Tungsten

tungsten

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

OCT 2012 | ISSUE 01

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

FOR ME DESIGN IS LIKE CHOOSING WHAT I’M GOING TO WEAR FOR THE DAY. Only much more complicated and not really the same at all.

Robbyne Ray That pretty much covers it. Design is something we all argue about, bicker about, appreciate and generally criticize, as much as possible. And what the hell is alternative design anyway? Well even if you can’t define it and put it down to that one sentence that bestows upon you all the clarity in the world – we can always show you work – work done by artists in India or about India, work that aims to push beyond those traditional boundaries of art and design. So we give you the first issue of our magazine – Tungsten.

For all those bright moments and ideas – hopefully you pick up our magazine every four months and flip through it discover all those brilliant artists and projects.

Flip and disover.

CONTENTS

OCTOBER 2012

WHAT’S UNDERWAY 01 Libera Artisti With an upcoming graphic novel and tv series, Kishore Mohan talks to us about what’s underway.

DESIGN TURK 03 Seb Weilders (Shueti) A foreign artists’ interpretation of a beautiful and mysterious sect of sadhus in India.

HANDS ON 05 How to fix your life with Duct tape Fix heartbreaks, broken toes and books, all with the power of duct tape.

SPOTLIGHT 07 Green Hearts Explore art, photography and motion with Green Hearts.

SEVEN OF THE QUARTER 13 Pandarang R. A man with seven stories to put a blip on your radar.

THE GALLERY 15 Viewer’s paradise Four artists, one gallery. Take a quick sneak peek.

MY LITTLE COMIC 20 Kishore Mohan A comic every 4 months keeps you on your toes!

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

TAG ALONG 21 Hemanth Kumar (Bobby) Making music in every way, whether it be amps or soundtracks -presenting Bobby the guitar guy.

BLOW BY BLOW 23 The Deconstruction Project When, why, where, how. The design event of the quarter.

This installation cannot be missed.

FRINGE BENEFITS 27 Evan Hastings That little something extra in the design world to catch your fancy. Curtain calls and shadow play.

THE ODD BALL 29 BLAFT Publications Mad scientist experiments and truly inspired moments. Explore a new world of books.

OFF THE WALL! 31 Abhishek Choudhury If it was in the contents page, it wouldn’t be a surprise. Here’s a hint, its vectorlicious.

TIP OFF 33 Our Recommendations Don’t get lost in the wide world of the internet, take our cues.

WHAT’S UNDERWAY

RTISTI

LIBERA

A company that gives you three different art styles, animation, graphic novels, TV shows and so much more – Now that would be the simplest way to describe Libera Artisti, a company founded by three amazingly talented friends who decided to explore their passion for art.

Leaving behind the shackles of the corporate office, they went into making art full time – and if we might say so, they’re pretty damned good at it.

By Kanika Kaul & Mithra Murali

A

utopilot, the graphic novel is their brainchild and its origins start inside the confines of his car. Kishore Mohan describes his corporate job as “two very, very long years” at Technopark in

Trivandrum which he took to help pay the bills that playing a masked vigilante didn’t do. And to say his office was a while away was an understatement at 20 miles–it was almost a pilgrimage. And on one of these long drives back, Kishore almost ran into a buffalo trying to cross the road. Luckily, he missed. But this led to a train of thoughts about what would happen if he did hit the animal? The owner would be mad, what if the owner was riding the darned beast – but then again, who

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rides a buffalo? Then it struck, and in his words “There is one fellow from our mythology that rides on a Buffalo! Yamaraj, the God of Death!” This eventually lead to a story, it “became the story of the Suku, the hapless auto-rickshaw driver who ends up having to play chauffer to Yamaraj.” It was

Writing a graphic novel is an expression of personal artistic style.

much later that he finally sat down and wrote the whole story, but as each story has its beginning, this is the beginning of their journey towards finishing Autopilot and their lungi tales.

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TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

“LUNGIS, COCONUTS, and CRIME.” If you have read Autopilot, you must have come to adore Cocoman, the

research. Autopilot has ten issues, and right now, Kishore is working on

crime fighting mallu wielding his deathly coconuts. The artist tells us

the script for the seventh. “It’s going a little slow, now with the TV series

“The story starts off in an alternate Kerala where masked vigilantes fight

happening in parallel. Intellectual Property Rights is sometimes harder

crime and protect the civilians from criminals and strange monsters. We

than rocket-science for me to comprehend. Thankfully, our publisher/

wanted to design a set of superheroes and monsters that were coherent

producer Dragonmill is taking care of all that stuff for us.”

with this world. And who can represent Kerala better than a superhero who drapes a lungi like a cape and fights crime with coconuts?”

