Seeds: sometime, somewhere, somehow- Jinal Patel

"Seeds" is a public-interactive art project taken up by Jinal Patel.

The artist asks the village children to collect some seeds and give the artist and the artist generates a workshop of toy-making out of the seeds. The children made toys and dolls with animals and other natural forms covering the seeds with cow dung and mud. Notably the covering increased the life or vitality of the seeds for longer time. And on a particular day all the children went to a field and threw the seeds up randomly with a possibility leaving out there: of sprouting, uprising and being full-grown trees someday somehow.

More than the life, earth and seeds the project is also about randomness, speculations and possibilities.

"It is very interesting to me", Jinal Says, "to see how the forest is developed- by itself, without plantation: without plan, without care". The randomness of the natural forests insisted the artist to think about the project in one hand, and on the other a concern around the village-children of the upcoming generation who are seemingly tend to get away from the cultural, social and ecological roots inspired her to develop the project with seeds.  

The throwing of the toys (or the seed-balls so to speak) randomly has greater significance in multiple ways. They were expected to grow up in the future- sometime, somewhere, somehow. This also addresses a critical dialogue around spectatorship or the act of perceiving an art work: where the artist or performer performs an art work for some imaginary spectator amongst the crowd expecting the communication to grow:  sometime, somewhere, somehow.

"Seeds", the artist's intervention was collaborated with the performative venture "Jhini Jhini Chadaria", taken place on 18th June, 2014, in the "Eco-sani-irri" residency program by Gram Art.  

Here is the transcription of the artists' sayings from the video updated below.

As Jinal says about her project:

"It is very interesting to me to see how the forest is developed- by itself, without plantation: without plan, without care. (In my thought it was there)- I was going to a farmer's village, I was thinking of plantation and farming... (and what I have come to realize that) the kids are not so much interested in farming. They are more into other things like Mobile and other urban stuff.

And I asked also so many children while working with them: Do you know where seeds come from?

Where you can find seeds and where not? What sprouts?

Somewhere they didn't know what a seed is. (I realized that) I should start with this. I told them to gift me one seed each, and they gifted me. With cow dung and earth we made some toys with animals and fish and natural forms.

And we decided to collaborate with a performance... it was a procession...

It was interesting to collaborate with the last day procession where we were carrying all the things and going to the houses asking some donations and giving something back- so it's a give-and-take - and that is how I thought about this whole project: as give-and-take to nature.

We went to the field, the children whoever made the seed-balls... They threw them to the field - back to the nature, so it will grow somewhere. It is a possibility which you are throwing, and you are giving it back what nature has given to you- somewhere in the time."

10 artists came for 10 days to Paradsinga Village (MP, India), with a cause

Gram Art Project’s

Ecology-Sanitation-Irrigation Project

under

Negotiating Routes : Ecologies of the Byways-V, Khoj
10-20 June 2014

ACROPHILIA: Shweta Purushottam Bhattad and Faith Series

Reflections From the tapestry of ‘TANA BANA, Chapter 1, Kota’ 

15 December 2012

 ACROPHILIA: Shweta Purushottam Bhattad and Faith Series

Samudra Kajal Saikia

Though a very new face in Indian Art practices, Shweta Purushottam Bhattad seems to be a focused performer strongly stepping ahead. I met her on 13th of December 2012, and the very day I saw the presentation of her earlier works at Tana Bana, Kota Chapter.

She is energetic, disciplined, concentrated and ever smiling. Rigorous as a performer, she is a person who goes through a process of field study before the performance takes place.  

