Social Art in the Public Realm

I would like to start with why I got involved. After reading yet another forward on the art practices in the city, what really caught my attention with this project was the fact that it was about the city and would be within its streets (and not another galleries or studio). It took some convincing in figuring out why artists from across the globe ‘intervene’ the city’s streets with art practices that would sound esoteric to the communities in these pockets. I was still uncertain with the ‘fear and gender’ concept. So the best way to figure it all out was to go see for myself.

I met Ana and Richard on the 20^th of Jan 2009, at St. Mary’s Church in Shivajinagar, missed Liz’s mapping intervention due to some ‘permission’ issues. Was hoping to take Ana’s photo-mapping project, but she was still scouting for people and wasn’t prepared with the cameras. Richard had planned for a ‘Sound Mapping’ exercise, so since we were there…we just joined in.

Follow the leader….listen…observe…feel (the last one I added)!!

Auto horns, children crying,

Fruit vendors, a flute seller,

The flower lady

The butcher’s knife

A bollywood tune,

one o’clock prayers from the loudspeaker of a mosque..

All rapped up and thrown in together! Noise…or sounds.

We were asked to sort of follow a leader who led us through the tiny lanes of Shivajinagar avoiding contact with anyone- he specified not just to refrain from speech but also eye contact. “Just follow and observe the sounds you hear”.

At the end of a ten minute walk through the very busy market I caught myself making rhythms and music with all clutter-clatter around me. But after all the collection, there was no closure… I had just gathered sounds and voices in my head.. it was long before I let it diffuse.

Personally I’ve been in and out of these streets and they sound very much like any other market in the city. But there was something about the volume and intensity of the sounds. It takes you into a swirl and you can’t help but notice the increasing and decreasing of sound decibels from one lane to another.

I couldn’t stop the voice in my head that constantly kept updating me with my visual imagery of the sounds. We did share our responses with the group which consisted of Anoushka and Mrinalini from Srishti, me and Poornima. And of course Richard who was also our leader for the exercise. I found the process very interesting but couldn’t direct my ‘emotions and questions’ to any paved route. I felt we were left to interpret the process into our own vague abstract conclusions.

But then again this was my first day at the intervention. The Srishti students were initiated into it much ahead of us. So I stopped complaining and let my lost self gather the experience and save the questions for later.

Looking back now, I can tell you that the exercise and the unanswered have made me want to walk and observe very closely the sounds, its patterns in randomness. This makes me wonder what it was that Richard was trying to achieve through that process and my incomplete answer to that would be to ‘be aware’ of not just the ‘self’ but also ‘how’ the self maneuvers itself through the varied experiences in a day. And sounds to me represent the everyday elements that we consciously omit but unconsciously seep into our patterned routines.

Pallavi

from maraa

Disposable Cameras…

Connect…n click!!

Spaces that are safe

Spaces of fear…

Warm..n cold

Black or white…maybe just grey!!

The simplicity of the method which brought out the subtleties of the process excited me. The device was as simple as winding the knob and pressing a button. It was quick and easy to convince people in the local community to handle the camera and experiment with the process of capturing visuals of things/ people they felt safe/ fear with/ without.

Met Ana on the 20^th of Jan at Infinitea with Vera and Carolina when they met the Srishti students to discuss ‘ideas for Venue 2’. The concept of capturing ‘my public memories’ reminded me of an installation I had worked on in college the previous semester. The process left me with many many questions and I could not put it into an appropriate point of view. And in some way this brought closure to some of those doubts.

After two cups of Koshys filter coffees two days after a previous meet, Ana give me three cameras. One for myself and the other two I had the choice to give them to anyone I wanted to.

I chose to work around an area I was most familiar with, Kodihalli. A stretch of, say a kilometer en route to my house from the Airport road quite beside the very grand Leela Galleria.

Most of the people on this street have seen me dodge my way through the three-way (sometimes even four way) traffic of cows, fruit vendors, double parked cars, meat stalls hounded by hungry dogs with drooling jaws and over-flowing drains. The hustle and bustle of the street can intimidate a newcomer. For me, it is a place that I strangely feel very safe in; even to walk home at 11pm. Often greeted with an expected smile or an occasional stop to have nonsensical conversations about the filthy roads has kept me occupied during my many visits to the mallu (Malayalee) tea stalls and bakeries. Sometimes I feel even the cows give me a nod when I pass by.

