And here we are again!

I started this blog many years ago, at a stage in my life when a huge personal loss left me wondering when the next blow would strike. It had been a time of pain for a few years before that, with brickbats buffeting me from every direction. There was, of course, some valid reasons that it had all happened, occurrences that led to self-flagellation and enormous self-doubt, self-excoriation and self-inflicted guilt. Much of it, in retrospect, was undeserved, a product of a mind that had lost its way and needed to be guided into the light. That eventually happened, probably as much my own internal strength kicking in as it was someone else kicking me in the butt. Just when I had started believing in myself again and becoming aware that the downs could be easily converted into ups, my mother died.

That left me foundering once again, knowing that I had been to some extent responsible but also knowing that it would have happened even if things had been different. This time, I was not alone. I had friends, family, people who had assured me that they were there to hold my hand and make sure I did not drop into that pit again. And I didn’t. it changed me. It made me stronger, more assertive, more aware of my own power and less willing to let anyone undermine me. I would walk away if I didn’t want to fight, but if I had to fight, I would win. I did.

The first step was to get it out of my system as it happened, whatever ‘it’ was. A former boss and sort of friend pushed me into starting a blog. I wrote every day, often about my mother, often about the cat that had acquired us, often about food. Nothing focussed, just random rambles about anything that caught my fancy. Once life and my psyche normalised, the blog got updated in fits and starts, occasionally lapsing into just a record of my published writing. And then, as work and whatever else took over whatever creative time I gave myself, it went into limbo.

Suddenly, serendipitously, mid-shower, I remembered this blog and why it was started. And figured that with the current situation, without much work to do and with lots of time and nothing to spend it on, I should revive it. So, with the best intentions and the resolve to be less lazy about it, voila…..

The meaning of art

Over many moons of watching the whimsical world of art from a distance and at comfortably not-too-close quarters, of meeting and speaking with artists, of wandering about museums and galleries, of writing about shows and gazing with great puzzlement at some works, there is one clear-headed and much-amused conclusion that I have come to. Art is a lot like fashion. Or history. Or even the seasons. What goes around invariably, inevitably, comes around again before long. And if there is something that arouses argument, debate or, best of all, protest with a degree of violence, it is considered to be not just successful art, but path-breaking, significant and, perhaps most importantly, saleable. Along the way, there have been many occasions where I have had to call some artist or the other and ask about the ‘latest trends’ in art, a question that is surpassed in banality only by that masterpiece of mundane mumbling: ‘Who do you think will be the artist to watch?’

Today, art and its makers have changed. There is indeed a trend, one that veers towards alternate professions and adventuring. A recent show in Mumbai that I saw had a number of women artists who were better known – or perhaps more visible – as illustrators, architects, fashion designers, graphic designers, photographers, or other fields that are indeed art-related, though not from the obvious, conventional perspective. This is in keeping with the trend to more experimentation in art. From the maverick MF Husain’s Shwetambari many years ago, where pieces of white cloth and shreds of newspaper scattered the floor of a large gallery space all covered in white, to the more recent model of a water tanker (Aquasaurus) made of bones crafted from resin by Jitish Kallat to an esoteric display of experimentation in fashion by Shilpa Chavan (aka Little Shilpa) at a current show, art has slid off the canvas and into spaces that are still being explored. At each stage, of course, there has been a degree of shock greeting the display – Husain’s work was reviled by many, but lauded by ‘those-who-should-know’, of the ilk of Akbar Padamsee and Tyeb Mehta, whom you would think would be a better judge than the average Joe. Kallat’s bones aroused curiosity and a certain morbid fascination that his eloquence did much to dissipate. And Little Shilpa’s hats have taken the fashionista audience by such a great storm that the arterati have got carried, perforce, along with it.

In all this artistic adventuring, even the averagely-talented creative expressionist has gone global. Many claim fame with local self-sponsored shows and citations from ‘foreign’ names decorating invitations, along with a resume that includes exhibitions in various parts of the world that they may have traveled to. Some of these exhibitionists – in the literal sense of the word - of course, are genuinely talented and gradually find inclusion in reputed collections and support from enviable fund-pundits. A few become international celebrities, trotting frenetically around the globe from show to show, working hectically to keep pace with demand and, somehow, pulling off the coup of always remaining creative, inspirational, lauded and coveted - again, Kallat is a case in point. And one or two think beyond their own careers as artists to become support systems for others and curators of the kinds of shows they themselves want to see, like Krishnamachari Bose, for instance. 

Along the way, the medium has become, in a strange way, the message. The use of video and audio clips is more popular now. Often, painting melds with photography and can become part of an installation that includes sculpture, with a few bytes of sound and moving pictures thrown in to complete the sentence. That sentence is meaningful at various levels – to the artist as an individual, to the viewer as an unconnected passer-by and to society at large as an audience that needs to be made aware of something, from child abuse to contemporary forms of suffrage to political rot. A work by Sonia Jose that impressed me recently had a white rag rug lettered in black reading ‘so much to say’ – the message could be anything, the directions of thought countless and the mood an entire spectrum from dark and deadly black to a clear, joyous white. It left the viewer to decide, even as it hinted of a deeper mental process for that same viewer to decode and debate. 

