Home is where the inspiration is.

Announcing the winner of the giveaway posted early last month.  Canada based architect and entrepreneur, Liza Skaria's answer  bags her  this limited edition print signed in verso :

A detail of make shift , plastic and canvas tents that house pilgrims at Kumbh city, Allahabad.

On the subject of homes and what they mean to us,  a couple of conversations I have had with friends and readers recently brings me to today's  post..

In which what one surrounds oneself with finds organic and subconscious expression in what one does sometimes.

Its going to be a series of quick collages I posted to a secret Pinterest board recently.  One that a fellow blogger friend the inimitable Archana Srinivas of Rang Decor encouraged me to put together. Archana needs no introduction, but this much has to said, she is a major motivation for mine among a score of other blogs like ours . Read her lovely blog here.

That my  home is an expression of what drives me internally is something I  knew intuitively.  But to realise how much took this little exercise.. 

One morning for me, and an evening for Archana who currently building her nest in Minnesota, USA, many steaming cups of tea and a free wheeling chat about work inspiration and `style' prompted me to look into my work and  and inspirations.

With some thinking I juxtaposed work from the Photo+ series I launched last year against vignettes from my home and work, in collages and came to a realisation...

Like every book read, ever word written, every movie seen, every place traveled what you photograph, and what you curate as an environment around you has a say in who you are and what your inspirations will be. It matters what you say with your home..!

Have  shared the mood-boards I created for Archana with you via these hurriedly put together collages. Do leave me a word if this resonates with you at any level ( of agreement or disagreement both ) at all!

Color studies : in brown and blue.

Launching a  line of art work  ( photo +) that deals with layers of materials and techniques,   has done a few things to me and the way I  approach my photography. It forces me to think accross disciplines. For the first time the image is also a starting point for a larger story. I am learning to see things accros a broad spectrum of things without compartmentalising. 

Images objects and stories come together to make a memory.

In 2008, I curated a small object based exhibition that appropriated household objects from expat Indian homes based in Hongkong ( pictured below). 

The experience of working with a large number of migrant  families and their stories of movement, dislocation and nesting in a foreign country was eye opening. The power of the domestic space in defining identity and  the immediacy of a possesion however small was a revelation.  My fetish for objects and material goes farther back, but this small exhibition encouraged it tremendously.

There was an intense desire on my part at that stage to work with objects and possessions. I started collecting  materials. Letters, postcards, photographs and the like.  

With Photo plus that desire to curate across media has gradually taken shape. There is a long way to go yet.

Late last year it struck me to apply a simlar approach to the blog. Talking homes, decor, interiors and lives still,  yet in different ways and definitely with more engagement with the subject.

I have made small beginings already. Today's post is yet another effort in more involved blogging. 

A series of posts will follow suit.

Today, I pick a color based modboard  for browns and blues. 

A combination of the contrasting elements of the earth and sky creates unearthly poetry..It's chic, contemporary and timeless, all at the same time. Here is a little brown and blue from  all over, other  homes, closets, the Photo+ work table, some of my photography and my own home.

Will come back with more since there is a lot more to say, until then I hope this make sense...

   

Photo credit : Pinterest. Among a lot of  wonderful oriental and Cuban interiors is also an outfit from my favourite designers, Payal Khandwala's previous collections.  A big fan of her fantastic sense of color and a very boho take on cuts and styles. 

A mood board created with an assemblage of color based objects, illustrations and photographs  from my studio and home.

Details from the mood board..

An Arastan shop in shop at Goodearth, Raghuvanshi Mills.

Arastan. The Bangalore base home and artefact label is unfortunately closing down soon. [A post about them was among a long list of to do's which never got done for one reason or the other unfortunately.]

One of Jodhpur's many blue houses. The  old quarter of the city is a symphony of blue and earth. Check out a more detailed post here.

When the dining table is off duty.

Browns and Indigo in the bedroom, plus and minus orange and rust as accent colors.

Hand built pottery in the kitchen.

Photography from Jodhpur livens up a mostly earth canvas of objects.

Finally a few images of a silk cushion I hand embroidered a while back from the archives..

