped my hands when I said “Yes!”

Mumbai has been a center for the arts for as long as one can remember, and this is something Visual Disobedience is constantly looking to reinforce. This Easter Sunday was another wonderful example of just that, with the second in what hopefully will be a monthly series of art markets called Arty Party.

I’m an artist, and a member of the artist collective that is Visual Disobedience, which has been nothing but supportive of all of us, Mumbai-based or not. I was invited to become a participating consultant for Arty Party, and it’s something I've definitely loved doing.

This time round, we chose House Of Tales, a gallery space in Mumbai’s art district of Kala Ghoda, and teamed up with Insia Lacewalla’s Small Fry Co. to join forces in presenting the city with an Arty Party full of art, food and alcohol.

The food was great, ranging from burgers and hot dogs from Yellow Box to Cinnamon treats from Icing On Top, to the quintessential Mumbai icon that is the gola from Gogola and lots more. The alcohol came courtesy the wonderful folks at Indian Wine List and HipCask, with the fresh brewed beer from Gateway.

Across the gallery from the food was the space we earmarked for the art (all affordably priced, mind you), which included paintings (handmade and digital) by Vikrant Shitole, Avantika Mathur and Oorna Dutta, prints by me, Priyesh Trivedi, Harshvardhan Kadam, Sachin Shetty, Somdutt Sarkar, Neethi Goldhawk and Saumin Patel, hand-painted lamps and prints by Vandhana Rajan Swamy (Jellyfish), photographs by Parizad D. and Vikas Munipalle, and enamel works by Ishita Savla, plus earrings by Ayesha Kapadia and calendars and posters by The Doodlers.

With all the art already on display, we had The Postcard People bringing a little bit of creative mystery to the space with their “Postcard From A Stranger” project. You’d be greeted joyously by all three of the lovely ladies from The Postcard People, asked to draw something on one postcard and write your own address on another that’d already been drawn on without seeing the design. The idea? That once the event was over, you’d get that postcard with the unknown design in the mail, bringing a smile to your face through the joy of a stranger. I made one, and it was an amazing feeling to create something that I had no clue who would get.

As always, we at Visual Disobedience want more and more people to learn about what it is that we do, and why we do it. To this end, we make sure to include talks and demos in every edition of Arty Party, and this time we had Ahmed Sikander do a cartooning demo, I did a shoe-painting demo and a discussion on Street Art between Harshvardhan Kadam (Inkbrushnme) and Sachin Shetty (Drift).

After all these arty activities had enthralled the audience, we dove head-first into the much anticipated Pub Quiz. With 7 teams participating in the elimination round, we saw some hilarious answers. Once the finalists had been chosen, the battle truly began, with Kruthika Bangera and Astha Mehta coming out on top with a miraculous jump from 0 to 130 points just in the final round, beating everyone out of the water to win the Pub Quiz Hamper of a print by Neethi Goldhawk, a portable phone charger and a pair of fantastic headphones. While personally I had no idea about half the things being asked, the one question I did know the answer to, none of the participants knew! (The question was “Who played Chewbacca in the original Star Wars trilogy?”, and the answer is Peter Mayhew. I only mention this because nobody heard me when I yelled it out from the other end of the room where I was manning the cash counter.)

All in all, we are really happy with the response our artists got, especially our brand new photographers : Parizad D. and Vikas Munipalle. The wines and beer were fantastic, and the folks from IWL and HipCask even more so. They more than took care of all our artists and visitors, and made Arty Party a fantastic place to be when breaking the fast for Lent.

We’re hoping to do an Arty Party every month if we can, or at least as often as possible so that we get to share as much art as we can with all of you. If you missed Arty Party this time round, come next time and take home a piece of art with you! 

Gallery hopping in South Bombay

It has BEGUN!! I left home by my lonesome (Dad dropped me to the station no biggie) to go to my first gallery hop with my new friend Jai. 

Getting on the Virar local even on a week day at non-peak hour can be pretty daunting, at one point I found myself straddling an unsuspecting uncomfortable 4th passenger on a seat that can comfortably only seat 3 while I made way for others to get off the blasted train. 

