Transparent Studio: Interview with Ruby Chishti- Part 2

Q: We are at the end of your residency at Bose Pacia’s Transparent Studio program. Did working in this space open up new possibilities or directions for your work?

A: The residency has been a great opportunity to explore new mediums as well as combine different elements of my existing practice. The gift of space in this residency enabled me to establish relationships between the works while developing them further. In this residency I experimented with new materials, taking the imagery and inspiration from my past works to create new patterns.

Working with paper as a sculptural material, rather than a drawing medium was very exciting — Sanding and carving it.
Incorporating high fashion clothing and transforming them into sculptures is an exciting new direction for me and there are many projects that I envisioned and was excited to work on. The transparent quality of the space helped me to see many things through and through.

Q: The transformative or revelatory function of clothing has emerged as a powerful social theme in some of the new work produced during the residency. The process of obscuring and revealing at the same time is evident, especially in your dresses which take on sculptural dimensions.

A: The use of fabric in my previous practice has been different from what I explored this time, as I had been taking usually worn-out clothes and scraps of fabric and transforming them to a point where it completely transforms into something new, but keeping the integrity of the form of the dress.

There are several things I was interested in while exploring new dimensions of designer textiles. Constant change is very inspiring. I wanted to see different functions of clothing as a sculptural form, such as appropriating clothing as wearable pieces. I took some brand new clothes to transform and examine the act of dressing up as a way to explore the wearer’s psychology. By creating the outer I am interested in depicting the inside. Seeing the act of dressing as a window into the wearer’s psyche.

The other interesting concept behind this project was to view the clothes as a space that the body occupies similar to the way architectural structures occupy spaces. I find it interesting to relate similarities between these structures and their function. Buildings are structures occupying spaces where people live and… leave, whereas in the structure of body that occupies space, memories live and perhaps never leave.

Q: What are you unveiling in these series of dresses?

A: Basically these projects were based on incorporating designer clothing as the material for sculpture. By buying and appropriating it I wanted to maintain the integrity of the form while transforming it. I cut my coat (of a famous fashion brand) while leaving the space inside as I was interested in highlighting a space that body occupies by seeing through the absence of the body. The idea of cutting my favorite coat was based on my interest in exploring how the body occupies the space associated with structures of bones and flesh. Other behaviors and attitudes I wanted to explore with this work are the viewers and my own thoughts, coping mechanisms, competitions, loves, hates, struggles, confrontations, successes, failures, and so on. There has been a element of curiosity and surprise behind the creation and exploration of each work. I sew a cast of my torso inside so it will stay in shape and not collapse.

Q: A sequin-studded dress embellished with faucets from Pakistan.

A: I wanted to explore the function of two materials and see it as one form. I purchased this dress in my size from a famous brand store. Each cm of the dress is covered with sequins and beads with thin straps. This beautifully and meticulously decorated metallic quality made me think of combining glittering faucets and brass pots. I bought inexpensive faucets in Pakistan and attached it to a brand name dress bought from one of New York’s most famous and expensive stores, which also addresses the troubled collaboration between two countries.

There are apparent materialistic similarities between the two objects, such as the function of the faucets as a source of fulfillment and the function of the dress as a controlling source of beauty.  I had to construct an armature or structure inside to attach the faucets to the dress as the dress is not strong and stiff enough to hold the weight of the faucets.

Q: A dress made of old t-shirts stitched together with doll house windows.

A: I had built it earlier as a sculptural form with a complex armature inside full of wires and wire mesh sewn with fabric strips. When I decided to wear it I had to cut the inside armature to make it wearable , but the moment I cut the complex armature inside, the whole form collapsed just as a building without having a structure. I had to stitch it vertically with vertical supports in it.

Q: Crows are a familiar and beloved symbol in your work. They travel with you and appear in different guises in groups or as solitary figures and relics. Crows, which are a universal symbol in the mythology and folklore of South Asia, are also a very personal symbol for you. How do you synthesize the familiar with the conceptual in new situations. Do these forms take on new meanings?

A: I feel that in each show they come and take over spaces in my exhibition.

Crows are mythological creatures, whether these are clipped winged ravens in the Tower of London, or in South Asia, as the harbinger. They are also associated with bringing knowledge, shape-shifting, eloquence, prophecy, skill, knowledge, cunning and trickery. Their unique ability to outwit most birds, animals, and even humans at times is not a mythology….
My experiences with crows is extensive. I found them from myths around the world. I feel they are other beings who felt it better to rule in hell than serve in heaven. Ancient chiefs tell us that a crow simultaneously sees three fates—the past, present and future.

