July 2020.
Song & Dance: A Collaboration between Nostalgia and the Pandemic
Working in isolation in my studio during the pandemic, I wondered what others were doing. I checked in with my art school friend Shakil Patni from Mumbai, India. His office was closed and he was at home, also in isolation. Reconnecting with my expressive calligraphy using the Devanagari script which I had first learned to make beautiful as calligraphy in art school, and inspired by our shared love of Hindi movie songs, I asked Shakil to give me a song he was thinking of.
I asked him as I left home and drove to my studio. Once there, I checked Facebook Messenger for the song he was thinking of. I then made it into an artwork. The series is a musical collaboration steeped in nostalgia, exploding with the vibrancy of handmade paper, and the spontaneous dance of water-soluble graphite highlighted with gold acrylic paint.
Read on and the original artworks can be bought at my shop. Watch the video of the art making here.
Tere Naam se Shuru/Starts with Your Name
Water-soluble graphite and gold acrylic paint on handmade paper from Samarkand, UZ.
This artwork celebrates an old song which wishes for a love that has a long life, starting with a name and ending at the same name. I decided to use the handmade paper from Samarkand which I brought back from my trip in 2018 because Shakil had asked me to bring him a traditional Uzbek cap from the trip and when he came to pick that up I had shown him the paper as well. And of course, he had loved it.
The story of the paper is amazing too. It was made at the same place where it had all started a thousand years ago! It was perfect for this song, I realize now.
Size: 23” H x 9” W
Materials: Water-soluble graphite and gold acrylic paint on handmade paper
Unframed
Price: $ 220.00
SOLD!
Patthar ki Tarah/Like Stone
Water-soluble graphite, red food color, and gold acrylic paint on paper
This artwork mixes the lament of the singer who accuses the big city for turning a man’s heart into lifeless stone with the celebration of gold-like Urdu poetry.
I made the red circles with a pebble and food coloring and then made the expressive calligraphy in graphite which also comes from the earth.
The story of the paper is amazing too. I first started on a deeper red paper, bought from the big city where I went to art school. It’s the big city in the song too and the shop where I bought this paper, Chimanlal’s, is right there where the taxi is in the film when this song happens. But I messed that one up and the red was too deep for the red circles I added. So I pulled out another sheet… turned it over to the orange-red side, and wrote there!
Size: 23” H x 9” W
Materials: Water-soluble graphite and gold acrylic paint on paper
Unframed, flat-packed
Price: $220.00
Tum to thehre Pardesi/You are after all a Foreigner
Water-soluble graphite and gold acrylic paint on handmade paper from Mumbai, India.
“Okay we worked with the greats, and today I am thinking of a local guy,” Shakil wrote.
He shared the song of a one-hit-wonder from his neighborhood. I looked for the video to watch/listen to it so I could draw the lyrics (what a funny phrase!) but I found so many versions I couldn’t tell the actual one. Shakil sent me the original but wow, it was something to see how many people had recorded their own versions of this song, which is the accusation of a man who knows the foreigner cannot be trusted to stay.
Turns out this paper, also from Chimanlal’s in Bombay, is Shakil’s favorite color!
Size: 23” H x 9” W
Materials: Water-soluble graphite and gold acrylic paint on handmade paper
Unframed
Price: $220.00