My first visit to the place was on a sunday morning, a holiday for the market. When all the shops are shut and the place is devoid of it usual volumes of people. I walked around the place several times, taking photographs.
I was able to capture just the space, and with it a few ideas.
After a while I was able to notice a certain pattern in things that I was looking at and looked for more clues along the same lines. On looking through and sorting the photographs, I noticed some conscious and some unconscious patterns and decided to group the photographs accordingly.
As the whole market was shut , I suddenly saw possibility in the varied and continuous, blank shop shutters that flanked all the streets. They allowed for many things, apart from being blank slates in themselves, they could allow for seriality (vertically and horizontally), and also bring in the element of time and fiction ( they appear when the market is shut and devoid of people, transforming the place before and after hours).
Looking at (sculptural) form and looking at material and colour in spaces
Visual culture : Style/Language of imagery - contrasts. , The role of architecture, structures and layers in images and meaning.
Places inbetweeen : Looking at the change in functions of spaces with time, as well as how some of these 'inbetween' spaces make room for temporary expressions of some of the more permanent notions in life.
Patterns : Abstraction by repitition?
Although this exploration was useful in terms of giving me an idea of the scale, detail and general possibilities in terms of form and expressions, i found these finding to be still rather general. I decided to come back for more, on a day that would have people.
The subsequent visits ( on days with people in the market ) though were far less productive and ended getting me a little confused and very lost.
- The first thing i noticed was that there really wasnt as great a range in people as i had hoped for there to be.
- The conversations that i tried having were proving to be difficult in terms of extracting what i needed. I needed time with people which they didnt have, and also the nature of the questions required some involvement on part of the interviewee which they did not seem to have the patience for. also i was not entirely sure , after a point what i was looking for anymore.
- The camera that I took with me, and generally my sometimes watchful, observant, slow and explorative (seemingly purposeless) demeanour which contrasted with the usual flow of the place (even after i put the camera away as soon as i had people coming and asking me to take pictures of them for the 'paper' that i was working for - an assumption most people seemed to immediately make on seeing my camera ) seemed to draw a lot of attention to me which made observing behaviour, patterns and other things a little difficult after a point.
- Trying to make my obvious external interest and curiosity a starting point for conversation also did not help as people would become either very guarded, or on finding out that im just doing all this for a 'school art project' became disinterested in spending time and energy off of their busy work to answer all my questions.
Then feeling very stuck, unsure of whether this was the right place, whether i was asking the right questions, doing the right things, and what i was actually looking for , i returned to the drawing board to answer some questions for myself.
What i was trying to do : Capture the personalities of spaces and places. and express them in some ways.
But for what purpose? To serve what end?
Being very confused i decided to get some help and had a conversation with Mr. Ravindra.
He listened patiently to whatever i had to say, as i explained how and where i was stuck.
He pointed out a few things:
1) I need to zoom out. Keep to the macro at that level. In terms of place and other specificities, Bangalore is specific enough. I am not going into generalized notions of 'city' 'metropolis' or 'urban' , but all these notions in the particular context of Bangalore, and therefore zooming into a space and looking specifically at it might not yield what I am looking for. But instead giving it another filter in terms of narrowing down. Then the space and form and the rest of my hypothesis is talking about the form that my final work will take. where and how. But the framework is missing.
2) The framework needs to be in terms of subject of the research/artworks. Am i looking at cultural identities/nativity/religious identities/ etc. The subject matter is important. I am trying to deal with abstract ideas ( the 'idea' of identity, image, dialogue, they are all at an abstract level) at all the levels which is why i am repeatedly losing sight of my goal and my purpose.
3) The hypothesis is talking in terms of form. The assumptions that you are out to prove may be true and provable. But they are highly general. Why certain spaces and not others in which I could prove the same hypothesis? What is the final purpose of this exercise? What am i trying to find?
Right now the space and my hypothesis are not entirely connected or relevant to each other maybe. Need to do some quick and dirty thinking exercises. Need to find out why i am repeatedly getting lost, what is missing, and how to fill it in fast enough.
Conversation with Prayas:
two interesting questions i am yet to answer :
1) Are you trying to create a spectacle? Why?
read - Richard Florida on Public Art , Not In Our Name manifesto.
2) Public spaces are intrinsically and inherently political spaces. What is your political stand? Look into the various political aspects/ threads . Look at Gentrification.
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