Taking a new meaning, their omnipresence in the urban or rural landscape has always made me think of them as witness, a constant observant, or carrier of the knowledge of the past. Punjabi literature contains lots of legends and songs about crows as messengers who signal arrival of guests. They are also companions.

A famous song that addresses the crow:

Thou dost devour mine body
eat away my flesh
but don’t eat the vacant eyes
that are waiting to see their love

Q: Philosophy, poetry and literature figure prominently in your aesthetics. Who are your influences?

A: The unavoidable circumstances or unfortunate events in life, their acceptance and ability to confront and overcome has been an inspiration for what I have been creating.
I treat my materials as living beings, finding perfect place for them, by just putting even the smallest content in the right space. It is very important for me to consider every detail of my work, for the right combination makes it lyrical- round forms, soft edges.
The process of arranging materials in a certain way, to let the material speak is only possible when you do not force your intentions, rather you know comfortable it would be to flesh out its characteristics.

I see folk toys carrying all the warmth of human touch by its maker. I see rhythms created by repetition of form and shapes in Islamic and Eastern art. Repetition of notes with subtle differences in Indian classical music and mystical Sufi Punjabi poetry are all my inspirations.

All men’s hearts are gems, to distress them is by no means good:
if thou desire the Beloved, distress no one’s heart.

Transparent Studio: Interview with Ruby Chishti – Part 1

Ruby Chishti’s sculpture based art practice has spanned over twelve years. She graduated from the National College of Arts in Lahore, Pakistan and was recently awarded the Faiz Art Prize by Nukta Art Magazine in Karachi, Pakistan. Her work has been exhibited in numerous national and international galleries and venues including Walsh Gallery, Chicago, Center of Contemporary Art, Sacramento, Aicon Gallery, London, Rohtas II, Lahore, Vadehra Gallery, New Delhi and Harris Museum, Preston.

1) Can you describe your conceptual approach and vision for the residency at Bose Pacia’s Transparent Studio program? How has the space complemented or provided a counterpoint to your existing art practice?

“Unto space one is born” -J Krishnamurti

New York is a fashion hub. One wears not just to cover.  Upon looking around one notices that these are walking statements, comments, messages, or at times, even moments. To me taking a walk in the city is always very delightful and an inspirational experience. The basic concept of this residency is just to dust off to see these experiences, and to do so there would not be any better space than clean gray vast floor of the gallery, surrounded by spotless white walls and the surreal typing sounds that come from the other side of the wall.

The opportunity of having a gallery space as my studio has allowed me to initiate several projects at the same time, and by simultaneously working on all of them, I found very interesting similarities between these works and the life of NYC; they coexist just like various communities thrive in NYC and on a subtle level, they do take inspiration from each other, and help them grow. I hardly relate with the idea of bringing finished work to exhibition spaces and always enjoy creating work in the space where they are going to be displayed finally. It is also about transforming the gallery space and changing its pristine characteristic to a work space where you have space to envision and create. In short, when you take the finished work to display in a gallery, in fact you detach it from the stages of its development. It is more important now when many artists are using borrowed labor. Residencies should be about many of these things rather than having a good show at the end.

 

2) Your work is often described as challenging traditional methods of sculpture making. The materials you use– cloth, paper, straw, cardboard and other everyday found objects– are of a transitory nature and reference complex social themes of loss, power and transformation. Can you talk about the significance of the materials you work with and how your sculptural practice has evolved from doll making to contemporary sculptural objects.

I don’t relate to such words that you would find in any other artist’s statements or gallery’s intro words like “Challenging, Cutting edge, breaking boundaries”, etc etc. I consider myself an artist who is interested in creating and therefore I do have a huge respect for all traditional methods or disciplines. If one sees me working with many unconventional materials that does not mean that I am trying to challenge any material or substance associated with a particular discipline. I work in different materials (not objects) because I have a love for every material that has ever played a significant role in my life and I do have a strong bond with it and because of that bond it reveals itself in front of me.

For instance, I have been collecting fabric for many years, and many of them have a certain history; one of my work titled “My birth will take place a thousand times no matter how you celebrate it” was created out of the pieces from my father’s 40 year old quilt and other scraps of fabric that had similar associations.

“Armor” or “I love my prison my prison loves me” (a wearable turban made in sanitary napkins) or works in fallen twigs collected from roadside trees in Karachi weave together to create a three dimensional large scale “sketch of a fading memory”. This work and the other works in same material were not meant to last. In order to work in a specific material it is important to understand the language of the material.

