Artistic Process.

My artistic process in this course went a little something like this. I first asked myself what i thought Art was and went into an intense debate with myself where I went against or shot down my own thoughts and couldn't, finally, come to any solid conclusion except for a vague idea of the subject.The next thing we learnt, i believe, would have to be how an argument has to be constructed by the long and heated arguments that pursued on the discussion of who an artist and what art is.

The design process is not just a single idea but a combined extensive negotiation that takes place in an individuals mind. After the initial rough draft of the idea and brainstorming comes the stage of constraints. We all have to cut down on the ideas that are vague and you may bot pursue and start solidifying the other concepts.

The next step would be to discuss the many related and unrelated topics in and around the main subject you are studying and researching on to get an idea of the connections it has to the different facets of life. After this rigorous process comes the time to slack off a bit and completely retract yourself from thinking about anything project related.

Go back to it after a few days and look back on the initial idea which you poked and prodded until it was a completely new or more reformed and complex idea.

After getting an idea, look at all the different perspectives, get all mixed up in the head like a ball of thread and the frustration starts again. Untangling all those threads is the next step which every artist has to go through where he/she has to concentrate on untangling and cutting down over and over until, finally, you are able to get the essential co ordinates for your project and know it in and out.

It's all clear in the end and satisfying to know what the point of the artwork is.

Final Artwork.

My final artwork was done using a sheet of wood on which I nailed rusted iron nails in the shape of a face. The different contours of the face were given by the difference in height of the nails on which shards of old and waste CD's were stuck. As the pieced of shard went down the face, they changed from being perfect and shiny, to chipping off bit by bit, until they were transparent at the chin.

Documentation:

Concept note:

IRIDESCENT.

Peer into the shards of the discs as their iridescence slowly chips off and all you can see is the transparent surface sustained by rusted iron nails. We, as humans, always try to hold on the our iridescence afraid to show these rusted iron nails that support the shimmering, but flawed exterior of ourselves. Every time we doubt ourselves, a tiny scratch is etched on the surface of it all rendering our lustre slowly obsolete. And yet we are lustrous dying shards, amalgamating with time into a surface of warped, undeniable truth.

Art Acknowledge.

In this project course, in the first week i was asked to do whatever i wanted, in whichever medium i wanted in whatever form i wanted. we were given some time to do it and i chose sculpture as i wanted to work with clay and do pottery. I finally did something completely different from what i expected and on a much smaller scale but it turned out well.

Every week was a huge learning experience by films, debates and discussions after which Narendra slowly nudged us all into the direction of social issues from art. we were divided into two groups to decide which social issue would we want to make artwork on. Coincidentally, both the groups came to the same conclusions of either doing something on the LGBT rights, animal rights or caste system. we were told to research on the political aspect regarding this issue and of the article 377 that was recently passed.

We later had a discussion with two other facilitators who did work in the LGBT are which is what we decided upon after another debate on each of the topics mentioned above. I questioned my thoughts, morals and knowledge during this enriching discussion where a lot of questions were raised and we went into the nitty gritty details of how social issues arise and how the public is brain washed into not asking questions about the law and about who decides the rules of our life that everyone has to follow or be condemned of immorality.

Finally, we divided ourselves into groups as we were told we are going to conduct an exhibition on this issue. We had to go through the whole drill of choosing a space, which the space design team, which i was in, did. we had a visual communications team, a coordinating and getting artwork from people team, a documentation team and a curatorial note team. 

It was a really hard task to combine everyone's ideas and make everyone know what is happening in the other teams works. to overcome that, we had sessions every once a weak that showed the progress of each team where we gave feedback and suggestions for everything.

We all went through a rigorous artistic process of getting frustrated to the point of almost losing our minds which is when Narendra, out of nowhere, told us to take a break and not think about our work for the weekend. 

The next week we had to chose a picture or draw a Indian face. What we think an Indian face looks like and elucidate our reasons for why we chose it. i chose an advertisement of chips done by Ashton Kutcher where he portrays different stereotypes according to the flavor of the chips. In one of the flavors, he paints his face brown, wears a a bright blue shiny sherwani with a wig of black oiled hair and a mole on the face. he also was making a thumbs up with both of his hands with a peculiar but very Indian, in my opinion, smile on his face with a bright magenta background.We went through everyone's pictures and explanations as to how they saw an Indian to typically look and added it to one big list and found many similar attributes that were considered to be Indian.


After a lot of miscommunications, frustration, debates, discussions and such the last week arrived with people running helter skelter to finish their artworks as well as do their jobs in the exhibitions.

On one of the days nearing the end, another facilitator came and we had a wonderful discussion of=n how self doubt plays a huge role in learning. if you are sure of yourself there is no learning done. if you dont question your own values and morals from time to time, there is no change or growth in self.Everyone went into kind of a self contemplative mood after that discussion which helped the concepts of our artwork a tremendous amount. 

The day of the exhibition, the space design team which i was in landed up compromising a lot in the process of setting up the space from external factors, but, in the end after all the hard work and running around from place to place in the chaos that was our N3 campus basement, it all paid off. the exhibition, at least through my eyes, was a success. Everyone got their work and art done people started coming through to see it.