Kishore clarifies that it isn’t Autopilot per se that is being made into a TV

Conceptualization can be a bitch, and most often than not, everyone

series. The spin off animated series borrows Cocoman as its star and it

needs some good solid research – and graphic novels are no exception. A whole 500 days of research and development went into it, starting off with Kishore’s own sweat and blood, “ninja traveling across the state collecting data from the places based on

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Who can represent Kerala better than a superhero who drapes a lungi like a cape and fights crime with coconuts?”

which the worlds in the story are created”.

gives us their alternate “coconutty” history of Kerala. Jam-packed with all the tales that they couldn’t tell us in their graphic novel, it’s going to be a show to watch out for.

As they didn’t want to let it go and they just happened to have a fantastic team of animators in Dragonmill, the stories

Locked up in his study, he read up on historical events and made up

resulted in a TV series. But as we try and dig some more details out

some fantastic mythological explanations. Then the great war of the

of them – curious people that we are – Kishore resists our charms and

‘art-styles’ started, with Roshan and Sinu burning the midnight oil to

tells us, “It is too early to be talking anything more about the TV show.

develop a style they all completely agreed on.

Frankly, I am not sure how much more I am allowed to reveal right now.

Let’s just let that be a tale for another day.” That just seems that there

No escaping hard work then; although, the fact that they love what

are more surprises in store for us concerning the show!

they’re doing probably made one hell of a difference to all that

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DESIGN TURK

visual essentials

Seb Weilders (a.k.a.Shueti) is a filmmaker, born in the Netherlands in 1968H. He developed a passion for extreme sports and street art; later, he studied graphic design while taking photographs and filming his friends during his spare time. He then graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam.

By Kanika Kaul & Mithra Murali

S

hueti had the opportunity to meet and assist a variety of directors and artists from who he learnt a lot. His favorite teaching: you draw on your paintings, film as a photographer, photograph as a

painter. Shueti was notably nominated for his short film at the Amstel Surf Film Festival and also at the German festival NOFF, he also earned first place at the ART ON FOAM for Quicksilver, and won the Face-Off Video Festival in Los Angeles. As for now, through his films, he seeks to find new depth in aesthetics and to experiment with ‘new visuals’.

His mysterious surreal short film ‘Aghori’ (you can watch it on vimeo) caught our eye, and we tracked him down all the way from El Salvador where he’s enjoying himself currently – and pulled him away to ask him questions and crown him this issue’s Design Turk.

AGHORIS LIVE AMONG THE DEAD 3

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

How would you describe yourself? How did you get into film-making?

a sadhu and from there I became more interested in this mystery…

I try to definitely stay positive and try not to take myself too seriously.

dedication…it ended up with a tribe called Aghori. It’s sort of macabre,

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Have you been to India? How was your experience here?

I have. It’s crazy and beautiful!

How did Aghori come about?

When I was very young, my neighbor brought a magazine from the states.

It had the most amazing pictures of sadhus, it was mind boggling to see human beings in such different way

but dark things can be bright too if you don’t fear them. The Aghoris live among the dead...

Shai did everything without music.

I had even more respect for him as it was cold and the floor was wet, this made it worse and he scratched himself a few times on the sharp surface.

In brief, could you describe the preproduction and planning for Aghori? How was your experience on the set?

Haha well there was not really a set... nor a big crew. It was me, Steven Tips (the assistant director) and Shailesh (the dancer). It took me almost one year on

of life compared to what i was used seeing as a kid growing up in the

and off to learn the technical aspect, plus preparing and arranging the

Netherlands.I never forgot those images and it created an urge to see

trip. I was also the DOP, Producer, Editor, Grader and visual effects artist.I

more: I think that was one of the main reasons to start traveling. I met

wanted to have an serene emptiness an ‘forgotten place’ where the

Aghori dedicates himself to meditation and sitting in a trance flipping

Has Aghori won any accolades or been submitted to any festivals?

from reality to the unconscious worlds (hopefully it makes some sense.)

I’ve have just been nominated for the Dutch online film festival but to be

We shot it in a remote area of a desert, so we had to walk for a long time

honest, I’m kinda crappy at promoting myself. I still need to put some

with our gear and funnily enough, the speakers were broken. So Shai did

more efforts in that, I guess, and enter more festivals.

everything without music...I had even more respect for him as it was cold and the floor was salty/wet, this made it worse and he scratched himself

Do you travel much? Where all are you traveling presently?

a few times on the sharp surface.

YES! I love to travel and at the moment I’m in El Salvador.

How did you get in touch with Shailesh Bahoran, the performer? Could

There’s a Kumbh Mela being organised in India on 27th January 2013

you tell us about him?

after 11 yearsr in Allahbad city. Thousands of Aghori babas (among 60

Well, Shailesh is a friend of mine and I met him a long time ago

million+ devotees) are expected to attend. Any plans to be there?

in Holland, he was breakdancing in a mall. Our minds are very alike and

Wow! I’ll probably be working on a new project around that time but

he breaths dancing…apart from that, he is a very creativity driven person.

man, it would be great to be there…who knows?