3) Textiles and sculpting from cloth are emblems of your work. In this residency, you are working on several dress-making projects. Can you talk
about the projects and what your inspiration is for this body of work? How
do you choose the materials and are there certain materials that you prefer
to use?
 

Twelve years ago I borrowed fabric from clothing and fabric of other
household items for my sculptures.  Today I am trying to give my sculptures
back to clothing, it might go to other household items as well, you never
know.

Fashion is perhaps one of the most defining characteristics of our
civilization. We dress up to cover ourselves but we also dress up to reveal ourselves. Fashion  in NYC has definitely been an inspiration for this project. It’s not only about the freedom to choose and about catering to individuals of all sort of sexual orientation. By appropriating the specific brand of clothing I am interested in the wearer, the role of clothing beyond sexual differences and highlighting issues relating to social status.  In short, my interest is more about the internal experience by constructing the external. Fashion also becomes a visual reminder of Contemporary anxieties, or unveiling psychological experiences.

4) Your art practice straddles many disciplines including textile design,crafts and fine art. How do you position yourself as an artist who works within several mediums?

 

We live in a hybrid society, where boundaries are diminishing every other day. You understand better and see clearly once you leave your native land and choose to live in other places, you somehow understand the limitations of boundaries in general.

This time is full of all kind of opportunities; spaces are filled with variety of lyrical, breathtaking, annoying and stunning melodies. Energies of all sorts are getting their chance to pool in. I find my role as an ever-growing artist not to get stuck in one place by not acknowledging another. This very desire makes me see and explore qualities hidden in all kind of materials. Some materials need a certain kind of extra care (people refer to as crafts). I provide that by toning myself down a little.

If the materials I choose already have a connection with me, it makes it more convenient to use or transform. My childhood years of spending time in trees and observing  nature closely bring the use of twigs and many other visual elements in my art practice.

Process is important because when you try other materials that you have not worked with, you find your own ways to do it, which are not right or wrong, and you put yourself in  unfamiliar situations. All these mediums have one thing common and that is the touch of a hand, and that very touch makes us all work like one unit; wanting to know each other better and better.

Transparent Studio: Interview with Dannielle Tegeder

Since receiving her MFA in 1997 from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, Dannielle Tegeder’s work has been presented in over 100 solo and group exhibitions, both nationally and internationally in Paris, Houston, Los Angeles, Berlin, Chicago, and New York. She has participated in numerous group exhibitions including MOMA/PS1, The New Museum, The Brooklyn Museum of Art, and Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago. Several of her drawings have recently been purchased as part of the Contemporary Drawing Collection at the Museum of Modern Art, and in the permanent collections of The Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, and The Weatherspoon Museum of Art in Greensboro, North Carolina. The artist currently lives and works in Brooklyn, New York.

Dannielle Tegeder and Orlando Ureña, February 10, 2012

1) The title for your residency at Bose Pacia’s Transparent Studio is Workroom for the New Constructivists. Can you talk about the title and how it encapsulates your conceptual and theoretical approach for this residency?

This project was originally inspired after a studio visit with a friend last year. We had a discussion on the observation that there were a number of artists again working with the formalist qualities of Constructivism. This led to me gathering names of artists internationally over the past year that have become part of a group I am forming called “The New Constructivists,” and also began the process of questioning why.
I was interested in a creating a space I called the “workroom” that would begin that inquiry. During the month, I am having debates, discussions, and collaborations that are part of the desire to answer this question. Next week, I will be having a forum with artist Vincent Como, where we re-read the Malevich’s writings and write our own manifesto for the group.

Dannielle Tegeder and Orlando Ureña, February 10, 2012

2) How has Constructivist theory influenced your own work and outlook towards abstraction?

I have always been interested in Abstraction and the Constructivists have always appealed to me formally. However, the idea that Abstraction can be a political tool and statement has influenced my own work. Most of the significant artists from that period including Malevich and many others, also published writings and publications.That is something I am also interested in, and hope to publish my writings and projects after the” Workroom” concludes. I find the theories of the Constructivists in Utopias, Revolution, and social collapse very pertinent to what is happening today in our own society and feel like many artists are also leaning towards these ideas again.

Dannielle Tegeder and Orlando Ureña, February 10, 2012

3) For this residency, you are collaborating with several artists of different backgrounds. Can you describe the ways in which the collaborative process has opened up new possibilities or challenges for your own art practice and research?

Being a visual artist and poet, I am interested in the cross disciplinary discussion of that time period. I feel like this is something that has been lost, in how large the art world is at the time.