Perhaps the best part of art today is that it gives the person looking at it, feeling it, experiencing it, something to do. It is not interactive in that you need to get hands-on and fiddle with buttons and knobs and listen to beeps and whistles like with a video game, but it provides a sense of freedom of interpretation. There is something serious going on, but it’s all left up to you to decide what that something could be. And that, methinks, is really what art should be about!

The brown affair

At 85, Akbar Padamsee is still vigorously at work conjuring up the many moods of the sun and moon.
He may be 85 years old but the wicked glint in his eye and his obvious appreciation of female beauty has not faded. He may need a supporting hand and a cane to help him walk, but his mind is as agile as ever, his grasp even more so. 

In Past Forward, Akbar Padamsee's new show at Priyasri Art Gallery, there are 40 new oils. Some of them are large (Sun and Moon series), others smaller 'heads' that include Prophet, Christ and Couple, and a collation of faces, some in the colours of the earth, others muted in shades of grey. The Mirror Image diptych glows across one wall, while Metascapes of various configurations reflect its colours, bringing swatches of light into the gallery. And the smile on the artist's face as he sits in his chair sipping a cup of chai adds another shade of warmth. Conversation flows easily from a Wisconsin village store stocking cheese to the philosophy of the colour brown. When Padamsee talks, it is not about any particular work, but a way of working, which is, for him, a way of living. 

"Sometimes, I get up at two o' clock in the morning to go to the bathroom, and I look at my work and think that there is something missing, something that has to be done, " he says. On another trip out of bed, it could happen again. "So an artist", he explains, "is always working". There is always something going on, a new work to be conceived, given birth to, pondered over. And that work is the inspiration for the next, in a way. As Padamsee says, his radiant smile making it all perfectly logical, when he looks at a 'finished' piece, there is always a way that he believes it could be improved or maybe even painted differently. That is his 'inspiration'. "From that is born the next painting, " which could include the thoughts he had about the previous one, in a kind of evolution through stages of creation, each not too radically different from the one before. As gallerist Priyasri Patodia has said, "One cannot categorise Akbar Padamsee or confine him to a period or category;he occupies a very experimental space of his own. " 

But the stories are great fun and Padamsee a good raconteur. His eyes twinkle and his fluff of white hair seems to glow like an impish halo when he talks about his stint as an artist-in-residence at an art college (University of Wisconsin-Stout ) in a small Wisconsin town. "There was a small store in the village, " he remembers, "where there was cheese...and more cheese, but no art. " He chortles as he tells the story, remembering how he persuaded - conned? - the store owner into giving him mural space and his students into creating art there, pushing, coaxing, rejecting, praising...all finally resulting in a work that attracted viewers from everywhere and led to real commissions for both teacher and his pupils. 

Padamsee's body of work is large and varied. As one of the 'pioneers' of modern Indian painting, he is grouped with the other great Progressives like Souza, Husain and Raza. And like so many who did so much, he has also worked on print making, sculpture, photography - aha, there is that wicked glint again, when he suggests a photography session, talking about the nudes he has captured on camera. "They are like art forms, not naked women;you see the curve of the back... sometimes you cannot tell it is a woman!" he protests. He made films long before most artists did, Patodia says. 

His work sells excellently at auction. Reclining Nude, for instance, sold last year for an astounding $1. 4 million. Among his many awards is the French magazine Journal d'Arte prize that he shared with Jean Carzou, who was twice his age. It's a long way from his roots as the son of a businessman from Vaghnagar, a village in Kathiawar, Gujarat, who would draw in his father's account books. "My father had to buy new books, " he laughs. "And then he told me I could draw in them, in the margins!" But he is quick to add, "I did not choose to be an artist. I was chosen. It is who I am. Art is me, I am art. " 

His Metascapes are rooted in the concept of the two comptrollers of time, the sun and the moon, as described in Kalidasa's Abhigyanam Shakuntalam in the original Sanskrit. "The metascapes represent the sun, moon and the water needed for the seeds to grow. They also speak of the eight basic elements of life. " The verse made him want to paint it, to grasp it, to understand it, but since that was not possible, he depicted "all the elements in red to show their natural synergy". Acting as a kind of foundation to emphasise the reds and the blues is brown, the importance of which the artist serendipitously discovered a few years ago and now uses in all his works. "Brown is a tertiary colour, " he explains, "made up of red, yellow and blue. And I could use more red to bring out the redness and blue to bring out the blueness. "

Abu Jani - Sandeep Khosla interview

They are often referred to as The Boys. Known for the exquisite, elaborate and over-the top creations, each a piece of rococo art rather than a garment that could be worn with the same casual flair as a pair of jeans – at one end of the sartorial spectrum - or an heirloom sari, at the other.

It really does not matter who answers, Abu Jani or Sandeep Khosla, because the two minds think so alike and the two sensibilities are so finely co-tuned. One speaks, the other voicelessly echoes.

It has been 25 years since your partnership began. Has it been a smooth ride right through?