Though there is no definition of 'performance art' readily available per say, some of its aspects could be considered on certain grounds. Shweta’s practices fulfill those aspects in a very vivid manner. Firstly she uses her body in a very vibrant manner, knowing how to make the body her subject. Secondly she has a strong visual vocabulary which many other contemporary performance artists just overlook in the name of conceptual arts. Oh yes, at the same time she is very much conceptual. This is exactly why I wish to write on her performance- that is to speak aloud, that to be conceptual, does not mean being devoid of visual sensibilities or performative ‘stunts’. Well, here comes ‘stunt’, which is again a very important part for a performer and performance. Stunt is a word we mostly use with a negative tone, but in fact stunt or spectacularity remains an essential element for performance – and Shweta somehow feels that (it is not the artist’s statement, but what the writer observed). 

extending body, time and engagement... (an earlier performance)

I haven’t seen previous works of the artist, however I came across some of the documented visuals very recently. The artist seems to have some acrophiliac tendency. In some of her previous works within the 'FAITH SERIES', she hangs or places herself high up and writes the word FAITH. Then recently, I came across a performance cum digital manipulation work, where also she is hanging on a ceiling fan.

Acrophilia?

Why this love for verticality? Or to modify the question, why does a woman artist prefer to place herself above the human eye level? Well, now the entire context will open itself in a different direction. May be I would prefer to write on this matter later in detail.

Acrophilia?

Acrophilia?

It was a dry and a strongly sunlit day. We reached at an area in Kota, where all the institutions that provoke you for higher educational skill, offer a restless commotion with career promises and we saw Shweta sitting on the top of a building construction crane, writing something on a scroll. She was sitting on the top of the crane's beam, which was itself a difficult task to do, to maintain the hydraulic balance constantly, and to keep sitting there above 12-15 feet from the ground. She was un-winding and scrolling papers from students’ notebooks, and repetitively writing a word: FAITH. The same monotonous act was happening for a long time. We were surprised and worried. What if she faints due to the strong sunlight?

The performer was in the air, on top of the crane beam. The un-rolling papers were falling down and making waves in the air. In the background on one side, there was some building construction going on, and on the other side there were coaching-institute buildings, and big hoardings. Just in the opposite side of the road there was a roadside-bookstore selling coaching class tutorials. The location, the thematic consideration – both were very much complimentary.

People from “Hope 24x7 helpline” were distributing their pamphlets to the people on the street. “Hope 24x7 helpline” is an NGO working for the consultancy for the depressed students in the coaching institute areas. As Kota is a place known for the ever-growing coaching institutions, it is also known for many depression stories and suicides of young talented student. The helpline woks for the stressed students out there.

The association with the helpline that gives psychiatric solutions to the stressed students of the coaching classes and tries to prevent extremities like suicide, and the written word 'FAITH' on the coaching class notes from the top of a crane that makes building constructions - contains a very critical insight within itself. On one hand it addresses the social norms where people are just running after the money making strategies, putting the young students in the rat race of making them engineers or doctors and on the other hand it addresses the methods of parenting the child.

After seeing the artist’s presentation of earlier works and after witnessing this particular work at site, I was convinced of the quality of this artist's tendency to engage with ‘on-site-issues’. 

The activity happened under TANA-BANA, The Warp and Weft of Art and the Public Domain. 
A Public Art Event, 10th-16th Dec, 2012, Kota, Rajasthan 

River Songs 2: Chambal

14 Dec 2012

The artists team reaches the bank of River Chambal around 4 PM from Kota.

They crossed the river on a boat and arrived in front of the Keshav Rai Temple.

Atul Kannad poet and novelist, Sahitya Akademy award winning novelist described many things about the myth, history and local lives of the river Chambal.

After spending some time on the bank and communicating with local people Samudra Kajal Saikia went to the river wearing a Gamosa (traditional Assamese towel). Then he started writing with white powder colors on the ground. The experience is almost like making an alpana.

“Aao nadi kya bolti hain suney

Is se pehle ki nadi ki bolti band ho jaaye”

(Translating:

Lets come and listen to what the river speaks

Before it stops speaking for good)

Samudra had a similar exercise before in March 2012 in Kolkata, on the Bank of River Ganges.