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HANDS ON

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Stick ‘em up

For all those people with a ‘can-do’ attitude and a penchant to do some really weird DIY – SURPRISE! We have a list of some pretty strange things people have suggested as possible DIY solutions for various Toe Nail Fungus problems in life and they all apparently have one No one wants to see that nasty solution: Duct Tape.

Fly Paper Insects of the 21st century are

Do you need to make someone

thing. And believe me; people

well prepared for your fancy bug

believe you’re home when you’re

notice it no matter what you

repellents and other contractions.

not? Then this is your answer.

think. So do the only thing

The only way to go is to catch

Pick out some clothes you don’t

possible, get out some invincible

them completely off guard and

like and slowly wrap duct tape

duct tape and slowly wrap it

be old fashioned. Pull out the

over the clothes (using a bottle

around your toe. (Warning. Your

duct tape and place it near the

inside the clothes). Take out the

nail MAY come out when you rip

walls, the windows, and maybe

bottle and then stuff the duct

out the duct tape. Good luck)

on top of your head. And then

tape with cotton. And there you

watch the creeps get stuck.

go. A body stunt double to scare

Are you an inspiring home video

people with.

maker?

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Duct Tape Body

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

Nintendo DS Case

Cooler

Laptop Sleeve

Book Binding

Are your precious completely out

This particular DIY is brilliant. The

Laptop sleeves in the market

If you have a book that has a

of date games falling apart? Well

innovation is brilliant. You go to

are just not colourful and tape-y

broken spine, you can match

here’s a way to prevent things

your local thrift store and pick

enough. Use the pattern that

the duct tape with the colour of

from degrading the natural way.

up a cooler and then you figure

been illustrated and after taking

the binding and wrap it around

Use the strongest adhesive tape

out the measurements you want

measurements, make four duct

the spine. Not the whole book

known to man and save it. If you

your cooler to be. Then you make

tape laptop sleeves and stick

though. That would just be tacky.

don’t know how – oh you poor

your cooler as padded as it needs

them together. And presto.

thing. You take the tape and you

to be. Then you go out into the

You’ve got it.

wrap it around the case. And

world, and pretend you made it

then you slowly…oh wait, no,

from scratch.

that’s all.

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SPOTLIGHT

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GREEN { HEARTS

We have this one ongoing project where we send encrypted messages in our photographs to undercover aliens. It’s a big conspiracy, you know.

BY KANIKA KAUL & MITHRA MURALI

S

ankalp Agarwal might

make up their vast repertoire.

and creative individuals. We

& exploit its usage at the

blame it on the

And now this great group is a

were following each other’s

same time. It adds a feeling

extraterrestrials, but

whole year old!

work from sometime. So

of keeping everything real.”

his friends Ajay Koli and

when we created something

Their pictures though,

Siddharth Mate convince

So how exactly did they

together, the output was

border on surreal and Nature

us that it’s a passion. These

decide to come together?

grand. Then, a desire to

is their biggest and most

three IIT Bombay students,

When asked what made

do something big brought

loved inspiration, if their

collectively calling themselves

them turn to photography,

us together to form The

name isn’t a dead giveaway.

The Green Hearts, share a

Ajay says, “We study inside

Green Hearts. We needed a

“Imagine a being with nature

common love and fascination

a technical institution. So,

medium to express ourselves.

flowing through its veins. An

for photography: beautiful

as artists we are always on

A camera is like a toy for

amalgam of birds, trees, hills

framing and fantastic edits

a lookout for some talented

us where we experiment

and leaves. Its heart would be

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SPOTLIGHT

“NATURE. LIGHT. SURREAL.” green,” elaborates Sankalp.

science to that of art, but

a photographer’s friend’

around in the photograph,

First and foremost, this group

it’s quite fascinating that

to a whole new level. So

reach out to us, to affect us.

enjoys combing together

these group of artists aim

the planning not only

Seeing personal meaning

scenes of natural beauty and

to make a link between the

comes for figuring out

in these photographs isn’t

adding unusual elements

two. IIT is known for their

the practicalities – science

a particularly difficult task

to the photograph, mainly

vast and green campuses and

probably helps a great deal

as it does tend to bring

playing with element of light.

that space is perfect for the

here, but inspiration is also

out emotions in each

You can’t help but wonder

kind of work that they like

a big part of pre-planning a

if there’s a hidden meaning to these photographers that they are carefully planning to portray. But if your mind is wandering along the same

A camera is like a toy for us where we experiment & exploit its usage at the same time. It adds a feeling of keeping everything real.

train of thought you’ll have to figure it out yourself.

