PROJECT 88 work

(Subhalakshmi text) /Image. (may go into main menu-still deciding)

Site visits.

Site visit 1

Null bazaar

Our first official site visit for Majlis work took place a few weeks back. It turned out to be a kind of "walkabout" as we very quickly realised that we are not particularly looking for our new images by just going to the site and recording instances and details to put into artwork. (Well all that is important, just not a priority anymore, as the project gets older)So it got quickly decided that this endeavour would be a familiarisation of sorts with the site.
This is my 3rd or 4th visit to the area...we walked through Null bazaar, but not before we had made our way from the Grant Rd station rendezvous, to CP tank then Null bazaar and then past the JJ flyover...to crossover to the east side...and going through Dongri near the central railway line, and onwards to Masjid. A strange Sunday-half open-half shut scenario playing out around us.

Busy market scenes interspersed with shut shops and cricket pitches in tiny by lanes.

I feel discussing the images, and work to do becomes important just after a site visit because otherwise for a visual project such as this, something that you noticed during a site visit or felt, is lost if there is too much of a gap in-between going to the site and doing a review.
Earlier, for the first few images, we used some photo reference to insert details peculiar only to that area or just objects in general and we shall continue to do so.

Unless it is an extreme case, paintings of null bazaar with building details of typologies of other precincts is partially acceptable if it helps the brief of the image.

We don’t think that is much of an issue.

There were two ways to go about making our images using the site directly:

To have some sort of brief for the image and a certain sense of the visual, then use the site to collect our data pertinent to that particular image or...a second way which became apparent only after we went to the site i.e., episodes at the site visit that inspired images

For e.g., a chance meeting with BMC officials telling us about the services and the drainage in the area, which led to image 8

We have anyways decided that a brief for each image is a must, so that all the images work within a certain framework for the overall lens that we want it to be looked through.
Our next few visits might be centered on meeting and talking to residents in the area...as we need more human interaction to begin in our enquiry, as well as our paintings
An effective archiving system which works to arm us with information to capture a rapidly changing site is virtually impossible. Too many parameters are involved. This representation may allow for new parameters hopefully. A painting to capture the mood of a place perhaps?

-Ranjit

Site Visit 2

Khotachiwadi:

this site visit was very specifically a site-specific, detail-collecting exercise as the brief of the image was already decided. All we needed to do was capture the toy land/ scale of the place and put in some actual architectural details for saurabh’s middle khotachiwadi strip.

 

Site Visit 3

labour market-null bazaar.

We could not arrange to live in null bazaar for a few days, as we had hoped to, but the labour market image was a high point in terms of site visits and feeling connected to a site.

Sometimes its very easy to be dispassionate about a site, and not have any sort of interaction happening at all.

That is just not possible with the gol deol labour market.

The crazy hub of activity on the streets where contractors pick up daily wage workers,painters line a particular street,as do plumber and marble polish machine-wallahs. The marble polishing machines are left on the hands carts overnight as it remains an informal parking spot of sorts.

All hand cart labourers are usually located at these nodes since the inner city precincts have very few roads wide enough for heavy goods vehicles, so these spots become pick up points for merchandise to be distributed within their own network within the precinct.

 

Site visit 4

Falklands road: with Kalpit Ashar

On our usual outings and site visits to the various areas, we are able to observe people and our surroundings without being disturbed

Kamathipura and Falklands road is different. The site is aggressive. One becomes aware of the surroundings almost immediately.

Sidelong looks, eye contact, sign language, gestures, motions, body language etc all play a huge role. You realize that, you are not the only one trying to just access the site. The site is trying to access you too.

There is a network involved in being able to move into the commercial /residential aspects of the main street.

Inserting oneself into this site is not an easy task. We approached a former student from KRVIA, Kalpit Ashar,who had done his thesis, titled DECODING OUR CODES OF CONDUCT An attempt to ignite a 'muted talk' in our daily practices ,

his site being in Kamathipura.

His building had a mixed usage of sex workers, restaurant, rented room, office space,clinic.All these programs were running simultaneously in the same structure. we were interested in documenting migrant culture and after hour activities. We were deciding between a diagram based on timeline activities to living conditions and habits within these areas.

 

Studio visit with sudhir patwardhan

March 2007

Sudhir Patwardhan gave us a very straightforward and honest critique on our work so far.

Over the course of the 3 hour visit he viewed our work as an artist having an art practice,

right from his initial reading to his detailed critique of each image.

He advised us to make sure that each image was “grounded”.

The image should survive on the basis of what it wants to say and should stand up to scrutiny.

The ideology of the image should be clear, and the overall vision of the image should be fixed.

The work should be made with a certain bias (which was always our endeavour)

A valid point was about how we should not be concerned with making art, but just concentrate on effectively explaining our imagery with our own set of concerns; and at some point, if the particular painting became an artwork, it was well and good.

Concerns:

He found some select parts of certain paintings, in terms of colour selection, to be “disturbing to the eye”.

He cautioned us to select a neutral palette and plan our colour schemes more carefully

He expressed concern over the “second reading” of, say an object in an image.

We read the initial object as; say a chair or a table. When we observe it closely again (second reading), what does it do for us, besides being the delineation of that chair?

He lauded us on our approach to image –making but cautioned us to take a stand when it comes to defending it.

G.M.Sheikh visit.

We took work to Gulam sir in Baroda.

He viewed our work and advised us to do more research on scroll paintings, and on paintings with multiple narrative structures, as in story –telling.

He liked the draughtsmanship of some of the work, but he said that in a topic such as this, a lot more work was necessary to effectively speak about a certain place. We found this concern agreeable.

An interesting angle which we had not though of was Gulam Sir telling us to keep a diary of how the three of us collaborated. He said that how we managed to collaborate and maintain a balanced working relationship so successfully was of immense interest to him as an artist.

We could not maintain that diary as he asked, as we showed him work just a few days before two team members flew abroad for further studies. But since we plan to have more of these collaborative efforts in the future, we shall pay heed to this advice.

(Chitra painting of studio)