Solah Shringar

Shola continued

2008-04-29T02:38:00.000-07:00

We went to C.R Park to the market to find examples of Shola Pith craft and found these traditional Bengali wedding crowns (for bride and groom). The material is soft and appears to come in widths from around 2 inches in diameter to incredibly fine (and very fragile). These crowns aren't the finest examples, but useful to understand how the material is manipulated usually. As you can see from the inside, when 3D shapes are formed, it tends to be glued onto a paper, or paper and shola structure, where the shola still retains some of the external bark.

Nandita Pal Choudhuri, who has offered to help me find some makers to work with, sent the following images through of the process:

The scale is quite huge, which is potentially quite exciting. Trying to figure out what the transitory nature of the material might offer in terms of what it leaves behind. I started to deconstruct the crowns and reconfigure them . . . one issue is the trail of glue you leave on the new surface which would always remain once the shola had crumbled away . . .

Karvaad

2008-04-21T20:48:00.000-07:00

The Karvaad shrines have pictoral narrative stories from the epics of the Mahabarata and Ramayana, as well as stories about local heroes, saints and patrons (wealthy clients could pay to have their own stories painted on the boxes). On this version, the sun and moon riding a horse and deer respectively open the doors to stories of Rama on one side and Krishna on the other. The innermost doors open to reveal statues of Rama, Sita and Lakshmana who are worshipped at the end of this story telling. Karvaad is one of Rajasthan's oral narrative traditions, which also include Phad, a scroll-based performative practice that employs the visual, oral, musical, dance and theatre traditions of the region in a 36 hour performance at the end of which the practitioner is considered to have healing, or shamanic, powers.

Boxes

2008-04-21T20:40:00.000-07:00

Solah Pith

2008-04-16T23:00:00.000-07:00

I did some more research on the icon-makers of Kolkata and discovered that there are around 100 carvers working just on the decorative pieces for the sculptures - the icon's jewellery. The material they use is called pith and is basically the inner core of cork. From June to around the end of September these carvers create the most extraordinarily decorative pieces that are then incorporated on to the icons in time for Durga Puja, which is around the middle of October usually (depending on the moon).

Today, I'm meeting an arts promoter from Kolkata who might be able to connect me with some of these carvers; the purity of the colour combined with the intricacy of the detail, holds some interesting possibilities for me to explore a decorative element to the project that may combine well with the strong colour and luminosity of araash. Exploring the possibilities, at least of the form these pieces might take (I need a scalpel to try and play with the decorative possibilities!), I made some paper models (excuse Barbie).

Gulab Singh Jorimahal

2008-04-16T22:47:00.000-07:00

So, I went to Chandni Chowk's most famous attarwallah yesterday and had a preliminary conversation over bottles of essential oils to Krishan Mohan in the store about the process of attar making, the possibilities for transferring the scent to other materials, and whether or not (and how) solid perfumes are made in India. The answer to the last question is no, not exactly, or certainly not in the manner of the French in Grasse; solid perfumes in the West are essential oils mixed with wax. In India, "solid" is actually the lint, or dregs from the bottom of the pan, as it were, that congeal more readily. This "solid" perfume is sold incredibly cheaply, mostly blended, in small soapstone pots - for around 50 INR each. It is poured in to the pots liquid and slowly solidifies over time. It has the consistency of a cream, rather than the more solid wax. Food for thought.

Pigment

2008-04-16T22:42:00.000-07:00

Thinking more about using pigment, I wondered about encasing it, so it was still moving but under glass, or in this case, crystal which is used in rings to encase small relief icon sculptures beneath. I've also been trying to contact Kate Dineen through her gallery; no luck yet. Meantime, I've got a number of someone in Jaipur who might be able to help and Faith Singh (a friend of mine, founder of Anokhi and the Jaipur Virasat Foundation) is also looking for araash makers who might be interested in playing. I'm concerned about the weight of these plaster-based objects and a few people have suggested the scale may be too small. I need to get down there.

Head to Toe

2008-04-11T04:14:00.000-07:00

Trying to simplify the piece . . . more to go.

2008-04-11T04:07:00.000-07:00

I was re-thinking the pigment idea and it struck me that it might be possible to use it if it was kept away from the body. At the same time I've also been looking at Anish Kapoor's early work; his carved pieces that were then covered with pigment. Firstly his pigment tones are much more vibrant, richer and deeper colours than I have to hand. Also, the effect of gently drifting pigment worked in that context. How to get that deep, matte colour, but not so even? Flocking?

GeoFlowers

2008-04-11T04:03:00.000-07:00

More cone models, geometric florals; the top lip is too high for this to
function anywhere. Smaller circle doesn't quite give the same scale . . . ?