We were fortunate to receive instant accolades and sell out with our debut collection but of course it hasn't been smooth. Blood, Sweat and Tears are the ingredients when you choose to dream big. And our dream was no different. Financial constraints, setbacks like the Fire which destroyed everything, refusing to change or compromise or downsize, none of these things is easy. But the disappointments and struggle have been the most valuable teachers. And when things have seemed impossible, the belief of others in us has enabled us to always believe in ourselves. Along with the hard graft there has been much magic and many miracles.

From Jashan to Abu-Sandeep – what has changed, evolved, developed in your design sensibilities?

An artist is evolving in a continuum. You finish something and are compelled to create again. We have always been maximalists. Our couture has always been Classical rather than Trendy. What is merely Fashion will always be transient. We aim to transcend the limitations of now and create something which will always be current. You hone, you evolve, you set new standards and then break them but ultimately you retain your original sensibilities because they ARE your core.

How has the market for your kind of couture changed in the 25 years since you started working together?

Its become bigger. We are blessed that we have always found an appreciative audience. One that continues to grow. At the end of the day if you have the goods there will always be a buyer. We believe in allowing our work to speak. And it seems to reach the 'ears' or rather the wardrobes of a diverse audience.

Why did you choose chikankari and zardosi to concentrate on?

Because Chikankari had disintegrated into its crudest form as had Zardozi. And it irked us to see the down gradation of a such regal and impossibly beautiful techniques. It was painful to see what these crafts had ben reduced to. And so we made it our mission to bring them back to their rightful state. We have dedicated ourselves over the years to revival and reinvention. India has an unsurpassed legacy when it comes to textiles and craft. We incorporate that history and fashion it for the future. Apart from chikan and zardozi we have refined mirror work, resham, tharad and rabadi. Taking things to new heights is one of our passions.

Is there an abiding clientele and use for couture? Or is prêt slowly taking over, with easy-to-wear rather than ready-to wear being the bon mot?

Couture will always have a market in India. We are not only au fait with Luxury but accustomed to it, we are inclined towards made to measure, addicted to living large. Of course Fashion must extend to the masses and pret will be the way forward for that.

Has fashion in India come of age today? Is there original work being done, or are we still aping the West?

There is a lot of talent out there. But there is also too much derivative or borrowed design. The ones who last beyond flash in the pan success will be those who are Original.

You have a lot of big name celebrity clients, many from Bollywood. Are their demands/needs any different from anyone else’s?

Every client is important. A Celebrity Client is merely much more visible so any mistakes/accomplishments make news beyond cocktail party chatter. Every man and woman we dress deserves to look and feel their best.

You said two years or so ago that you would like to design a whole Bollywood film. Is that going to happen?

It will. When the right project comes along.

Your goal was cited as being ‘to build a worldwide brand with shops all over the world - to put India on the creative fashion map of the world’. Do you think you have done that with all your work and the clients you dress – internationally and at home in India?

That is the Dream for sure. One we have begun to live. We do want to put India on the global map. And whenever we have created it has been without compromising our sensibilities or ourselves. When Judi Dench or Sarah Brown or Princess Michael or any of our many international clients have worn us it has been US they have worn. We want global success but it must come without diluting or warping who we are. There is a long way to go. And it is something which requires big bucks or funding. We need corporate India to believe in Brand India. Only then can we or any other Indian Fashion House hope to make it on the global front.

You won a lot of female hearts (mine included!) when you said that “We are a culture and a body type that is made for curves. It's Ajanta Ellora [ancient caves containing paintings depicting voluptuous goddesses] not Twiggy that floats our boat and our fashion. The sari is made to be draped against rounded hips and the swell of a bosom. It sits better.” Do you still believe that?

Of course we do. One doesn't change one's beliefs according to what is fashionable. And nothing is more beautiful than a woman comfortable in her own skin. Sexiness isn't a shape or a dress size. But if it were we would like to think it was voluptuous with a capital V!

This fabulous book – why a book? Why not a film or a multimedia presentation? How did it happen? What did you not use when you put it together over the last two years? There must be so much more….!

Because a book is forever. It combines both language and visuals. This moment, our journey couldn't be encapsulated in a presentation. A movie is again didactic. It dictates what the audience sees. There is a certain beauty to a still image. It allows you to dream, to read between the lines. To create your own relationship with the content.

And yes there is plenty that didn't make it into the book. Like curation one chooses that which best represents one's vision. We do have a lot of beautiful excess  which will be incorporated in other media and also serve as a catalogue of our work.

You design for yourselves, you have said. What gives you the most pleasure – creating the garment or seeing the smile on the face of the person who wears it?

For any artist, to create is their life force. It isn't something one controls but rather that which takes you hostage. It is both pleasure and pain, beauty and torture. So of course it is the prime mover. To see that creativity bring Joy to the recipient is a source of immense pleasure and Joy to the artist, but it is not what they create for. Our work isn't merely a product to us. That would make it a business. And as you know, business has always been a by product of our work never its raison d'être.

Garments, interiors, a television show, international exhibitions, now a book. What next?