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photograph. One of the most apparent features of Green Hearts’ photography is a feeling of reality being blended with the vast expanses of the artists’ imagination. And to create

to bring out. Their portfolio

photograph. Nature would

this sort of mood, the artists

is a testament to their keen

probably be foremost on their

venture out with some ideas

When you put IIT and art

eye for capturing moments

list of inspirations, but they

tucked away in their creative

together, you expect some

that seem like they were

also derive from their day to

pockets. As Sankalp very

brilliant results. And these

suspended in time.

day experiences and music.

smartly adds “Sometimes

guys sure as hell deliver. The

According to the artists,

we just dig them up or fish

campus and the facilities they

But it’s not just science

music is a great influence

for them on location.” Who

have access to help to push

that gets them going. Their

“We want the viewer to

can argue with that? If these

their creativity and provide a

photography leans heavily

connect to our photographs,

artists never took liberties

good and highly inspirational

conceptual ideas and this

the kind of emotions and

with being creative and

working space. “IIT gave us a

needs planning and a whole

thoughts we have when we

spontaneous, we’d probably

very peaceful environment to

lot of inspiration. The

click a photograph come out

be looking at something

develop ourselves.” Science

photographers may look

as colors during the edit.”

devoid of the emotion that

and art are two different

entirely spontaneous, but

says Siddharth. And looking

is apparent in their current

but non-distinct aspects of

while dealing with light

at their photography you

photographs.

their being. And knowing

and nature, it needs to be

see what they’re trying to

the science makes the art a

recognized that they are

express in their photography,

The artists are also working

lot more enjoyable. We’ve

experimenting with very

you can see the remnants of

on another project called the

all heard of artists making

volatile elements. But they

a mood, a feeling, a song,

365 project, which is mainly

the transition from a field of

take the phrase ‘Light is

a place, a memory drifting

being done by Ajay.

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SPOTLIGHT

Where he takes one photograph every day, most of them being self-portraits. Both of the other artists, Sankalp and Siddharth also add to it whenever they have the time. The point of this whole experience to help evolve the artist inside and then take a photograph that still evokes the kind of emotion that is persistent with the kind of photography that they do on a daily basis.

To get inside the artists head a little, we got their reactions to a group of (not so) random words. For Sankalp, the word science associates to flying saucers. We’re starting to believe him about the whole alien thing. For Ajay, it means to understand the universe. How does that even exist at the top of your head while playing word associations? Sankalp links explosions and art – this completely feels like a future idea for a project. Was that a sneak preview? Lastly, Tungsten reminds Siddharth of “2.57 minute intro of Echoes”. Yes err. That was exactly what we were going for when we named our magazine.

To catch these great artists who were a pleasure to interview, you can explore their Facebook page ‘The Green Hearts’, the output was grand. Then, a desire to do something big brought us together to form The Green Hearts. We needed a medium to express ourselves. A camera is like a toy for us where we experiment & exploit its usage at the same time. It adds this strong feeling of keeping everything real.”

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TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

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LITTLE

STORIES

BY PANDRANG ROW

After years in the creative industry, Pandrang Row has seen it all and heard it all. And with those many stories bottled up, what could we ask him to do but DISH?!

What is a great man? The only

The first day that I walked into

When I worked at Enterprise,

A few months after I joined

one I’ve met is David Ogilvy. This

Ogilvy, Benson and Mather,

I think the only reward I really

Enterprise, I was hanging around

was in 1986, I had joined Ogilvy,

Suresh Mullick, the creative direc-

wanted was to see Mohammed

the agency late in the evening,

Benson & Mather one year before

tor caught me and gave me an

Khan smile. When he saw what

when Mohammed came to look

and was working in Madras.

aphorism that has stuck in my

he thought was great work,

at some ads. He took a look

David was visiting India and said

head; “An agency is a great place

Mohammed used to smile, laugh

at the ads and turned to the

he wanted to meet all the people

to learn . . . but nobody’s going

and chortle. Then he’d bounce

servicing guys, “What’s the size

in the office, but two and

to teach you anything.”

around the agency showing the

of this ad, guys?”

ad or line to everybody. It was

“200cc Mohammed.”

the ultimate reward.

“This ad is not f%*king 200cc.”

three at a time.

So Radha Mukherji, an account director with 6 years experience, Geetha John, our film executive and yours truly were shoved out of the office early to go to meet David, who was staying at Fisherman’s Cove. We were given dire warnings to be on time and when we got there, we understood why.

David Ogilvy, the man whose name was on the door of our agency, was standing – barefoot – on the stairs of Fisherman’s Cove, in his famous red suspenders. He was waiting for us – three wet-behind-the-ears freshers who had collectively spent barely a third of the time he had spent in advertising.

That’s humility and that’s the mark of a great man.

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An agency is a great place to learn...but nobody’s going to teach you anything.

“No Mohammed, it is Mohammed.”

“Bullshit! This isn’t f%*king 200cc – bring me a ruler.”

A ruler was duly brought and Mohammed measured it.

Sure enough, the ad was 5 millimeters too high.

I was amazed and it was my ambition to achieve that sort of ability to spot detail. And it was my proudest moment when I did achieve it some years later.