Soon upgraded to 4th passanger status, I rested my one butt cheek on that shiny seat, put on my headphones and let Whitley allow my mind to drift. 

What a nice way to begin my initiation into the art scene in Bombay - we start the hopping at the Chemould Contemporary Art Gallery, an exhibition titled Aesthetic Bind | Floating World. This is a beautiful airy space and the curator Geeta Kapur was very amiable when explaining the reasoning behind the artists/works chosen to be displayed. Since this was part of a tour I got to take a few pictures though I'd recommend heading to the website and taking a looksey for yourself, it would be better than anything my camera phone may have achieved. 

Second on the list was the infamous Jehangir Art Gallery - the featured artwork was more on the traditional side of things with a number of paintings and sculptures depicting deities and freedom fighters. The upside to this art gallery (for me) is it's closeness to Cafe Samovar which is a food loving art lovers haven. 

Third was Project 88, a beautiful neat space that housed the delectable work of Sandeep Mukherjee. The exhibition is called Traces and Tears and I would highly recommend giving it a twice over. 

Next place (Fourth) was the simple and unpretentious Mumbai Art Room, a small intimate space that made me feel very much at home. The exhibition featured the work of Scott Myles - titled 'The Meaning of Return'. 

Fifth was Sakshi Gallery featuring the fearless and brutally honest work of Krishen Khanna, a very prominent Indian artist. On one of the walls adorning his art was a poem titled - The Voyage of Migration. Had I known that I would not be able to find this poem anywhere on the interwebs, I would have stood there and written the whole thing out it was SO beautiful and so close to home. 

Sixth and last on the list but not least by any account was Chatterjee & Lal - the exhibition is titled Voices from the Chamber and features a slew of artists who work very cohesively together. My favourite from this collection is Nityan Unnikrishnan whose drawings/paintings are very evocative and captivating.

The Gallery Hop is something that Jai does every Thursday and I'm told it can sometimes be combined with a bit of a food hop as well - because strolling through all those galleries can certainly work up quite the appetite. 

If this is something that may interest you, shoot me a message and I'll give you more information. 

Here are pictures of the doors of the galleries we visited today - :)

                                 

 

                                 

House arrest

It's Holi and I'm staying home peering out the window which is exactly how close I want to be to the action.

Mum is feeding me jaggery and coconut treats and I am sipping on my rose tea trying to map out my adventure with this city.

Google has been very very helpful already, I've stumbled upon The Poetry Club and on reviewing their notes, this particular poem has jumped out and made me smile :)

WHAT IS MUMBAI TO YOU? by FAIRY DHARAWAT

The city that never sleeps

Is a place we call home

It has a bleeding heart

And may have lost its soul

Simple and succinct and pretty much how I feel at the moment but I do believe there is order in chaos and just because I don't know the system doesn't mean I get to thrash it :)

For information of events and going ons in this vibrant city the two following sites were really helpful and comprehensive: 

1. Burrp Mumbai

2. Times City

I've got something nice to look forward to and start my artistic journey with but I don't want to give too much away just yet so let me leave you with this piece of art. Just a little teaser of what is to come: 

Something is happening

It has been less than a month since I landed in the Motherland and already my feet are itching for discovery. I am a self proclaimed poet/writer/artist and having not been to anything remotely artistic for 3 weeks now the withdrawals are horrific. I have uncurled from foetal position while drowning my afflictions on a beach somewhere in Goa and having once again re-returned to Bombay I am ready to try everything twice. So here I am humbly offering up my curiosity and espial for you to share/create and dialogue.

Wherever there may be art in Bombay, I want to find it. 

First things first - I have heard of The Big Mic, Caferati @ Prithvi and Tall Tales Storytelling, very eager to check them all out and...

Secondly I would also love to feature local artists on here this humble blog. 

So lots of hopes but mostly a deep deep desire to be enveloped in Art's creative embrace. 

Much love, 

Rochelle.