I am working with a poet, dancers, photographer and others for this project. A main focus of my proposal was to open my practice and extend the idea of the studio, by doing events, discussions, and collaborations. There are a number of exciting possibilities that are happening, I am close to finishing a series of nine abstract photographs that resemble my paintings with Orlando Ureña, and am also in the process of creating a dance performance with Amy Larimer. I wanted to take myself out of the comfort level of my usual space and practice.

Dannielle Tegeder and Orlando Ureña, Feb 10, 2012

Interview with Jaret Vadera: Transparent Studio Week 2 & 3

1)Collaboration and investigation seem to be important focal points of your work during this residency. Are there certain themes or modes of exploration that emerge or reemerge in your collaborative work?

I don’t usually collaborate as part of my studio practice. It isn’t something that comes naturally to me. I’m a private person at heart and can sometimes wrap my work up really tightly. The investigation during this residency is an internal one, to see what comes out when I don’t have enough time to wrap everything up. To see what will happen when the holes are left intact. Collaboration is a means through which I can challenge my privacy, my ego, and learn through the process.

2)Text, typography and schematic designs are some of the themes we’ve seen this week. Can you talk about the artists Diana McClure, Adrianne Koteen and Richard Wilson and your collaborations with them during the Transparency Studio Program?

Each collaborator was completely different from the next and the rules of the game / the terms of each collaboration grew in its own way through the process. Diana McClure and I started talking about devotion, surrender, freedom, and capitalism and ended up doing a set of two performative photographs, titled Libertas. Adrianne Koteen and I went through a series of generative failures: from trying to insert new terms into Wikipedia to generating paradoxical equations that broke down as we were writing them. We ended up with an equation and a diagram that proposed an articulation of the relationships between multi-positionality, multi-perspectivity, and parallax. Richard Wilson and I started our own think lab. Our first job was to come up with new applications for recent research done at Cornell University where physicists have created what appears to be a hole in time that lasts around 40 trillionths of a second. Our lab started research into prototypes for a “Spare Time Machine” and a “Time Cloak Device.”

Transparent Studio: Interview with Jaret Vadera

Jaret Vadera is a New York-based interdisciplinary artist originally from Toronto, Canada. He received his undergraduate education at the Ontario College of Art and Design in Toronto, the Cooper Union in New York, and his MFA from the Yale University School of Art. His work has been exhibited in a number of venues including: the Queens Museum of Art, New York; Thomas Erben, New York; Paved Art + New Media, Canada; The Travancore Palace, New Delhi, India; The Cultural Foundation of Corsica, France; and the New York Arab & South Asian Film Festival, New York. The artist lives and works in Brooklyn, New York. Jaret is the first artist to participate in Bose Pacia’s Transparent Studio Program.

TIME KEEPS ITS OWN TIME KEEPS ITS OWN…, 2012

Untitled, 2012

Collaboration with James McGirk, 2012

Untitled, 2012

1) Can you describe the conceptual approach that is guiding your work for Bose Pacia’s Transparent Studio Program?

I would like to let go, lose control, be present, and see what happens. To this end, I am endeavoring to make a new piece every day; and to work on a number of collaborative projects with artists who have different practices from my own, as well as with non-artists working in different disciplines. Every day the approach, the form, the medium, and the variables will all change.

2) How is the idea of the alchemists lab informing the work produced so far? Has working in a new space opened up new opportunities and challenges in terms of process?

The alchemist’s lab model allows me to break away from many of the internal and external expectations that come with the production of art. Shifting the focus away from the object to the process.

The first week has been very exciting, but equally challenging. Time, financial, and scheduling constraints require more planning than I had originally wanted. So I have been trying my best to find a balance that honors the terms I have set up, the needs of my collaborators, and the time that the work demands. My rules have become guidelines as I have had to become less rigid and more realistic, as they are meant to encourage the flow of creative energy and not to confine it.

3) Your work often explores the relationship between meaning, power and image-making.  Boundaries are often blurred and obscured to reveal hidden meanings. You have a way of seamlessly moving between technique, medium and material as is evident in the work produced this week. Can you take us through some of the systems that have emerged this week?

For me, code-switching comes quite naturally. My cultural multi-positionality probably has something to do with it.

I think each media and process is a different language. And that each engenders meaning in its own way. The more aware I become of how this functions the more agency I have to decide on what I am buying into. Ideologies are often camouflaged within the structure of the language itself or hidden within our cognitive blind spots.

My work often explores analytical structures by doubling in their clothes, but my process is very intuitive and my work often only reveals itself to me over time.

But in general, I could see certain themes emerge through my work this week: performativity and the everyday; desire and the future.