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

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{

I was amazed and it was my ambition to achieve that sort of ability to spot detail. And it was my proudest moment when I did achieve it some years later.

I think being a model has to be

There are some moments that tell

Our client at Vadilal was an

the worst job in the world. You

you more about your boss than

incredible man. He used to

live off your looks and when you

any other time.

insist we use real ice-cream –

do that you have to take a

Once, one of Mohammed’s

his ice-cream – for all his ads.

lot of grief.

favorite studio artists made

Once, due to a series of mishaps,

So often, I’ve stood next to my

a crude, sexually suggestive

including a freezer that didn’t

art director, looked at a girl

comment about one of our

work, dry ice that didn’t land up

standing three feet away and

art directors. This guy was a

among other things, one of our

said, “No, her nose is too long.

specialist at illustration and

art directors had to shoot using

Doesn’t work.” Or, “Look at her

spray-painting (this may be a

mashed potato for ice-cream.

legs man! Like tent pegs.”

lost art) and was crucial to most

Mohammed wasn’t around and

I don’t know what it does to their

of our layouts, but as soon as he

the transparency was sent

egos, but I can tell you, I always

heard about what had happened,

to the client.

thought it was quite a horrid

Mohammed marched into the

Amazingly, he took one look at it

situation. On the other hand, if

studio and threw the guy out.

and sent it back, saying simply,

you are making a living with your

Sacked. Immediately.

“This is not ice-cream.”

looks, you should learn to accept

That tells you exactly where he

professional comments about

stands on an important issue.

your look, it’s kind of a cleft stick.

And it sets a standard for all of us to follow.

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Aakash Nihalani

Artist http://www.aakashnihalani.com/

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Sanman Mohite

Artist http://sanmanmohite.blogspot.in

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Abhishek Chaudhary

Illustrator http://linesmancreation.blogspot.in

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INAPPROPRIATE

By Kishore Mohan

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TAG ALONG

music made from scratch

By Kanika Kaul & Mithra Murali

Hemanth Kumar, more popularly known as Bobby is a musician, businessman and he also happens to have his own line of guitars, amps, sound mixers!

Holed away in a house in Yelahanka, lives the former mechanical engineer and our team met him one evening.

W

e hit the jackpot when we met two customers waiting in Bobby’s before we got to meet the man himself. Customer Sudhakar is a musician and a teacher in four different

music institutes in Bangalore. Here’s the kicker: Sudhakar had a fracture in his hand that never healed fully so he can’t play on regular bass guitar, so Bobby made him a customized guitar. With a smaller neck, the guitar is unique with the customer’s own taste included. He was impressed enough to bring in the second customer we met, who had come all the way from San Francisco. seemed mighty pleased that Bobby not only makes the instruments but also makes the amps and the pickups and all by hand. In his words “In the states what happens more often than not is people buy stuff and just plug it in. But this guy really just does everything.”

Then the maestro Bobby came strolling in and we got to have our one on one time with him. With the way he describes his routine, you’d think he lives and breathes guitars. He mentions that he does events and other projects. Last week he’d just finished an NGO project documentary and created the sound bite.

The way he got into the business may not be all fairy-tale, but it was rough enough to start him up. He made his first guitar out of desperation. After his father told him to back out of the music

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business, he did what he had to do and became a self-taught guitar maker and learned how to play.

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Sudhakar had a fracture in his hand that never healed fully so he can’t play on regular bass guitar, so Bobby made him a customized guitar, with a smaller neck.

TUNGSTEN | ISSUE I

He says he’s been tinkering around with things since he was a child and always had a technical background. After getting his mechanical engineering degree, he says it only helped him design guitars more.

After being a teacher in Gulbarga for a year, he decided to quit the rat race and start his business making guitars, amps etc. – and this was 10 years ago! Though he tells us, he went a while before making guitars he was truly happy because he could only afford materials according to what people paid him. The goal was only to come up with the

there is a guitar I was making 2 years back, out of this material. And

product within the budget. And now, he has the ability to balance

it has some specialities. I couldn’t complete it. I didn’t get the time to

quality and the customer’s budget! And that was the birth of ‘Edge’.

complete it because it’s my own guitar. My own guitar goes through all seasonal changes. Then it gets ready. So it took me around 2 and

As customer Sudhakar has already mentioned, customization of a

half years to finish it.” And he’s still using it.

guitar is bobby’s strongest point and he tells us that he loves taking creative liberties. And that’s exactly what people come to him for,

Bobby also has a recording studio (that he built himself), and uses it

and that’s also when he enjoys it the most. He even made a double

with his own band and also other bands looking for a space “Some

neck guitar and a 7 string bass! Bobby admits that music definitely

very good musicians come to me and play their music and once they

influences the way he makes his guitars. He even jams with some of

play their music I feel grounded so I don’t touch my guitars after that

the musicians before he makes them an instrument; he explains “It’s

for a week!” Now that can’t be true because Bobby himself is part of

about understanding the person in front [of you]. You can’t cater to

a band called Audiofile who play a lot of retro and 80’s rock and play

every need of a customer just based on your opinions as a musician;

gigs in and around Bangalore.

