Wednesday, March 31, 2010


Quantum theory tells us that nothing can be measured or observed without disturbing it, so that the role of the observer is crucial in understanding any physical process. So crucial in fact that some people have been led to believe that it is the observer’s mind that is the only reality- that everything else including the whole physical universe is illusion”

“Because our knowledge of the outside world (if it exist!) comes only through our sense impression, it is only the sensual data of whose existence we can be sure. When we say, for example, that there is a table near us, all we actually know is that our mind has acquired information by way of our brain and our senses that is consistent with the postulate of a table… a quantum theory based on consciousness, however, goes further that this: the very existence of an external universe, or at least the particular stat it is in, is strongly determined by the fact that conscious minds are observing it.”

 - Alistair Rae, Quantum Physics: Illusion or Reality?

Monday, March 29, 2010

The Little Kitty in the tree

Here little kitty… here little kitty… come on, come on…. Come to daddy, come to papa… the little boy was smiling with so much hope. Little did he know that he was being watched by a man sitting nearby enjoying his morning smoke….

Dried leaves were falling from the tree, traffic was passing by, pedestrians were crossing over each other, the sun, was shining high. The little boy started shouting now… HERE LITTLE KITTY… COME HERE LITTLE KITTY….. there was anger in his eyes, blood was boiling in his eyes, he had been calling the kitty for a long time…the mother was feeding the babies, ignoring the crazy boy screaming down below standing in the balcony.

The boy lost his cool and started banging his head into the tree trunk. He had been throwing water from the mud bowl towards the tree, hoping the kitty would drink water. He out of a fit of anger banged his head into the graffiti on the Religare Café Wall.

He fell on his knees, weeping, crying and punching the wall, yelling… “Why don’t you drink the water little kitty? Why are u doing this to me ?????

The man who was witnessing the act of feeding the Kitty felt pity on him and decided to help him.
Come here little boy – he said. Wiping his tears the boy said –What ?
“ that is not a kitty you silly boy, that is an eagle’s nest. Stop throwing the water and just let the bird come on it’s own to drink water from the mud bowl” and he went inside to his office space.

The boy’s jaw dropped down, stunned and shocked he closed his mouth with his hands and went up to his space in the mezzanine floor. He saw the eagle scoop down to the balcony, drink water and fly away….
they shoot,
green themselves
rustle and bustle
get shady
and fall,
yellow?

Sunday, March 28, 2010

Butkada phir bad muddat ke magar raushan hua, Noor-i-Ibrahim se Azar ka ghar raushan hua! Phir uthi akhir sada tauhid ki Punjab se, Hind ko ik mard-i-kamil ne jagaye khwab se!

Once again, after an age, the temple became radiant; Azar's house shone with glory of Abraham once again, the call for God's unity arose from Punjab From its soundest slumber Hind was awakened by a perfect man." Mohammad Iqbal on the coming of Guru Nanak"

Droplets of color gather in momentum towards areas virgin in its wake. The whiteness seduces, tempts and challenges the moment to take on. One succumbs to the desire to tread on this path of the unknown with the mind in a frenzied whirl…for what initiates dictates of the hand and the mind remains in the recess of a fault line along the rocks in the desert. Welling within this playground of chance, experiment and indulgence comes along phases of retribution and penance. Insane it seems to be humbled in this process of revival, crash and correction….to be held vulnerable and addicted to the game.

The line follows its own way as the narrative tries to take hold, grapples and leaves spent. In the intervening visual spaces, permutations work their way fighting logical stance. Rigidity of a static form gives way to the exploratory, shuffling across the surface. A maquette on the pedestal overlooking a crucible in attendance, the sculpture last in line. Possibilities emanate from crumpled paper, discarded boxes, ash, grid, ice cubes, coffee… the engagement with an idea, form, and plan keeping the process alive. Anant Mishra, Gagandeep Singh, Jyoti Ranjan Jena, Daina Mohapatra and Jenson Anto on the arts.i  Mezzanine floor that has its clues, and tales to tell…      

Friday, March 26, 2010

cheeni

my name is cheeni.... because i am very sugary, but sometimes i can be very bitter, so then i am KC... karvi cheeni. I guess i am like this only :)

why did the squirrel do potty on me ?

early morning conversation, white chairs, blue table, light gray lemonade glasses.

"have u seen the work" - he asks...
 no..... i reply
he further adds -
" If you want to go into your theme, then go all the way, don't wait for a positive pumping from others all the time, to praise you at every step....."