For the collaborative project with writer James McGirk, we decided that we would do a dialogical writing piece. We agreed on two things: that it would be set in the future – around 2050; and that we would write as two characters meeting in a waiting area. Then, we developed our own characters without telling each other. And then let the story unfold through dialogue between our characters within the story as they were telling it.

Interview: Beth Citron of the Rubin Museum of Art on Modernist Art from India

Beth Citron, Assistant Curator of the Rubin Museum of Art talks to Archivist Anita Sharma about Body Unbound, the first of three exhibitions on Modern Indian art.

 1)  How was the idea for a three-part exhibition on Modernist Art from India born? Can you talk about some of the factors that shaped this exhibition?

The idea for the “Modernist Art from India” series began with an interest at the Rubin Museum to expand the geographic scope of its exhibitions, introduce a broader range of thematic exhibitions, and reinforce its commitment to modern and contemporary art. As we began to explore the available material for a potential exhibition on modern Indian art, it was clear that the subject merited more than one exhibition, and the idea to develop a thematic series grew from there. One of the goals, and central organizing factors, of the exhibition was to show the depth and variety of modernist art from India – showing both canonical works by MF Husain and Tyeb Mehta as well as – for example — an early experimental collage by Vivan Sundaram and early figural work by GR Santosh.

2) What are some of the highlights of the first exhibition Body Unbound?

 We are pleased to show canonical works like Tyeb Mehta’s “Falling Figure with Bird” (1988), which is one of the greatest expressions of the subject of “falling figures” that Mehta had been working on for two decades. Bhupen Khakhar’s “First Day in New York” presents a humorous take on the experience of arriving in a new place, and it is a great thrill to be able to show the work in New York! Also “Fisherwoman” by B.Prabha, one of India’s pioneering women artists in the decades after Independence, as the work is an extraordinary rendering of a woman from a traditionally low-caste and profession, looking beautiful and expressive.  Photographs by Richard Bartholomew at the conclusion of the exhibition portray the artists in the exhibition, and also give audiences a sense of the context in which the exhibition’s paintings were developed.

3) How will this show fill in some of the gaps that exist in the way Indian Modern art has been contextualized for international audiences?

Through the format of a series rather than a single show, “Modernist Art from India” offers a unique opportunity to present several facets of modern Indian art and build broader and cumulative interest in the field over several years. While figuration is commonly associated with modern Indian art, abstraction and landscape are less studied. Presenting these three themes as interconnected can help us to redefine and refine our understanding of all three categories.

4) There has been significant curatorial focus on organizing survey shows of Indian contemporary art, often through a contextual framework of globalization. How does this differ in terms of curatorial interest in Indian Modern art?

 While “global” connections have been one of the main structuring elements for contemporary Indian art, modern Indian art can more carefully interpreted with regard to building cultural identities and even the project of nation building in the decades around Independence. While there are individual and specific connections to international modern artists, styles, and trends even in this period, the history of modernist art from India is, to a certain degree, independent of Euro-american modernism.

5) The popularity of Indian modern art is often associated with the market success of certain artists and groups. Is the curatorial framework for this series aimed at presenting a broader picture of historic developments and polyvocality?

Yes, there are 23 artists in the first exhibition alone, and one of the goals is to show the broad range of diversity among artists working in India after Independence.

6) Did you encounter any unique challenges in curating this exhibition?

It has been extraordinary to get to show many works in museum contexts for the first time!

7) Can you tell us what we can look forward to in the next two exhibitions?

“Approaching Abstraction” will feature “abstract” independent films by leading artist-filmmakers in the late 1960s, and “Radical Terrain” proposes to have an exciting series of interventions by contemporary artists engaged in landscape, to be held over the course of the show.

Modernist Art from India: The Body Unbound is on view at the Rubin Museum of Art from November 18 – April 9, 2012

Eluding Presence: Portraiture in South Asian Photography

Curated by Murtaza Vali for the Trans Asia Photography Review

Murtuza Vali’s online exhibition for the Trans Asia Photography Review explores the construction of portraiture in the works of Pushpamala N., Vivek Vilasini, Anup Mathew Thomas, Gauri Gill and Bani Abidi.

http://asianphotos.hampshire.edu/index.html

Murtaza Vali is a Brooklyn-based critic, art historian and curator. He is a contributing editor for Ibraaz.org and ArtAsiaPacific, also publishes regularly in Artforum.com, ArtReview, Art India and Bidoun, and recently co-edited Manual for Treason, a multilingual publication commissioned by Sharjah Biennial X (2011).