you need to understand what the other people want.” For Sudhakar, he’d made a bass out of mahogany and according to Bobby “It has

Bobby sells his guitars directly to the customers and through word

kind of an alien look to it but it suits him, he likes it and as long as he’s

of mouth. And if you do want to order a guitar, give him a month

enjoying it that’s like an achievement for me.” The pride and joy of

at least to work his genius. And on a side note, Bobby adds that he

his collection would be his own guitar. He hints to us subtly “In fact,

budgets according to the customer and the materials.

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BLOW BY BLOW

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LEAPING

OUT OF THE PHOTO

BY KANIKA KAUL & MITHRA MURALI You walk into the exhibit and you’re suddenly affected by the onslaught of the art that seems to coming out of the paintings and right towards. In some ways, this is very literal; the exhibition is collaboration between an architect and a photographer. The installations are interactive and in some cases, even offer the viewer ‘souvenirs’ to take away – as if any were needed to remember the stunning work. We had the opportunity of talking to the two artists to understand their process of work and how they collated the work for the exhibit.

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BLOW BY BLOW

A

photo art installation exhibit by two men, one being a photographer and the other an architect. The question is how did

you two collaborate?

The key to the unique collaborations lies in our refusal to be labelled.

I’m a photographer, while Vikrant is an architect by profession.

But we are both unconstrained by these convenient labels. Over my 10-year career, I have enjoyed putting things together in the most unconventional manner, whether it is photography or graphic designing, trying to effectively blur the lines between the fields of art and communication, between concept and construction.

Similarly [there is] Vikrant, who has long forged a highly credible reputation with several of his functional and indelible works. He endeavours to show the genuine possibility in creating spaces that emerge through a process of collective dialogue, deciphering contexts, and sharing of knowledge through imagination, inquisitiveness and modesty. His attempt is to remain intuitive, and strive for spaces that are sensory.

So the coming together of two such multi-disciplined, creative and technical talents was natural and felt that we had the potential to produce works of intrigue, not least because both of us think far beyond the conventional. We work through an iterative process, where ideas are explored through the production of mock-ups, models, material studies, sketches and drawings. ”The Deconstruction Project”, is quite an interesting name. Tell us about your idea behind the name and the project.

It is an experiment to discover different meanings by taking apart the visual tapestry of photographs and delving below their surface meaning. It is an exhibit, wherein the essence of photographs has inspired the installations for an enhanced sensory experience. To do that, we had to literally deconstruct the images and hence the name.

Music was specially created in collaboration with the band ‘The Circus” for an enhanced sensory experience.

Speaking of your exhibition, what kind of response did you receive from your audience? Did you have any unconscious worries about your work being devalued?

The response was tremendous. People loved what they saw. The one common comment that repeated itself was that the entire approach was very refreshing and that people want to see more of it. When we first approached Padmashree Raghu Rai for the opening he was skeptical. He wanted to see photographs that were being used for the exhibits. We were like photographs are just one half of the story. The second one being the 3D experience. He asked us to come the next day with couple of our exhibits to be taken into confidence for he does not believe in lending credibility to anybody and everybody.

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}

Photographs are just one half of the story.

The second one being the 3D experience.

To answer your second part of the question I’d say that we were not conscious about our work being devalued but were apprehensive as hell as to how people will react to the exhibits. We were counting big time on people to interact with our art for the exhibition to work.

In the end everything fell in [to] place. More people turned up than expected for the opening. But what was encouraging was the word of mouth publicity amongst the peers on the following days.

When the exhibition was still in process, did you face any difficulty?

I would not say difficulty but a pleasant predicament. By the end of the fourth day we wanted to extend the show but there were no available dates.

As visual creators, what do you feel about your work?

At the cost of sounding pompous, I’d like to mention here that our approach was quite Avant Garde. There was a conscious effort to drum up mandate for the experimental show on social media like Facebook, YouTube, Vimeo and Twitter. We had to create intrigue factor to sensitize people about the show. Friends took to twitter and Facebook with regular updates about the progress of the exhibition.

There was a viral made for the same.

We took a gamble and it paid off. We intended to do something that we personally wanted to see as an audience and that is what worked for us. I’d like to say both, us as artists and the audience got value for time and money. We are now motivated to produce more such shows.

Since your work could be regarded as unconventional; as artists what do you think of experimental media?

I’d here like to say that one should not get experimental just for the heck of it. There has to be sense in all of it. It could be esoteric but should be engaging. Having said that, our idea of experimentation was having fun in the explorative process. To be curious all the time, and not be afraid or deterred by budgetary constraints. You never know whether one will plummet or soar high strapped with wings of self-belief and faith till you jump of the cliff. So in that sense experimentation is a must. If not for anything [else] but to see your imagination limits.