There he wrote in Bengali 

এসো নদীর ধারে একটু বসি, নদীটা শুকিয়ে যাওয়ার আগে।

আহাঁ পাৰতে অলপ বহোঁ নদীখন শুকাই যোৱাৰ আগতে। 

Let’s sit a while on the bank before the river dries up. 

for details:

http://kankhowa.blogspot.in/2012/03/disposable-river.html

Samudra Kajal conceptualized this as a long term project to continue the same sentence again and again on the river banks in multiple places. But this time he added two lines newly. May be over the period of time it will take a shape of a long poetry consisting multiple languages, according to the space. So in a way it can be briefed as: Samudra Kajal is writing a multilingual poem in multiple places over the period of time, not with pen on paper but with materials on river banks.

The activity happened under TANA-BANA, The Warp and Weft of Art and the Public Domain. 
A Public Art Event, 10th-16th Dec, 2012, Kota, Rajasthan 


Excerpts from Samudra's Personal blog on the earlier exercise: RiverSongs 1:

When I was in a field visit and research in interior parts of Assam in recent past, while observing the protest scenario against the BIG DAM on Brahmaputra, while facing the big big turbines on the 52 National Highway across the Sonitpur District the most striking but quite expected news came to notice: the mighty Brahmaputra is drying up to a scale never witnessed before…



I was spending my one year in Baroda, my second year of MVA, on the bank of river Vishwamitri. It was a dead river.

Detail of the work

the ghat

One of my favorite songs, “Nodi mathon boy, kaloiko noroy…” Loosely translating: “a river only keeps flowing without waiting for anybody else, who is there to stop its journey? One who has love for the sea, will just go and embrace the sea …” However, the lyrics is proven wrong. Perhaps at the time of composing the song the composers were not aware of the BIG DAMS, the international policies and the conspiracies of the states.

Performers Independent at Collaboration...

The mighty river Brahmaputra remains the backbone of the culture, economic resource, biodiversity and identity for the people of the land called Assam. The most celebrated personalities from Assamese culture and literature Bhupen Hazarika and Indira Goswami expired recently. Both of them were the greatest lovers of all times and the river Brahmaputra was the source of inspiration in their entire lives. However, news came up: the river Brahmaputra is drying up!!!

public interacting...

On 12^th March, 2012, I wrote the sentence in two places. One on the staircases of Babughat, the other on the ferry platform near to Babughat.

Book your dream House at most affordable Prices

Reflections From the tapestry of Chapter 1, Kota:

14 December 2012

Artist: Samudra Kajal Saikia,

(New Delhi)

Kala Dirgha, the State Art Gallery became a central place of activities, preparations, interactions and discussions for the Tana Bana (public art festival) participants. As the artist arrives the place early in the morning on 13 Dec 2012, he discovers three small tent houses. Then on the basis of an immediate thought came to his mind the artist made out some posters and a bigger banner in front and besides of the small house structures, saying, “Book your dream House” or “Get your dream Home at most affordable Prices…” etc.

Samudra Kajal Saikia, an artist and performer working across the multiple disciplines has been working on a project that deals with the individual and collective memories around “Home/House” for several years. Many ways his artistic engagement tries out to figure out the meaning of these two words: Home and House. The central project series is known as the “Disposable House”.

(also See:

http://www.disposablehouse.blogspot.in/) 

A note made by Baishali Mukherjee after her photo documentation  works at the house construction sites in Delhi and NCR

Baishali Mukherjee at work

The current work sets a site-specific installation that critically looks at the ironies of the promotion of the “Dream House” and the “Dream Home” taken by the commercial house construction and dealing agencies as well as the urban building development strategies taken by the Government itself. 

Images from "houseHOLD", a Disposable Theatre at KNMA, Delhi

The artist explains how the growth of urban housing complexes created an amount of pain in his Santiniketan Days where he saw the gradually increasing urban looking buildings in the areas around Prantik, a neighboring locality to Santiniketan. Moreover as a resident of New Delhi, he explains how he has to face the everyday provocations to immediately book a “Dream House at the most affordable Price”. 

In this work many local people contributed in taking a shape including some students from Institute of Polytechnics, Kota.

The activity happens under TANA-BANA, The Warp and Weft of Art and the Public Domain.
A Public Art Event, 10th-16th Dec, 2012, Kota, Rajasthan 

Image from "Ghar Katha: a Disposable Theatre", Baroda