More. More. More. More Taking it Global in a much bigger way. Creating bigger and better. Expanding our field of vision to include other lifestyle verticals. There is no rest and no limits for the Inspired Mind.

What makes Abu-Sandeep truly happy?

To create without constraints. To live life on our own terms. To be there for those we love. To make a difference,

Abraham Thomas interview

Curator of the Victoria and Albert (V&A) museum’s design drawings collection and lead curator for architecture, Abraham Thomas is a key speaker at the India Design Forum, 2013, to be held at the National Centre for the Performing Arts, Mumbai, a two day event (March 16-17) that features experts talking about how design transforms the world and impacts lives. Thomas, who is in charge of a vast collection of drawings that ranges in scope from the 15^th century to the present and covers topics that include architecture, furniture, product design, fashion, textiles, metalwork and graphic design, also is responsible for the museum’s Architecture Gallery, organised in partnership with the Royal Institute of British Architects and their collection of drawings and archives now held at the V&A. He has curated exhibits such as On the Threshold: The Changing Face of Housing, World Expo 2010 Shanghai: Designs for the British Pavilion and Paper Movies: Graphic Design and Photography at Harper's Bazaar and Vogue, 1934 to 1963. He is also lauded for his work on the V&A Tunnel Entrance commission by architect CJ Lim, Seasons Through The Looking Glass and the V&A's bicentenary retrospective on Victorian designer and architect Owen Jones. Thomas is working on a book on fashion illustration and photography, expected to be released next year. He joined the museum in September 2005 on the Assistant Curator Development Programme and has spent time in the Word & Image Department (the Prints, Drawings, Paintings and Photographs collection), the National Art Library and the Archive of Art and Design, as well as the Designs section of Word & Image, which covers objects that show the working process of design, from architectural drawings to fashion designs and textile patterns. A stint in the Asia Department had him cataloguing and researching nineteenth-century Indian photography.

Q: What does your role as Curator to the V&A’s design drawings collection and the Architecture Gallery involve?
A: The V&A design drawings collection ranges in period from the late 14^th century through to the present day, and across disciplines as wide-ranging as architecture, furniture, product design, fashion, textiles, metalwork, sculpture and ceramics/glass. The V&A's architectural drawings collection is an area of particular focus for us, and forms a joint collection with the Royal Institute of British Architect's (RIBA) renowned collection of architectural drawings. Organised together with the RIBA, the V&A's Architecture Gallery is the
UK's only permanent gallery dedicated to architecture.

Q: You are writing a book on the fashion drawings and photography – when do we
get to see it? And is there any Indian connection? Some of the work in the
Fashion Gallery have Indian embroideries and embellishment, don’t they?
A: The book will be published in Autumn 2014, and it will look at the role of the fashion image in the context of design process, editorial and commentary - from illustrations to design drawings, photography, look books and magazine spreads - mainly focussed on the 20th century to the present day. There isn't a particular Indian focus in the book, but you
may be interested to know that the V&A has a large collection of 19th/20th century design drawings for British Paisley textiles, which originally developed and gained popularity through the import of Indian textiles by the East India Company in the 18th century.

Q: Have you followed the evolution of design in India – fashion, architecture, even movies?
A: I'm not an expert myself, but this is an area the V&A is really interested in. My colleague Divia Patel is currently working on a future exhibition for the V&A on modern and contemporary Indian design, which looks fascinating. She also curated a V&A exhibition on Bollywood Posters in 2002, "Cinema India: The Art of Bollywood".

Sex talk

FIFTY SHADES OF GREY
EL James

There are erotic novels and there are the more blatant versions, the straight-out porn books. And then there is smut. Walking a fine line between the two is the Fifty Shades Trilogy, of which the second and third parts – Fifty Shades Darker and Fifty Shades Freed, the latter making little sense as a title, if ‘meaning’ is what is relevant – are expected to feature in bestseller lists, though they may not climb as high as this one, Fifty Shades of Grey. Nicely gender indiscernible in the writer’s name, the book has done phenomenally well already, hitting top of the mass market fiction charts and fourth in the official top 50 list across all genres in the UK. And it has managed to be first on the e-book downloads roster determined by the New York Times Bestseller list. So there must be something special about it, right?

Well, maybe not. The books tell the steamy story of the ‘romance’ – for lack of any other suitable word – between Christian Grey, a successful young entrepreneur with a taste for S&M (BDSM, really), and a literature student, still a virgin, Anastasia Steele. It all begins when the girl takes her friend’s place to interview Grey. And things develop fairly fast, escalating from a formal interview in an office to a rather less than formal exploration of possibilities in Grey’s bedroom, his bathtub and elsewhere, with the dominant-subservient relationship established early on. After a point the action, if one may call it that, gets repetitive and predictable, with the heroine breathing heavily and calling upon the Divine in various ways (“Holy crap”, “Holy s***” and “Holy F***” being some) to save her…from what? Herself? Her newly discovered sexual synapses? Or the man who shows her the way to carnal bliss? Or perhaps that devilish contract she wonders why she signed, even as she learns to enjoy all the minor clauses and fine print it covers.