Do you plan on taking this project forward? Are there any on-going projects that you would like to share with us?

Oh definitely. Talks are on with various people and galleries to take the exhibition to other cities. Next on agenda is covering Maha Kumbh and doing our take on it.

As much as we hope that this exhibit will be touring the other metropolitan cities of India, in the meantime, you can view some of their work on their website as well as their Facebook page.

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FRINGE BENEFITS

tales in the shadows

Evan Hastings defines himself as a theatrical educator and a poetic performer.

He’s a hip-hop dancer, thespian and therapist all rolled into one.

By Kanika Kaul

& Mithra Murali

A

child actor since he was 5, Evan started off with community theatre and constantly giving auditions after school for advertisements and such. It was at the age of 19 that he performed his first play

with the integration of hip-hop, break dancing and acting. (Since then, it’s become his trademark: all his pieces are infused with the crazy energy of dance.) It was at the same age that he had a life changing experience when he was sexually assaulted. That was catalyst enough to put him on a long path of fighting gender issues and social injustice. Evan worked with lots of prisoners after this, people who had been convicted for crimes of a sexual nature. It was to understand their behaviour, to understand the instinct behind the actions of sexual offenders.

Of late, Evan has conducted numerous courses and workshops in Bangalore, concerning social inequality, using a technique known as Forum Theatre. In forum theatre plays, the audience can stop the play at any time at which they think a character is being oppressed.

We asked him what made him come to India, and what made him love

He had a life changing experience when he was sexually assaulted which put him on a path of fighting gender issues and social injustice. it so much that he hasn’t left in a long time. The story began when his friends, Jackson and Arzoo (architects and artists) visited him, raving about Drishya (Jackson’s NGO for underprivileged kids). They told him to come and see the work they were doing, and he always thought it’s a distant possibility. It’s only when a friend in Bangalore was getting married 6 months later that he found no way out of a trip to India, and he had a blast. “I worked with the Drishya kids for a couple of weeks with Mike [film faculty at Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology] and we did this film and drama course with them. And Geeta (director of Srishti) came for the show and she loved the show, so she offered me a job here. And actually I declined at that time. Around 3 and a half years back. Because I was really committed to what I was doing with the prisons and schools so I didn’t want to give that up. But then when the American economy went down I lost my job, I even lost my house, everything. So then it was like one of those situations like fate. I had a great opportunity in front of me and I didn’t take it. And then I lost everything and I had to take it. And I’ve mostly been here ever since,” Evan smiles.

The first time he came to Srishti, he conducted a giant puppets workshop, on eve teasing, an issue the students themselves brought up. It was an issue

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he cared deeply about too. It led to a 4-month-course at Srishti called

like that. So even though we have these philosophies of how there’s

GenderShadow, a dynamic theatre experience that used forum theatre to

more than one way of dealing with a situation, there are nuances and

bring up gender injustice. And that was probably like the best thing he’s done

everyone plays a good character and bad character. The more and the

at Srishti so far. The energy was electric. And the response was monumental.

complex we show it on stage, the less engaging it is for the audience and

The course continued on a bigger scale under the name ‘Shadow

the more we simplify it, we feel like we’re dumbing down the content.

Liberation’, taking it to an international level and including a forum

This was a problem with both GenderShadow and Shadow Liberation.

theatre platform running online and allowing people from different

Now, with Ramayana Remix, he’s working with mythology and at a

countries to intervene. This international event was called Open Stage.

much deeper level, he feels. He plans to explore the same gender

“Many countries have this problem as well, so we used the strengths

issues through the relationships of the characters of the epic. He tells us

of live theatre, its interactive component and the strengths of social

about Dashrath, telling his son Rama that he wants him to be the next

media and digital technology to reach a broader audience. Open

leader of Ayodhya because they’re living in a dark age and the women

Stage was about bringing those two elements together which I think as

can’t even go to the market without being groped. Dashrath basically

a prototype is really cool because I think that now we are a little bit ahead

named these social problems that existed and told Rama to role model

of technology. I still think that the web speed isn’t fast enough for what we’re doing. We had twitter, an interface with it, have infographics

displayed

a different style of masculinity. As Rama

RAMAYANA REMIX: Rap battles between Rama and Ravana, demons and rakshashas on stilts, and the break dancing battle of Lanka.

about

journeys through the epic he tries to be a different kind of man and lives up to social pressures and expectations of the people. As Ramanaya Remix, Evan

users over there and how to interface with them. This summer

is taking a lot of the same issues, putting them into the Ramayana and

the MTV Music Awards did all of that. So the things we were

modernising it, looking not just at these gender issues but also at issues

talking about and doing were actually a step ahead

of what was

like that of the environment, issues of war, etc. Both GenderShadow

happening in the industry, but we didn’t have the resources to do it.”