I attempted to talk to a couple of them about the disposable camera project and tried to see how many of them would break the barrier of just surface conversations and allow me to take a sneak peek into their private spaces. I found most of them instantaneously getting curious and questioned me in depth about the concept and what I would do with the pictures. Many were excited about getting free developed pictures of family members and extended relatives and friends. But most of them backed out once I suggested that they take the camera and bring it back for me to develop it. I realized that most of the women were not sure if their husbands would approve of this; although they were very excited about clicking pictures of themselves and sticking to the brief I gave them.

Chintamaniaayi, an old vegetable seller who sits outside a temple, said her three sons might break it and was scared they would ruin the process if she took the camera home. (She also mentioned in passing that they would be drunk and their wives might not like an old lady showing off with a gadget). She did click a few pictures while I was talking to her…gave it back to me after 5 shots. And the men were reluctant, they said I could follow them and click pictures but they weren’t comfortable of taking it back with them. Feared it might disturb their business. I took the cameras home.

My little eight year old neighbor, Muddhamma, was very excited about the gadget. She learned to use the camera in just 5 minutes. Muddhamma stays in a tiny make-shift house in a vacant site beside my house. Her mother is a construction worker, who works all day at the upcoming plush flat across the road and her father works as a coolie (manual labour) for scrap-collectors. I’ve had several conversations with her on random things. She was quite curious about the process and was eager to play with this new toy that she had never explored before. The twisting and winding of the role, the sound of the click interested her more than actually focusing on an image. She told me I was to see for myself in the images what her story was… She is keen on seeing her pictures and I wish to soon give her a print of the roll. (Will post her reactions too)

I gave the second camera to my grandmom, she agreed but was too scared of using an unknown gadget (she fears the every bit of technology except the TV remote…very much required to shift her Tamil channels, Sun TV to Jaya TV). The reason I picked her was because I felt it was an important process for her as she never steps out the house. She fears everything that is the ‘outside’; she has mastered her daily routine and refuses any alterations. And I found that quite interesting. I am amazed at how she has found her ‘comfort’ and ‘safe’ blanket. Not wanting to alter it any way possible, she was documenting this herself…and stepping out in some way.

The third camera was for me…the process was exciting. Handling a camera wasn’t new, using a disposable camera was. Just as any other camera you would say. But I feel these days with the digitized SLRs, we have gotten so used to predicting the visual and manipulating the subject. Not that I do not enjoy that process, of course I do. These disposable cameras were definitely a challenge in the sense of not being sure of the result. And just the simplicity of the technique got me curious.

The brief was to ‘see through your eyes’ and visually document the things/ spaces/ people that make you ‘feel’ safe/ fear. I found the immediate connect working with the nuances of ‘emotions’ and it came pretty naturally. I did notice that there is a queer sense of ‘how’ a picture ‘must’ look and ‘what’ it ‘must’ include. Breaking these ‘constructed’ conventions was yet another highlight of this experiment that I wish to further explore and understand.

Another thing that I was glad with was the fact that Ana made it very clear from start about the representation of the works, the anonymity of the visuals during display. No names just credits for all the participants. Calling it a collective work and emphasizing the model of equal collaborators, organic as the project itself. We had roughly a week to experiment with the disposable cameras. After which it was time for ‘the’ presentation of ‘the’ works. To me the project was more of a ‘process-driven cum experiential and very personal’, so I was wondered how she would choose some and omit the others for the presentation. But then again it was a collective work of art!!

Exhibition at One Shanthi on 28^th Jan

Ana managed to develop all the rolls at G.K Vale on MG road,

Printed visuals

Red, pink, yellow..flowers

A clear sky with a kite caught between lines.

Poses of a woman against a bright shiny pink backdrop

Her wavy curls rushing through shoulders.

A coffee cup…half full or half empty?

Next image…a broken cup.

Images of a demigod

Thrown and hiding behind a fence.

A school bus

Construction workers

And that was what it was….a collective work of art. No justifications required! Narratives from the participants spoke volumes of their journeys through their daily routine. Fear and safety perceived in ways that one chooses to interpret them in. The perceptions that one takes from these images are as personal to the viewer as to the photographer. The concepts and ideas might merge in the visual journey. But that is something I feel only the visual can tell.

Pallavi

From maraa