Bazaar
An Artist’s Book by Sushmita Mazumdar, 2012 Remixed in 2021
Dreams. A Poem. An Artist’s Book.
A Project.
And a Poetry Video!
An artist’s book created for my first solo show in Oct 2012, Bazaar had a revival this year in 2021. Here I document the various ways it went out to people—individuals and the greater public. And some responses as well. It was great see how when I make the dream into art and share, people connect.
Celebrating National Poetry Month,
April 2021
For this year's National Poetry Month, I am so honored to share my poem, Bazaar, as part of Virginia poet laureate Luisa A. Igloria’s Poem-A-Day Virginia project. To be there with so many great and notable poets is something because so many people work in the creative fields, but we never hear about it. I know this well from my work at the Studio. To intentionally bring diverse voices out into the open is important work as we learn many new things about people's lives, their thoughts, and even dreams.
Some responses I got from sharing this on social media:
CM: That's great Sush! Congrats!
Sush: Thanks! This poem was critiqued at Arlington Writer’s Group and the artist’s book was in my 2012 solo show. Maybe you and MK remember it.
MK: I totally remember it! And I still like it!
…..
SDR [from Mumbai, India]: So good, Sush! Sent a shiver down my spine to think this could actually have been experienced by you - not getting the beads you wanted + missing your flight. (I also admit it’s going to be my nightmare now, figuring out where you were in the first place that taking a left would have taken you to Linking Road )
Sush: I love this comment, fellow Bambaiya! When you are going round and round you could land up anywhere! Especially in dreams
But seriously, it’s a very real thing waking up in the middle of the night trying to remember the name of the street back home where your atm was. And finding there is no one to ask and your husband can’t help because he is from here
SDR: I could feel that from the words of your poem !! But that’s probably why the God has kept K [her brother] close by. Aadhi raat ko bhi phone karke street ka naam poochne ka
KD: [her brother] SD: If she is looking for a bazaar on Linking Road, she is making a left turn from Khar Telephone Exchange at the crossroads with Satguru’s. If there is no bazaar it means the mooncipalty truck was there a few minutes ago and all those bazaru guys have fled.
Sush: You are welcome
SDR: That’s exactly what I was thinking, Khar Telephone Exchange Lane. The municipality truck bit was hilarious, don’t know how I didn’t think of it esp when we have that tamasha just under my building every Tuesday !!
Sush: KD arrey baba I go down my street and turn left to come to Linking Road at Standard Chartered bank (ANZ). Then I turn right and go all the way to Bandra. Barobar na?
….
TLJ: I love it, Sush! Your words brought me right to that search for the bazaar.
GP: Superb!! Congrats! I felt like I was living this dream. Hope to reconnect once I am back. In India until April 20. Take care
MG: I love your poem, mostly because I can see and feel and be in your dream with you, so different from the experience of a dream narrative telling - which is maybe what you are referring to when you write 'When I make it into art and share, people connect.'
Objects of Our Longing Elsewhere
a poetry video
by Mary Louise Marino, 2021
Two Essays
What I Needed, Mary Louise Marino
When Sush asked me if I’d record a video of her reading her Bazaar poem, I didn’t think about it and said sure thing. I didn’t remember the poem and asked her to read it to me. So she did. In an instant the visuals came alive in my mind, as often happens when I read or hear what Sush has written.
A few days later I happened to come across a poetry video of an artist and it was dreamy, abstract, and powerful. Then I realized that’s how the Bazaar poem can be, too! I became excited. I texted Sush. She became excited. This is going to be fantastic!
So the next time we met in her studio, I had my phone camera and tripod, and we made a quick video of her slowly turning the pages of her handmade storybook. The lighting wasn’t great, the angle wasn’t either, but we didn’t care, this was just a draft so I could play around. She also did a voice recording for me. One take and it was perfect.
I was all set. Except. Except I didn't know how to create that thing in my head. I didn’t know iMovie that well. It was bound to look cheesy. And so I procrastinated. Time passed. Other things got in the way. Then I finally confessed to Sush. “I don’t know how to make that thing in my head.” After some discussion, she said, “Let’s just make the simple video of you recording me reading the poem. Because we can, right?” What a relief.
But I never went back to that simple idea. I guess I still had to figure something out. I wanted to at least try. For me. Sush’s poem was alive in my head with all the visuals and the mood, and it wanted to be expressed in this way. It was a matter of learning new things I didn’t know yet. How do I make overlays in iMovie? How do I fade images? How do I work with voice? How do I make the timing right? Skillshare showed me how.
See, it had been a long winter, and I was feeling very solo doing my own artwork during the pandemic. I didn’t know it at the time, but I latched onto this poetry video idea because I needed connection, some excitement, and to figure something new out. And it went beyond that, too. Sush let me take her art, her poetry, her voice, her words, her book – and make it into something else. I realized I needed to express this poem for me, too – to express the feeling of elsewhere, of always searching, and how objects remind us of our longing.
Dream Come True Sushmita Mazumdar
The dream had come many times before… over 12 years, the poem says. But how could I tell anyone? Who would understand? How would they ever see what I saw--the city where I grew up, my bazaar?
I had been teaching myself to be a writer and was part of a writers group for six years. I put the dreams into a poem and shared it with them. Their feedback was very helpful--about words, flow, purpose even, like asking, Why did the dreams come?
When I made the poem into an artist’s book for my Oct 2012 solo show I remember it all flowed out of me quickly. Like my hands knew what to do and how to do it. But still it was mostly words. I had managed to give it colors, texture, and movement. The way the book opened and closed could change how you read the poem which was how the dreams had appeared over the years—the same elements but in different order. And being a one-of-a-kind book with no copies, Bazaar had sat in my drawer until 2021.
Until I had decided to share the poem with Virginia’s poet laureate, Luisa A. Igloria who was doing a Poem-a- Day project and had invited me to share a poem. I shared Bazaar because it was in the best shape, had been shared, edited, and displayed before. The rest of my poems mostly just sit around and nobody sees them.
When I told Loulou she was excited and wanted to see it. So I showed it to her.
She had been to India three times.
She works with textiles and materials from other countries telling their stories and incorporating them into her own art.
She had been playing with iMovie and making videos of late.
She had been encouraging me to share my writing more and in new ways, through my new website.
She had also shared books on interpreting dreams and we have discussed many!
What she created in this poetry video is a startling glimpse into my dreams, like she saw what I saw! It was crazy, actually. Like she knew which of my 1000s of photos of that home were the exact ones to include and mix with photos of my jewelry I had bunched up and stuffed in boxes at home here. Even editing the audio of the autowalla and me--how did she know this was the perfect spot? How can it be?
Of course it can be! What did I think LouLou is capable of as an amazingly creative soul who knows me well? She is capable of making a dream come true, of this. What a thing this is, to show me how we can share it with so many others so they can connect with it in some way. Even copies of my book can’t do that.
Photo, above: Sush (left) and Mary Louise Marino (LouLou) at LouLou’s show at Studio Pause, 2018. Photo, Mary Louise Marino