and Shadow Liberation used shadow screens as part of the set with

Shadow Liberation was trying to make GenderShadow bigger, but the

actors using the shadows to depict inner struggles, and Ramanaya

limitations of forum theatre also came through. It was great for getting

Remix is using exquisite shadow puppetry and projection mapping

people to start a conversation or getting people to think about these

with shadows from both sides of the screen. Evan’s famous for his

issues. Evan explains, “The problem lay in this that in order for someone

over-the-top effects and Ramanaya Remix is not going to disappoint

to understand what’s happening in the scene you have to simplify whats

in the least: rap battles between Rama and Ravana, demons and

going on. And then that makes people more likely to be engaged. But

rakshashas on stilts, and the battle of Lanka is going to be an elaborately

if you give them an oversimplified version of a problem like domestic

choreographed break-dancing battle! Catch Ramanaya Remix before

violence or sexual assault or something, then they think they can come

they travel to Calcutta, at Sahabhaga, Srishti’s festival for participatory

on stage and yell at the bad guy and make it better. It’s not actually

theatre in Bangalore from 29th november to 2nd December.

28

THE ODD BALL

e g a w e n e s r h t lishe b u p

K AU KA I N A

by K

L&

MUR A R H MIT

ALI

Our ‘Oddball’ section is dedicated to those who think being normal is too...well, normal. And Chennai-based Blaft Publications are the exact amount of unhinged we’re looking for. They deal with crime novels, experimental fiction, pulp art, folktales and graphic novels. With books like ‘Kumari Loves A Monster’(a poster book about scanty-sariclad ladies and extra-terrestrial lust) and ‘Where Are You Going, You Monkeys?’ (a collection of Tamil folktales, complete with morally hidden tied-up section where all the naughty tales go), and their of books called Tamil Pulp Fiction! Blaft’s level of crazy is going only one way, and that is undoubtedly up.

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First things first, what does Blaft even mean? Don’t bother googling

every episode, and a giant ant-like walking tree thing with six-pointed-

it, the list of weird answers is endless. We asked the people themselves,

star-shaped feet. Also, spooky forest cult ladies in saris with no blouses.”

and this is the answer we expected and received: “Please don’t believe any of those internet definitions, they are all bald-faced fabrications and

Sometimes, being this weird leaves room for mistakes, hilarious or

obfuscations. Actually, the name is an anagram of the musical note B

otherwise. For example. in the first edition of Tamil Pulp Fiction Vol. 1,

flat. The B flat above middle C, in equal temperament, has a frequency

at the last minute it was decided to put an image before the first story,

of 466 Hz -- a number which holds great mystical significance for

a scanned picture from one of Subha’s books, with a picture of them,

the Blaft team as it is the year of the death of Saint Shenoute the

and a caption. Pritham Chakravarthy, the translator, wasn’t available

Archimandrite.” See what we mean? (A little extra piece of information:

so Rakesh Khanna tried translating himself, which was a bad idea- he

they give everyone a different answer every single time you ask them

translated “got put in handcuffs” as “got mauled by a wild animal. He

this question - we’re on to you Blaft!)

did show her the book for a final check but she missed it, and it went to print. Doh! They fixed it in the second printing.

A big chunk of Blaft’s published books contain what’s called ‘pulp’,

We saved the hardest question for last, and asked to them reveal their

a mixture of lurid, shocking, thrilling subject matter with an ironic

favourite story they published. But Rakesh managed to dwindle it down

appreciation of kitsch. There is an entire book dedicated completely

to one. “Oh that’s very hard! But I have to say that for me, the one

to Hindi Pulp cover art, among others. We decided to use the

that’s the most carefully crafted, where everything in the story gets

Blaft’s team knowledge of the pulp world and asked for Tamil serial

wrapped up in a tight little package at the end, is the Ramanichandran

recommendations. “I don’t watch them too much, I think they can rot

romance story, ‘Dim Lights, Blazing Hearts’.”

your brain. I liked “Naagamma” for a while, but it got cancelled. It had

Blaft’s repertoire is not for faint-hearted readers, and each book takes

really great, cheap computer graphics with huge snakes eating people

scandalous to another level. Read at your own risk!

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Abhishek Choudhury

Illustrator http://behance.net/abhishekchoudhury

32

RICH CRAVINGS OF

BROKE STUDENTS

{

Who needs a $100,000 giant killer whale submarine? You do.

Who needs an $18000 fighter spaceship bed? You do.

Who needs a $1000 suit pyajamas? You do.

From the little things that seem completely useless but also strangely fascinating to those strangely expensive weird things that you have no idea how to use – this website has everything you cannot afford but still want. So on your student budget, go to this website and drool over exciting things and console yourself that you’re actually being sensible.

Check out http://www.thisiswhyimbroke.com/

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