Of course, this is not literature, far from it. The tone wavers from being modern and street-smart-ish to outright juvenile and inane, with instances like “Our fingers brush very briefly, and the current is there again, zapping through me” our heroine gasps. “I feel it all the way down to somewhere dark and unexplored, deep in my belly.” She “desperately” does the expected, “scrabble around for my equilibrium”. And even as Anastasia is doing her scrabble thing, Christian is saying “Please”, his tongue caressing her name just before he “strides with renewed purpose” out of the store, leaving her a “quivering mass of raging female hormones”. Through the book, things progress and that same tongue does a lot more than just caress her name, while those raging hormones…err…rage on through endless chapters of graphically and anatomically descriptive prose.

This one does not have any of the class of the erotica or Anais Nin, or even Henry Miller, and what is perhaps the most sensual writing ever in the Song of Songs from Genesis is like a top quality diamond next to a pebble from under a road repairman’s boots. The author admits to being inspired by the lead characters from the Twilight series, sexed up and served with a huge helping of fantasy. And even as Anastasia exclaims, “I’ll be a monkey’s uncle” an uncountable number of times in the first few pages of the book, you, as reader, start wondering how she will manage to keep monkeying around for another two volumes in the series. And, honestly, why you would bother to read them to find out!

Made in Italy

Think of Italy and you see visions of sunshine, sea, sartorial perfection and, of course, spaghetti! Switch on a modicum of sanity and seriousness and you get more classic visions of Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Canaletto, rapidly updated with images of works by Gaspare Manos and Clementina Crocco. And almost anything Italian is a perfect match for all that is Indian, from the warmth and drama of the music to the intense flavor and brilliant colour of the food and the passion and spirit of the people. So a show of Italian art in the Indian city of Mumbai only follows a kind of logic, right? Curator Caterina Corni certainly thought so, which is why she brought Made in Italy to the commercial capital. As she says, “I love Mumbai and I think that this city has an absorbing energy.”

Corni has brought to India the work of three artists - Azelio Corni, Antonella Aprile and Giovanni Frangi. Having graduated “in Indology at the University of Milan. I am an art curator specialised in Modern and Contemporary Indian art. I have done many conferences focused on it in Italy,” Corni says in her delightfully accented English. “I was thinking about this show since a long time. I am very interested to show Italian art in India and vice versa. I am working with these artists from 2004 and I am following and promoting their works around the world. All of them have created the artworks specifically for this show.” And as she explains using a quote from Rabindranath Tagore in her curatorial note, which is rather more grammatically conventional, “Images transcend languages limits, embodying that sense of universality which poetry cannot offer.” She explains, “Images doesn’t need any translation, neither any middle passage or filter; they are clear and go straight to everybody, as they speak a universal language. Nowadays, globalisation made this thought even more actual, either in its positive and negative meaning….’Made in Italy’ doesn’t underline artist’s geographical origins, but it recall that sense of universality which is essential in images language. A game of words and meaning which delete any attempt to classification.”  

Like much that is Italian, there is a lovely stark simplicity to the works on display, though their implication and meaning is as mysterious as the lack of vibrant colour. Most pieces are in shades of black-white-grey, with the occasional lick of pastel peach or blue. According to Corni, “Aprile, Corni and Frangi prefer to use black and white, it has not a specific meaning. I can say that in Italy we have a strong tradition of this uncoloured painting.” One large work stands out for being not ‘uncoloured’; It is brilliant red, with shades and shadows, suggestions of underlying pattern emerging with time and gaze, almost like an archaeological site map slowly being unearthed. It is a favourite, Corni admits, “The artist is Azelio Corni, he made fabulous works on felt. He likes to experiment with various materials such plastic, saari, metal, glass and now felt! The red one remembers something atavistic. Yes, he is attracted by the archeological field. The plastic strength of the sign is an essential element in Corni’s work, a sign which cuts the canvas, the paper, the fabric and that sometimes becomes a chromatic mass sending to an ancestral universe.”

One work, video-animation ‘The Happening Beyond The Time’ by Aprile, tells of the Lord Śiva explaining the quantum theory while performing his cosmic dance. “Śiva embodies the dynamic and protean universe where matter can no longer be apart from its activity, as in quantum theory where subatomic particles aren’t made by any “essential matter”, but they are dynamic lines turning one into another,” Corni says.  “Even if we go through the matter, nature shows us that that there isn’t an isolated and ‘essential brick’, but it shows itself as a net of relations between those different part composing the whole cosmos.” But doing anything with Indian mythology is always risky, even for Indians; did the artist understand sensitivities in doing this piece? “Antonella Aprile is started to work on the video animation before knowing about the show at Sakshi. She was interested in the connection between Eastern religion and Western scientific thought. She is looking for how these two different worlds converge on the same point.” There is a charming naivete in that quest, a delightful lack of awareness of how politics can and does interrupt creative inspiration in the city that is purportedly secular and all-embracing.

