I’m Bored by Black and Ohi

 

I’m bored!
I’m sooooooo bored!

Well, isn’t this a familiar situation? Our young protagonist says she’s bored, like many others her age. But what happens when boredom is confronted with… a talking potato?

Michael Ian Black picks up on the adorably annoying nuances of a bored child. They seek to understand what lies behind the ‘bored’ and confront it with the unexpected potato. With roles-reversed, the bored whippersnapper suddenly has something to prove.

Debbie Ridpath Ohi’s wonderful digital illustrations bring to life the expressive face of the young girl, as she journeys from boredom into adventure. The pictures and words are well-choreographed, making ‘I’m Bored’ a visual comedy for all ages.

The series continues as Black and Ohi tackle similarly recurrent themes in ‘I’m Sad’, featuring the flamingo from its cameo in ‘I’m Bored’, and ‘Naked!’.

Likla
Writer at Art1st

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Partner a Master Art Show in Delhi

PARTNER A MASTER Artist-Mentor Program | Exhibition
Preview: July 26, 2013 | Duration: July 27 – August 2, 2013 | Time: 11.00am – 6.00pm
Venue: Gallery Art Motif, Lado Sarai, Delhi

 

The exhibition is the outcome of the workshops that took place for seven months between August 2012 and February 2013 and will showcase the work of 30 children from leading private and public schools in Mumbai and Delhi and is being organized in collaboration with Gallery Art Motif, Delhi

Hope to see you there.

Reena Kallat: Visa to Happiness

Everybody looks for it. The hope is that all roads will lead us to it. When we’re lucky we get glimpses of it along the way. It’s that ever-elusive feeling that plays hide and seek with all of us- Happiness. Is there an ideal recipe for happiness? What if there were keys to happiness? What would a visa to happiness look like? What does happiness look like?

Through a 14-hour workshop, contemporary artist Reena Kallat asked her young student artists to define happiness. Art1st’s Partner a Master workshop series gives young minds an opportunity to look at the world and its contents through different artists’ eyes whilst developing their own perspectives. The objective of this program is to expose students to contemporary art.

Reena’s workshop on ‘Visas to Happiness’ began with her introducing the students to her body of work. Having explored different media in artwork herself, Reena brought attention to the several ways in which art takes form. Through this presentation she hoped to inspire and equip their young minds to explore different possibilities. All of 15, Simran said, “Reena’s talk helped me realise that there is more to art than just pen and paper. It inspired me to draw out my deepest emotions in my work during the workshop.”

The assignments were simple. Or so they seemed at first. Keys in the shape of different countries, piecing together to form a map of the world. Each student was to paint the keys with their ideas of happiness. The students were also given their very own passports that they had to colour with their thoughts and definitions creating their “visas to happiness”. Over the two sessions, Reena engaged and encouraged the students to push themselves and dig deep for answers. She told them that happiness is different from pleasure. Pleasure is just for the moment or for the day. Happiness is forever. To be happy would be to be fulfilled forever.

The result saw reflective, intelligent and thoughtful work produced by these student artists. Young Shahnawaz’s idea of happiness was as beautiful as it was genuine- to see everyone in his family smiling. His key to happiness was a world without religion depicted by three women praying to god but belonging to no particular religion. Rehaan felt that “happiness comes from within. It is something beautiful and to enlarge it you must share it with the whole world.” For Vikram, “happiness is a friend. It comes out of nowhere and just lights up your day.” Rheea realized that “happiness is actually a part of you that is locked up inside… It will never get over… as long as you know it’s still there, inside you.”

To someone who grapples everyday with the concept of happiness and what it looks like, articulate definitions from a group of 14-somethings were almost therapeutic.

‘Happiness is not a station you arrive at but a mode of travelling. Happiness is an emotion sensitive to success and satisfaction.  A day without happiness is like a day without water. Happiness is a part of us, caged inside us. There are multiple keys that can open and bring it out. Happiness is infinite.’

(Reena Kallat graduated from Sir J.J. School of Art, Mumbai in 1996 with a B.F.A. in painting. Her practice – spanning painting, photography, video, sculpture and installation, often incorporates multiple mediums into a single work. You can read more about her work here)

Shilpa Gupta: Multiplicity of Vision

The old adage goes, “There are two sides to every story”. The Greek story teller Aesop agreed. He said, “Every truth has two sides; it is as well to look at both, before we commit ourselves to either”.

Shilpa Gupta, one of India’s young contemporary artists, focused on exactly this concept during her two part- Partner a Master workshop. This workshop is part of a series of workshops being conducted by Art1st in association with Mohile Parikh Center to give young budding artists aged 12-15 years, the opportunity of engaging with some of the country’s finest artists in Mumbai and Delhi.

July 21st and 28th saw Shilpa Gupta host this workshop at her studio in Bandra for a group of students artists eager to learn from the masters of art. During the course of these sessions, Shilpa conducted simple yet meaningful exercises to convey to the students the power of perception. The workshop began with students sketching, writing and photographing their favorite objects. Each student was then asked to write about their perception of their peers’ objects. The objective of this exercise was two fold :1) to understand that people can have different opinions/perceptions about a particular issue and 2) she effectively got the students to listen to each other’s view points.

The second session involved students sketching their objects under different coloured lights reiterating the idea of perspectives. This was followed by a short presentation on how information and imagery can often be used by governments to gain a political advantage or to influence public opinion. Meaning and significance of an object can often change because of its context. For example, an otherwise worthless lock of hair becomes valuable because it belonged to a celebrity. On the other hand, a seemingly priceless “original” work of art becomes worthless if it turns out to be “a fake”. Such are the powers of perception.

One might wonder how these concepts could be of any significance to students at such a tender age. The message that Shilpa tried to convey however,was simple and can be understood age no bar- Open your minds to different possibilities and multiple ways of looking at something.

What form these ideas will take in the young students’ minds, only time will tell. How and what we think often depends upon how much we know. Teaching them to appreciate multiple perspectives will only broaden their outlook and approach towards life.

(Shilpa Gupta is an interdisciplinary artist who uses interactive video, photography and performance to query and examine themes of consumer culture, desire, security, militarism and human rights. You can read more about her here.)