( sip, sip, sip - three idiots having lemonade )
Neha, refill please....

he continues -
" As i was saying, if you want to do it.... then explode into your theme, topic, subject, expression completely...
EXPLODE !!!!!!!!!!!!!! don't hold back......

( sip, sip, sip - 2nd round of lemonade....)

"Yeah, i feel so too" I acknowledge, unaware that the next day i will find the brown hawk with a pair, feeding his babies... unaware of the Quotient of happiness....of knowing how we go so soft and slow in our works again and again and then at will, decide to unleash a storm, and then again slow like a toy train in the hills which decides to just fly off the tracks and go tumbling and crashing down and within an instant, just hop back on the track at a very slow, relaxing speed...
tiny shiny bird
bathes among falling leaves


“The problem, the contradiction the scientists are stuck with, is that of mind. Mind has no matter or energy but they can’t escape its predominance over everything they do. Logic exists in the mind. Numbers exist only in the mind. I don’t get upset when scientists say that ghosts exist in the mind. It’s that only that gets me. Science is only in your mind too, it’s just that that doesn’t make it bad. Or ghosts either.
“Laws of nature are human inventions, like ghosts. Laws of logic, of mathematics are also human inventions, like ghosts. The whole blessed thing is a human invention, including the idea that it isn’t a human invention. The world has no existence whatsoever outside the human imagination. It’s all a ghost, and in antiquity was so recognized as a ghost, the whole blessed world we live in. it’s run by ghosts. We see what we see because these ghosts show it to us, ghosts of Moses and Christ and the Buddha, and Plato, and Descartes, and Rousseau and Jefferson and Lincoln, on an on and on. Isaac Newton is a very good ghost. One of the best. Your common sense is nothing more that the voices of thousands and thousands of these ghosts from the past. Ghosts and more ghosts. Ghosts trying to find their place among the living.”
 
 Robert Pirsig,  Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance; An Inquiry into Values





Sunday, March 21, 2010

What is Pure Abstraction

7:30 pm, sunday evening, Jyoti, Anant and Gagan, 3 artist in residence at the Mezzanine flr of the Art Cafe in Arts I, Religare.

we are discussing Abstraction... few significant words come through...

sustainability of abstraction over a long period vs spurt of works during a short time

accidental flow vs controlled balance work

accidental abstraction vs when there is balance there is no abstraction, only an image

figure vs Image in Abstraction...

What is holy Now... Lond on...
The unfamiliarity and hostility of physical objects


Objects should not touch because they are not alive. You use them, put them back in place, you live among them. They are useful nothing more. But they touch me, it is unbearable. I am afraid of being in contact with them as though they were living beasts.

—1959 edition, p 19, (Novel) La NausĂ©e by Jean-Paul Sartre


Sartre's physical condition deteriorated, partially because of the merciless pace of work (and using drugs for this reason, e.g. amphetamine)

Amphetamine (amfetamine (INN)) is a psychostimulant drug that is known to produce increased wakefulness and focus in association with decreased fatigue and appetite.

Mis / Re Interpretation

hallucinate

Hallucination in the pathological/psychological sense of "seeing or hearing something which is not there" is first recorded 1646

1604, "deceive," from L. alucinatus, later hallucinatus, pp. of alucinari "wander (in the mind), dream," probably from Gk. alyein, Attic halyein "be distraught," probably related to alasthai "wander about."

illusion

Psychology. a perception, as of visual stimuli (optical illusion), that represents what is perceived in a way different from the way it is in reality.


aberration, fantasy, chimera. illusion, hallucination, delusion refer to false perceptions or ideas.

aberration is a disorder or abnormal alteration in one's mental state. An illusion is a false mental image produced by misinterpretation of things that actually exist: A mirage is an illusion produced by reflection of light against the sky. A hallucination is a perception of a thing or quality that has no physical counterpart: Under the influence of LSD, Terry had hallucinations that the living-room floor was rippling. A delusion is a persistent false belief: A paranoiac has delusions of persecution.

distortion


Psychology - The modification of unconscious impulses into forms acceptable by conscious or dreaming perception.

grotesque


1561, originally a noun, from M.Fr. crotesque, from It. grottesco, lit. "of a cave," from grotta (see grotto). Used first of paintings found on the walls of basements of Roman ruins (It. pittura grottesca).

A style of painting, sculpture, and ornamentation in which natural forms and monstrous figures are intertwined in bizarre or fanciful combinations

odd or unnatural in shape, appearance, or character; fantastically ugly or absurd; bizarre.