A couple of the works seem to edge closer to nature, like a gentle walk through the woods after rain. The air smells fresh through a misty landscape, the colours, if any, are subtle, even the rocks feel newly washed. Everything is merely suggested, nothing is fully defined. Frangi’s work, Corni shows off, is all about exploring an underlying ‘holy dimension’. “In images there is always something infinite”, a dimension that is not expressed through a spiritual or allegoric concept, but through incarnation, via bodies of rocks, stones, trees, rivers. Is there a spirit peeking through the leaves? Or was that your own face, peeping at you as you try to find your own soul? 

Whether a show like this one will get the larger audience that it deserves is not clear, since the works defy categorization and elude interpretation. But the delicate charm and subtle beauty of the art on display leaves behind a soft feeling of something timeless, something waiting to be known.

Made in Italy

APRILE – CORNI – FRANGI, curated by Caterina Corni

Sakhi Gallery, Mumbai, 

On view till 8th September 2012

Looking ahead

Art is a funny creature – what is created today may not find favour for many generations, while sometimes what was painted, sculpted or installed years ago becomes a perennial favourite. This could be one reason that retrospective shows are popular, attracting large audiences and pulling in buyers and the media alike, refreshing memories and providing a new perspective on a not-as-new work. Every now and again galleries pull out pieces stored in their warehouses and re-present them to an always-avidly-interested public. And as the artists gain fame – or perhaps notoriety – the value of their work, intrinsic or intangible, changes, the increase or decrease reflecting the original manifold. But this is a tag so difficult to define that tax laws and auction base prices are calculated in what seems to be a completely arbitrary manner. That apart, what is interesting to see is how these random works culled out of storage are clubbed together in one  exhibition…as has been done in the group show at the Sakshi Gallery in Mumbai, in Looking Back, Looking Forward, described as “revisits seminal work by some artists while charting the roadmap for others…both retrospective and prospective”.

It begins with a step into what seems like anywhere in the Islamic world. You walk into the gallery and suddenly you are on the roof of a mosque, a madrassa, maybe a Mughal palace with a modern twist. Riyas Komu’s The Last Resonance (2005), from his Blood Red Series in wood, automotive paint and metal is a sprawling metropolis in minaret tops and calligraphy, boldly, almost defiantly inked around the walls of the room. Listen carefully to the sounds of the space and you hear the echo of the muezzin, the soft swish of robes and the sparking bubble of oil frying kebabs on a hot tawa. And then comes the peace of an enormous prayer hall, its walls etched with exquisite inlay, the curves and swoops of letters signifying more than man can endure.

 Maybe it is the scale of Komu’s piece, perhaps it is the mystery of the sweeping swathes of lettering, maybe it is even the close-up and hugely magnified filigree of the onion domes – the rest of the collection of seven artists’ work pales in contrast. The tops of buildings do a reprise in Zarina Hashmi’s Roofs (1982, mixed media, gold leaf), this time seen through the eyes of a passing eagle. The geometric regularity of the prismatic rooftops glimmer with the sheen of gold leaf, as if the sun was setting over the metal of a thousand tiny homes far below. And perhaps putt-putting through that crowded, imaginary, gilded city you could see Valay Shende’s scooter (Untitled, 2007), glittering with gilt-plated metal disks like a fashion statement that tries to outdo itself in its bling quotient. The kickstart pedal moves, though the storage bin does not open, and you almost see the pizza boy ride up to deliver his order in a world that could be called Oz.

And as this small world edged with sunshine and tinged with glimmer goes about its business a baby totters on, out of Chintan Upadhyay’s imagination (Untitled, 2009) and into the visual space. It too is gold, composed not of flesh, blood and bone, but made of fiberglass, gold leaf, paint and wood. The child may be looking for its mother, wandering through the streets of the gold city and stepping back to avoid the gold scooter. And there she is, a lady all green and gold, waiting by her colourful pushcart. Rekha Rodwittiya’s Dream Text (2011-2012, fiberglass, popular stickers, varnish, stainless steel rods, green Meera lace thread, paper with digital printing; go-cart – teak wood, waterproof plywood, popular stickers, varnish, acrylic paint, metal, rope) is a delightfully feminine woman, the artist’s first installation, a verdant Rama green lady wearing a metal cage-skirt. Her body is covered with gold henna – butterflies, paisleys, all filigreed forms children would stick on their textbooks or bedroom walls. Her small carriage is bright, playful, perfect to hold her shopping, her cat or even that child…

Looking on is a man playing God. He gazes out from behind glass and from a photo, in Nandini Valli Muthaiah’s work (Reassured + Ornamental, 2006; Effervescent 1, 2003; all inkjet print on archival paper), his skin blue like the Lord Krishna, his robes orange-yellow, his jewels a-gleam as he prepares for his act on a stage that could be the city itself. And as we wait for the performance – or is it the prayer? – we feel the beating of the heart of the child, the woman, the city that exists under the roofs and minarets. Sunil Gawde’s hearts (Still Alive II, 2008, teak wood, nails, gas tourch) take on a life of their own, studded with nails or smoothly polished wood, inviting a touch, throbbing with a pulse that could be that of all of us, an entire civilization. 

Looking Back, Looking Forward - group show - 9th to 30th June 2012, Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai

It has to be 'it'!

