WITHIN | Feb-Mar 2013

WITHIN | Exhibition of paintings by Rahul Inamdar | Feb-Mar 2013

Ravindra Natya Mandir Art Gallery, Mumbai

(P L Deshpande Maharashtra Sahitya Kala Academy)

Through my first solo exhibition titled WITHIN, I wanted explore the layers of the worlds that lies within us.

Starting out from the dissonance of urban working mind, WITHIN was a quest of a more fulfilling life.

Our identities are based on social choices rather than individual ones, leading to a mindless herd, thus keeping us away from discovering our identities. Through this narrative I have tried to question the journey to discovery of identity. The turbulence in our minds, to me, is an outcome of this denial of clarity.

The purpose of this journey to remind myself of my freedom to make sensible and transformative choices. The only way to social catharsis is through the dense forests of one’s own mind.

Here are the works displayed at Within.

what a difficult battle does darkness fight

knowing it will lose to the first ray of light

3'x3' | oil on canvas  | 2013 

Yesterday and tomorrow don't exist for today
they exist because of today

3'x3' | oil on canvas  | 2013  

closets legitimize fears

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

by the time i reach,
it moves ahead
3'x3' | mixed media on canvas | 2013

not a moment before
not a moment after
3'x3' | mixed media on canvas | 2013

with each layer within
i peel a new me

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2012

everything has a reason to be
mine is to be me

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

Immersed.

3'x8' in 3 panels | oil on canvas | 2013

If black means absence of white
what will gray be?

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

Dropped the armour.
Naked again.

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

The next step appears
when it's time.

3'x3' | acrylic on canvas | 2013

do i bond with you
or with 'the me' in you

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

to feel it
i don't need to understand it.

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

i walk blind.
the destination finds me.

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

And the crack appears

10.6'x2' in 4 panels | oil on canvas | 2013

rest in peace, inertia

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013 

soil,
water,
seed
germinates

4'x4' | oil on canvas | 2012

if i still seeing the parts
i am not close enough

10'x4' in 10 parts | oil on canvas | 2012

with myself:
do i talk more or
listen more?

2'x3' | mixed media on canvas | 2012

water shouts and vaporises

2'x3' | oil on canvas | 2012

empty. hungry. restless. alive.

2'x3' | mixed media on canvas | 2012

the longer i take to hit back
the stronger i become

3'x3' | mixed media on canvas | 2012

my God is an atheist like me

3'x3' | oil on canvas | 2013

all are gone.
i meet me.

6'x3' in 2 panels | oil on canvas | 2013

freedom from a point of reference

3'x3' | acrylic white on canvas | 2013

Exhibition 

Skin the label | Mural | Dec 2013

Skin the label | Mural | Dec 2013

Godrej Culture Lab was creating a one-day pop up museum in an old Godrej factory - Something that would get demolished the next day. 

Why should an artist go and put efforts to make something that will perish in a day?

The space, before :) - Entrance to the pop-up museum

A canvas has it's own set of challenges. You are trying to go deeper in the dimension you have chosen and exploring a facet of you. There are executional challenges there, but no real executional push-backs. 

Here, this project was worth doing for it's own challenges. 

The space was large. Each wall was 17-20 ft high and 60 feet long.  

It was old. It didn't have a roof but two water tanks, many pipes and a fixed ladder.  

I hadn't painted on a vertically held surface before, with gravity pulling the paint down. I didn't know what's the best paint for the walls and whether one coat would work or two. 

Or what colours I should use or how I would handle them in case i have to give another layer on top. 

How long would this entire thing take - and how would it develop.

It would at least be good 10-11 ft high, which meant I would have to work on a raised surface, that too without a sturdy scaffolding - a massive effort. 

And I didn't know whether I would last that long. The answer was simple : Do!  

Making a composition that would come together in a viewer's eye wouldn't have worked in this space as there was hardly any viewing distance. Standing 10 feet away from the wall to contain the 60 feet long work in one's eyes - was an impossible task - and there were two such walls facing each other.  

When one stood at the entry, it felt like an alley with a dead end - one wouldn't know how to exit the space at the first glance. The walls were coming together to contain the space which viewer could walk into. 

This was a space that could give the people an experience of walking into an art. Abstract art.

The unknown, unidentifiable, ever changing forms. 

But aren't people scared of abstracts? Who would want to dive into a pool of abstracts?

I had seen people who stood watching the abstract works for hours in my first exhibition, Within.  

The words helped them shed fear of watching the work - and once they got over the initial fear, the art would make them look at things they never saw.

The concept had to be 'skin'. I was giving a skin to the space. 

One who would walk through, would carry the skin on oneself, around oneself.  

It was about colours and lack of them. 

We distinguish colours by seeing them, but we can't do the same by touching them. 

Touch doesn't lie, our eyes do, our biases do. That was the theme for the mural. 

There was a concept. and there was the rough layout.

 And this is what I was going to make, life size.

Concept hits the ground, day 1. 

The mural starts coming to life. 

To make it walk-through, I paint the floor : see the difference!

It's 8 days and 50 litres of paint down and the 2000 sq ft mural is ready. 

Should I cover it or not? The tanks at the top make the decision simple. Has to be done. 

Back at it for two more days to put up the roof. (I took Rucha's help for this, phew!). 

Obviously it can't be normal. Hooks, ribbons, efforts and hope.  

People keep walking through irrespective of all the 'Wet paint' signs, water tank overflows add to the concerns. One day before the floor is so dull that I am dreading whether I will have to paint the floor again. 

And then I give it a bath. Dust washed away and clean painted floor shining like new! 

(Thank god for emulsion paints)

Obviously, it needs to be guarded in the night. 

From anyone who can walk - or fly. Bats, pigeons. Shit. 

The engraved acrylic panel goes up completing the space.

Skin the label | The final look

The space has its own energy, its own peace.  

Every moment spent on it has been worth the experience. 

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Here's a video of the walk-through. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHqmmaz0ec

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Detail

A heart-felt thanks!

To everyone who walked through the mural and felt it. 

To Parmesh Shahani, Avanti, Dianne, Rushva from India Culture Lab team for providing the space and the opportunity.

To Shailesh Deshpande for the numerous lunches and the chats at the venue that kept me going (+ the ladder too)

To the media who covered India's largest 3D mural

To Chinmay, Rashida, Arush, Shikha and my friends of Godrej and outside, who kept visiting, discussing and ensuring that the energy levels were up.

To Shindeji and team, who got the place cleaned up for me, without any official talk

To the facilities team for taking off the honey comb and saving me probable bites

Apologies to the honey bees : Sorry, I was just not able to communicate and resolve it :(

To Rashid, who helped put up the roof, transited for being my man-friday

To Kanhaiyyaji and Dhaba team, for amazing omelet paos and lemon-grass chai, round the clock 

To AJS printers for getting the acrylic plate engraved as per my specs in like two hours.

To all the paint companies - who make really good enamel paint. 

To Daddy who helped me put up the plate 

To Aai who wrote to a lot of people.

To my family, who tolerated my tantrums and drained out evenings 

To Rucha Inamdar for pushing me to do the roof, helping me out with it and for the amazing photographs : the mural wouldn't have happened without you.