Saturday, March 20, 2010

Out - Of - Control - In - To - Control

he said to me, I am in a struggle, I can hear his roller on the canvas, white all over. I as an individual, am afraid of that dark side, the mentally disturbed side of me... when he spoke of distortion, It taking over, it is painful, so real... I am really afraid. He further spoke of his inability to know the direction, something wishing to come out so strong yet trying something else, the dilemma of Drawing vs Painting, the shading and the effects of the colour...

Colours, distortion, figure, object, the narration, the energy which is demanding so much from within, a whole day wasted, a whole day gone, one after the other, so much energy, then something will happen, the true nature of Distortion, I am afraid as i watch, as i experience it internally... suicide, death, the sickness of the mind, how could the past be as such, why does it haunt me sometime... so there is distortion in all of us, more than duality, of our action, reactions.... he is painting it all white...

So that tommorow it will be a fresh day, Holy now.... rapid strokes of the brush in all direction, plastic paint, they are so attractive, i can eat them, i can gulp it all down, one can after the other....

As i try to remember his words, "It will be a problem for me, if i let it out, as it is wanting to come out...it will eventually come out in full force, but I am draining, i can not leave it.... I wish to draw further,

Connect to what you had started in begining, before the explosion of the drawings.... do something, I am talking but I am scared of the whole engagment, of the human psyche.... the artist's dillemma....

Don't you see, it has a mind of it's own, it is reacting on it's own, telling me , moving my brush, an inner conversation, the brush reacts to the mind, the body reacts to the mind, is this experimentation, is this nature of distortion, is it a begining of something, what will satisfy....

further he said, it is reacting in all ways possible, lot of possiblities, all are in his control, he further adds, the goal will be  scored by him, even though I am both the team.

I am nearly done with my icecream, often trying to fill my tiny spoon with the last drops of choclate syrup , licking the spoon front and back....This could be a problem, i say.... And i have my own problems too...

I, now wish to know Distortion, but only from a distance, from a safe distortion, as i saw it in the morning, the plane landing, the tyres screaching as they touch the runway, i watch the spinning in the window, everything going round and round, the white , yellow, black strips on the runway playing a video game.

Ice Cream Stories



J : ha ha ha ha ha...

G : going

J : yeah....

J : Hair cut, i finally got it done, and my bag fixed, the zipper, An old gentleman stood there with his trousers down, the zipper guy worked at it...

G : Icecream ????

J : ha ha ha ha ha !!!! yeah !!!

J : It's humility, simplicity at it's height, if you watch, just watch, you see so much, he wasn't ashamed at all, so comfortable, both of them... I didn't see the Zipper wala after that day !!!

J G : HA HA HA HA HA !!!!

J : and his shop, like how you come with the laptop bag, sit and start, so did he for so many years, a bag... then all opened up, everything displayed out, a small corner, that is his office, his shop... the elderly man was at ease that night, maybe it happened on the way.. it just broke, like the heel !

G : he could've changed, or maybe gone home and changed and then come !

J : i'm sure no time, just happened and too convienent to just drop them, but i didn't see the zipper wala after that day, may be a new corner, maybe it was too much for him to take...

J G : HA HA HA HA HA !!!!

G : and the hair cut story ?

J : let's have icecream

G : the hair cut story ?

J : another scoop ?

G : ok !

J :  ha ha ha ha ha ha !!!! I think i didn't need it...

Kai pee chenuu Stories

J : ha ha ha ha ha ha....

G: It's beacuse of the System. It needs to be upgraded, the video card, ram, its got a slow processor....It     could be him, messing with the system, he sits there and then...he has put some glitches in it, You see, I've got a very Hi fi Camera, it's an SLR... High Defination movie, what to do... this is such a slow system, the video is hanging !!

J : Yes....

G : It must be him, why is he harrasing us like this, I need a simpler camera, you see...

J : ha ha ha ha ha ha...

J : Ok...

G : grrrrrrrrrrrrrr !!!!!!

J : Kai pee chenuu ?

G : Yeah !

J : Let us try another application.....

G : ??????????? You see... i know, therefore I don't know anything !!!!

J : ha ha ha ha ha !!!!!!

Tuesday, March 16, 2010


now i know that I don't know much ! tools of imperfection have taught me a lesson. I am thankful to them.
Lines do cut cut... cut cut....drawing drops down a well, i slip and fall into the well.
I am not too sure of anything now ! because to be sure is boring...
Artist in residence