INFIDELITY
Tara Palmer-Tomkinson
Pan Books
417 pages
Rs235

Appearances can indeed be deceiving. Tara Palmer-Tomkinson, It girl, known for her fun-loving, hard-drinking, cocaine-sniffing, party-going and throwing socialite image, made even less appealing by the collapse of her nasal cartilage after too much drug ingestion via that route, has cleaned up her act…and her nose, too. And pretty successfully too! As television presenter, reality show contestant and host, as well as pianist and magazine and newspaper columnist, she turned writer with all the elan that she showed in everything else she did. Her first book, the non-fiction The Naughty Girl’s Guide to Life, published in 2007, led to her first novel, Inheritance, which was sort-of-autobiographical, telling the story of Lyric Charlton, the good girl who took a turn into the wild side of life and finally came out the other end, not unscathed, but better than before.

Infidelity takes off where Inheritance stopped. Lyric has found real love in the man who worships her, Philippe, a gardener who has made it big in the world of green. And she has another very important man in her life, her twin brother Edward, who was kidnapped by their uncle Quentin, who has since become a Tibetan monk in the mountains in India. The tangled tale wanders briskly along, with race meets, horses, cocktails and extravagant parties and gentle emotion, with not much significant happening. Until the murder. Which comes as a shock to all connected. It starts long before it actually happens and with all the various characters going in and out, no one can be sure who did it, once it is established that there was in fact a suspicious death. But gradually, delicately, it all comes unwound and the end comes logically, painlessly, elegantly.

This one may not be steamy-sexy or wildly sensationalistic, but it is well written, fairly absorbing and very easy to digest, with no gory details, explicit lovemaking or anything even remotely unpleasant. A good read for a not-too-long flight, a stint in the salon or a dull Sunday afternoon waiting for the painters to finish in the kitchen.

Book of The Boys

They are often referred to as The Boys. Known for exquisite, elaborate and over-the top creations, each a piece of rococo art rather than a garment that could be worn with the same casual flair as a pair of jeans – at one end of the sartorial spectrum - or an heirloom sari, at the other, they are favoured by the filmi frat and the celebrity coterie. Abu Jani and Sandeep Khosla have been partners for 25 years now, working on fashion for the individual and the home, on their television show, on the occasional film and on the revival and rejuvenation of classic crafts. To celebrate this anniversary they have put together a two-volume book that speaks eloquently of their design sensibilities and their meticulous striving for perfection. The duo has dressed everyone who is anyone in India and abroad, their styles being seen on the likes of Bollywood royalty (from the Bachchan clan to the Khans and Kapoors who light up the silver screen) and Hollywood luminaries, including Judi Dench, Maggie Smith, Frieda Pinto and Sophie Marceau.

It began in 1986, when Bombay-born Abu, who started his career designing costumes for films, met Sandeep from Kapurthala, the young man who worked in his family’s leather business. They had no money, no qualifications, just talent and determination. The collaboration began almost immediately after, with a first collection called Mata Hari being shown off four months after the partnership was formed. They were passionate about all things Indian; as Abu said some years ago, “We are unabashedly Indian in our aesthetics. And passionately in love with the rich cultural, historic and design legacy of our Land. Design is our way of paying homage to that beauty. By taking it into the 21st century.” Classic elegance, fine fabrics, exquisite hand-work and superb finish characterize their garments, which incorporate ancient techniques and craftsmanship of chikankari, zardozi, tharad and mirrorwork.

And to celebrate this quarter-century of togetherness, Abu and Sandeep have conceived a book, India Fantastique, that Sandeep explains with “Abu and I thought long and hard about how we wanted to celebrate our milestone, and also about how we would use this celebration to set the vision for our creativity and ourselves in the next twenty-five years. It soon became clear that a book, or rather two as it turned out to be, was the ideal vehicle.” Volume one includes dozens of designs the duo has created, with closeups of details. Volume two zooms in on their interior design concepts. Sotheby's London will be hosting an exhibition on the 25-year-long relationship and its results, called India Fantastique, September 3-5, which sets Abu-Sandeep’s landmark fashion against a backdrop of images from some of their most fabulous interiors. 

It really does not matter who answers, Abu Jani or Sandeep Khosla, because the two minds think so alike and the two sensibilities are so finely co-tuned. One speaks, the other voicelessly echoes. They are fluent – albeit distracted by the hustle and hurry of having a launch, a party and so much more that goes into a celebration of this kind of life and work – and clear about what they say.

It has been 25 years since your partnership began. Has it been a smooth ride right through?

We were fortunate to receive instant accolades and sell out with our debut collection, but of course it hasn't been smooth. Blood, sweat and tears are the ingredients when you choose to dream big. And our dream was no different. Financial constraints, setbacks like a fire which destroyed everything, refusing to change or compromise or downsize - none of these things is easy. But the disappointments and struggle have been the most valuable teachers. And when things have seemed impossible, the belief of others in us has enabled us to always believe in ourselves. Along with the hard graft there has been much magic and many miracles.

From Jashan to Abu-Sandeep – what has changed, evolved, developed in your design sensibilities?