I Like Series

2008-04-11T03:43:00.001-07:00

Tibetan Sarasvati (Goddess of Wisdom), collection Museum Reitberg, Zurich

Ancient Hindu sculptures sourced from Hair & Ornament by ???

I like the scale and form (circles and drape) of the jewellery pieces in the Tibetan icon, their simplicity; its a very sensual, simple and actually quite fresh and contemporary looking piece. There's a degree to which she wouldn't look out of place on Kingsland High Road. They are all strong female images of abundance, although certainly some of the ancient Hindu sculptures appear to have common reference to the Catholic wimple, which suggests a degree of discretion. The ancient pieces on the far left and far right also use the sensuality of circles and the drape to strong effect. I'm really interested in the one on the far left, who appears to have tiffin tins, loaves and fishes in her hair, and a large circle covering her sexual organs like a thali! It reminds me of the reading I was doing on the agni purana, making the body of man from everyday objects. Its a much stronger image to me than the more "feminine" and expected use of floral motifs.

2008-04-08T03:26:00.000-07:00

Cones, moving on from previous post. I'm interested in whether jewels could be applied to the interior using kundun ; something to explore as previously mentioned.

Sketches of the Zurich Buddha (my name) and possible interpretation that would exploit surfaces that could be worked on with araash.

2008-04-08T03:12:00.000-07:00

I'm working more on how to achieve quality of colour; the pigment experiment (dusting on top of wet paint), obviously a little primitive and impractical in that form, although I'll do more experiments with this in a different way. Meantime, I read more about the Colour Wallah exhibition and Kate Dineen has worked in Rajasthan for over 13 years now with a process of fresco painting called Araash, that mixes lime, marble dust and pigment to create luminous colour washes for the walls. I'm excited about the potential for making smaller, spherical, hemi-spherical pieces from this process. It's potentially also quite fragile, but will certainly hold the colour and plays with light in a really exciting way. Next steps on this are both to contact Dineen in London, but also to identify araash practitioners in Jaipur. I have some contacts to move forward on this, just need to pick a time. I wanted to play with the possibility of setting gems (fake ones, the real preciousness coming from the pigment itself) in it, or on it too. Dineen finishes her pieces with coconut oil too, so interesting to experiment with scent here. She uses a plaster base, but I thought also about trying porcelain . . . There's a video of her explaining the process on You Tube ww.youtube.com/watch?v=R0-bPNZ0N7Q

I also saw in Zurich a few striking Buddha sculptures that appear to wear jewellery pieces that link all the way down the body. This excites me as a way of unifying this narrative; sixteen linked pieces that create one piece, one narrative, if all worn together.

I've also decided to work on making the box, and collaborating with Desmond Lazaro to paint the interior shelves; this is a possibility he's prepared to explore once his show is finished in September. 16, Desmond suggests, is the mirrors of the 8 "brides" or faces of Krishna, which would explain the fact that my original box is a Krishnavite shrine also.

First models

2008-04-04T06:05:00.000-07:00

I started making my first models this week using air-drying modeling clay, powder pigment and sheet metal.

I began by exploring making the traditional Mughal shape of a thumb ring. The first shot is upside down; traditionally, it would be worn with the way I have it in the second two shots, although sometimes for ceremonial purposes, wearers would display it this way round. It's practical purpose was to protect the hand and help to give the arrow force in archery, and rings for this purpose would have been made from jade or other stronger stone. The enameled versions one sees in books were more for show.

The original versions appear to have been more "bulbous" around the protruding part, but I didn't really like the way that looked.

I then started to make some of the pieces I'd drawn in the sketchbook. I also tried the idea I had had about making pieces with pigment, although I just applied it to the drying modeling clay. So, the pigment is actually kind of annoying (of course! it gets everywhere, duoh) although I do like the matte-ness of it. I want to read more about an exhibition I was told about that happened in London last year called ColourWallah where the artist apparently revived a lost art of rubbing pigment in to clay or stone to create these beautiful coloured slabs.

They also look like plaster casts as though I've had a thumb injury. I wondered if making them in carved jade and perfume-scented leather (as I'd been dreaming about) would make these anymore beautiful; I decided probably not, but I'm going to keep on making more just to see if I can find a shape that works. In my head it does!

I also made the concave ring I had begun to draw that I had intended would be lined with mirror-work of the kind you see in Rajasthani palaces. Except I like it simple.

I also drew on more research I did last week interviewing Pichhvai painter Desmond Lazaro on colour, form and ritual (which I will get down and document soon). We talked about point to line to plane as the root basis for all creative practice in India, and I began making circles and then using that system (point-line-plane) to create cones. The more Des and I spoke about circles, spheres and squares, added to the reading I'd already done on geometric placement in temples and sacred rituals (plus the wonderful geometric jewellery shapes I've showed you from South India), the more I'm feeling as though this formal geometry could be a unifying visual language for the final pieces.