Sunday 29 June 2014

28th June 2014

The Collective Studio Baroda
collaborates with SITE art space
for a lecture by Sanjeev Joshi

Left to Right:
Piyush Maheshwari
Sanjeev Joshi
Myself
Manish Maheshwari
6.20 pm Saturday
Before the talk Beyond those Walls commenced.




The venue for the lecture………













Our speaker Architect Sanjeev Joshi……












Address the gathering……..


Our audience….




                                               

Friday 27 June 2014

A new venture...



It is with great pleasure that we bring  a year of collaborative programs to Baroda from June 2014 to March 2015.  SITE  art space & The Collective Studio  Baroda both share a vision for art that focuses upon community and interaction as seminal features that we wish to engage with, as well as highlight alternative spaces of exhibiting and discourse as valuable and critical to sustaining an energized and ever evolving art context. We hope that the programs generate excitement and participation that allows for this idea of cultural engagement to be rewarding for the city of Baroda.

SITE  art space is situated in GIDC Makerpura within the heart of the industrial production zone. Placing this alternative space which houses a fabricating unit an exhibition gallery, a display space of art products designed for commercial use, a library, a residency program unit & a pop up cafĂ© space within such a location is to reaffirm the need of alternative art spaces both nationally and abroad, and to continue the traditions of this practice that is a valued part of art history. Where the community of artists and the audience are more intimately engaged with discourse and interaction. 

SITE art space is the brain child of Manish Maheshwari & Piyush Maheshwari two brothers with a wonderful vision to have a space that invites art & ideas to be show cased in Baroda.  Manish is an his engineer in electronics and telecommunications but was always engaged with creating things from different materials, and believes in making any design workable. It was his keenness to be involved  with art that inspired him to establish SITE art space along with his brother Piyush who has a background in commerce and assists in the back office management very efficiently.



The Collective Studio Baroda was set up by Surendran and myself in the traditions of the guru shishya practice where students and teachers live and work together. It is a space of learning that does not charge any fee nor accepts any payback via works of art in exchange either. Founded on the principle of trust and belief to the commitment and passion to study art from the comprehension of it being a holistic world of imbibing knowledge and experience and where the rigours of long hours of studio practice are mandatory, the selection of students and young artists are through invitation only. Teaching, residencies, lecture programs, curatorial projects and fund raising are amongst some of the major activities that we focus on.




Tuesday 10 June 2014

The 10th June….

Today whilst reading the newspaper I glanced at the date and realised that it is the date of my first marriage which was solemnised on the 10th of June 1977,  when I was eighteen years old. Memories are as you desire them to be, depending on the philosophies that guide your life. I was immediately infused with a delight of remembrances and a reverie that holds an openness of recollection without recrimination, blame or regret. I know for a fact that my life has been guided by intellectual parameters that insisted of me to find much wider spaces of comprehension to everything I engaged with,  rather than to fit myself into a small corner of mere survival and existence, because life sometimes knocks you down or because you encounter fear.

It is the space of self-perception within which sharp critique must resonate if we are to use time effectively in the cycle of our lives. Time to maximise learning by honing  skills tirelessly is what will determine real liberty and growth. But this is not something that occurs merely from armchair philosophising and rhetoric alone, much as it may be a great feel-good factor for self esteem. The truth of success comes from trashing self-pity into oblivion and setting small targets  that piece a long trajectory of sustainable vision on a map of must-do's! There is no substitute for hard work and as I look back today on my journey of living and learning, I am pleased by the tenacity I possessed to stretch time to its maximum bursting point,  and pack in  (many times exhaustively!)  experiences of work and family with no compromises on either front.

Life knocks everybody about with no exception. Therefore it is foolish to waste time fussing and fretting over things that maybe painful, because it doesn't produce anything positive. Every one gets emotionally hurt. This is what being human is all about unfortunately. I deal with this by letting my hurt surface within my consciousness and question its origins. If I find no areas that can effectively be erased by negotiation, discourse, active intervention or addressing methodologies of change and atonement,  then I aggressively whack it soundly out of my purview ….and if it pops up again (which happens with memories that are painful),  then I go through my whacking routine again…..and again ….and again…and again! Like a pesky insect you finally do get rid of it and then occupy yourself with much more enlightened preoccupations that duly merit attention. 

I am grateful for comprehending how privileged I am.  I am consistently reminded everyday of this from the many stories and situations in India that hold pain and tragedy that appears crushingly devastating and  dehumanising. And yet in many such instances you encounter such immense courage and bravery where people desire to move on and not be defeated. 

Teachings come from where you choose to find them. From great literature and cinema, and from discourses that challenge one to re-examine and contemplate. I have had such amazing opportunities to be taught by people of great wisdom who offered me through their belief and time,  legacies I feel proud to have shared and to belong within; and which crafted my abilities to keep the ripple of learning ever expanding.  Most importantly my wings of freedom come from the teachings that have influenced me to recognise the immense value of liberal thinking that rejects orthodoxy and conservatism. I learnt early on to define what that difference must mean and to live my life with pride by the governance of its principles at all times. 

It isn't necessarily easy,  but what great joy it brings!