An artist is evolving in a continuum. You finish something and are compelled to create again. We have always been maximalists. Our couture has always been classical rather than trendy. What is merely fashion will always be transient. We aim to transcend the limitations of now and create something which will always be current. You hone, you evolve, you set new standards and then break them but ultimately you retain your original sensibilities because they ARE your core.

How has the market for your kind of couture changed in the 25 years since you started working together?

It’s become bigger. We are blessed that we have always found an appreciative audience. One that continues to grow. At the end of the day, if you have the goods, there will always be a buyer. We believe in allowing our work to speak. And it seems to reach the 'ears' or rather the wardrobes of a diverse audience.

Why did you choose chikankari and zardosi to concentrate on?

Because chikankari had disintegrated into its crudest form, as had zardozi. And it irked us to see the down-gradation of a such regal and impossibly beautiful techniques. It was painful to see what these crafts had been reduced to. And so we made it our mission to bring them back to their rightful state. We have dedicated ourselves over the years to revival and reinvention. India has an unsurpassed legacy when it comes to textiles and craft. We incorporate that history and fashion it for the future. Apart from chikan and zardozi, we have refined mirror work, resham, tharad and rabadi. Taking things to new heights is one of our passions.

Is there an abiding clientele and use for couture? Or is prêt slowly taking over, with easy-to-wear rather than ready-to wear being the bon mot?

Couture will always have a market in India. We are not only au fait with luxury, but accustomed to it; we are inclined towards made to measure, addicted to living large. Of course, fashion must extend to the masses and pret will be the way forward for that.

Has fashion in India come of age today? Is there original work being done, or are we still aping the West?

There is a lot of talent out there. But there is also too much derivative or borrowed design. The ones who last beyond flash in the pan success will be those who are original.

You have a lot of big name celebrity clients, many from Bollywood. Are their demands/needs any different from anyone else’s?

Every client is important. A celebrity client is merely much more visible, so any mistakes/accomplishments make news beyond cocktail party chatter. Every man and woman we dress deserves to look and feel their best.

You said two years or so ago that you would like to design a whole Bollywood film. Is that going to happen?

It will. When the right project comes along.

Your goal was cited as being ‘to build a worldwide brand with shops all over the world - to put India on the creative fashion map of the world’. Do you think you have done that with all your work and the clients you dress – internationally and at home in India?

That is the dream, for sure. One we have begun to live. We do want to put India on the global map. And whenever we have created, it has been without compromising our sensibilities or ourselves. When Judi Dench or Sarah Brown or Princess Michael, or any of our many international clients have worn us, it has been US they have worn. We want global success, but it must come without diluting or warping who we are. There is a long way to go. And it is something which requires big bucks or funding. We need corporate India to believe in Brand India. Only then can we or any other Indian fashion house hope to make it on the global front.

You won a lot of female hearts (mine included!) when you said that “We are a culture and a body type that is made for curves. It's Ajanta Ellora [ancient caves containing paintings depicting voluptuous goddesses] not Twiggy that floats our boat and our fashion. The sari is made to be draped against rounded hips and the swell of a bosom. It sits better.” Do you still believe that?

Of course we do! One doesn't change one's beliefs according to what is fashionable. And nothing is more beautiful than a woman comfortable in her own skin. Sexiness isn't a shape or a dress size. But if it were we would like to think it was voluptuous with a capital V!

This fabulous book – why a book? Why not a film or a multimedia presentation? How did it happen? What did you not use when you put it together over the last two years? There must be so much more….!

Because a book is forever. It combines both language and visuals. This moment, our journey, couldn't be encapsulated in a presentation. A movie is again didactic. It dictates what the audience sees. There is a certain beauty to a still image. It allows you to dream, to read between the lines. To create your own relationship with the content.

And yes, there is plenty that didn't make it into the book. Like curation, one chooses that which best represents one's vision. We do have a lot of beautiful excess which will be incorporated in other media and also serve as a catalogue of our work.

You design for yourselves, you have said. What gives you the most pleasure – creating the garment or seeing the smile on the face of the person who wears it?

For any artist, to create is their life force. It isn't something one controls, but rather that which takes you hostage. It is both pleasure and pain, beauty and torture. So of course it is the prime mover. To see that creativity bring joy to the recipient is a source of immense pleasure and joy to the artist, but it is not what they create for. Our work isn't merely a product to us. That would make it a business. And as you know, business has always been a by-product of our work, never its raison d'être.

Garments, interiors, a television show, international exhibitions, now a book. What next?

More. More. More! More, taking it global in a much bigger way. Creating bigger and better. Expanding our field of vision to include other lifestyle verticals. There is no rest and no limits for the inspired mind.

What makes Abu-Sandeep truly happy?

To create without constraints. To live life on our own terms. To be there for those we love. To make a difference.

EXHIBITION

An exhibition of the designers’ work will be held at Sotheby’s, 34-35 New Bond Street, London W1, from 3rd to 5th September, to coincide with the launch of India Fantastique.

India Fantastique

Fashion: 402 illustrations, 300 in colour Interiors: 167 illustrations, 162 in colour

£95.00