Giving away

Among the many things that happened last year was  my participation in a blog give away for the very first time :) The gorgeous Vineeta Nair of Art n light was giving a Mora by Ritika Mittal stole away.   ... Wait ?! was it a Mora?! I would have killed for this one, but thankfully  no such desperation was required.  All we needed to do was to drop a note about tradition and what it meant to us. Easy peasy. I did my bit and waited patiently. And  in due course a  beautifully finished stole came to me in a cloth package bearing the signature red dot !!!

Image courtesy Artnlight

I am yet to thank  Vineeta and Ritika for their generosity formally. So I start the new year with this little note of thanks.

Taking the right cues from the two ladies I admire so much, the very first post of 2014 on Girl about home  is going to be a very first give away!

To all my  lovely readers  who coming back to the blog time and again.   For  all those I have connected with through this site. For keeping up with my moody, erratic and half hearted posts sometimes - here is a sincere word of thanks too. Do keep reading the blog as well as my recently launched Facebook page. I promise to keep sharing on both these spaces out through out 2015.

The rules of the give away are simple .
For a 9 by 13 inch card mounted print on archival grade paper :

Temporary home at  Kumbh Mela Allahabad,  Maha Kumbh 2013.

- follow girlabouthome if you are not following already

- like  the Chandan Dubey Photography Facebook page at:  
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chandan-Dubey-Photography-/253623451376709?hc_location=timeline

- drop me a comment about what your own home means to you, in the comment section below this post.

- Once there is critical mass of comments,  I will choose five responses  and draw the name of the 
winner by lots. 

The give away is open to readers of the blog around the world. Don't forget to leave your email ids !

Happy new year guys, come get your print!

Vintage love.

Just a day away from showing Photo + at the AWC fair, Trident BKC, Mumbai.  The experience and response this far has been overwhelming to say the least.  The madness of putting together a gig has unleashed! With much effort I squeeze just one more post from the range..

Sharing with you a few images that use vintage photography for inspiration.  These images are reproductions of  old photographs I have collected  over the years.

The history of early studio photography and the portrayal of women therein is utterly fascinating. A detailed post on the subject would be pertinent. Promise to come back with one later..

Until then, here are a few vintage photo boxes and more from from Photo+ ..

Antique Teak Box

Vintage photo stool

The prince's wardrobe

Skirt, Jaipur 


Have uploaded most images from the collection on to my facebook page. Check it out here.

Look forward to seeing those who can make it at the AWC fair tomorrow!

From a chair by the window

Makeshift workspace by the window

What is it  they say about life giving you lemons?  You make lemonade.. right? Cheesy cliches apart,  good lemonade is always worth striving for.

Although today's post has been in the writing for the past four months  its germ has been in mind for over two years. 

"Time is a created thing. 
To say 'I don't have time', is like saying 'I don't want to" 
~ Lao Tzu

Waiting for the right time often becomes a carefully cultivated scam  to avoid implementation. The mind adds to the difficulties real and imaginary,  and before one  knows even the best intentions suffocate slow mo. Only in my case, a few developments at home, not altogether positive forced me to confront this resistance. 

Early  his year construction delays at home and a mishap soon after we moved in had me home bound for an indefinite stretch. As if that was not enough, my digital camera with its dainty dust sensitive sensor had to be  packed away!   I simply had to find an escape from the sheer madness unleashing itself day and and day out. A way out of the noise dust and juggling between focusing on the house, the children and still getting some work done!

The house was in a disarray anyway.  Life was going to be like sitting on a three legged chair for the next six plus months if not more. Would it hurt  anymore if I added to the chaos?  Took up a corner and started to sand paint, colour glue and mess about?!  It is hard mucking about in a clean calm space. But one which is rumbling and shaking like a monster spewing dust belches ?!!

So  in one chaotic corner of the house -a single desk by a window:  Photo + took shape.  Tentatively and one mistake after the other at first,  I had to teach myself restoration of old furniture- trunks mostly.  Sand, prime, paint, detail and varnish.  A little by myself and mostly thanks to the constant hand holding and encouragement of dear friends...(they know who and they know how ;)

Some of you might recollect the project I undertook with the wall niches and old calendars a while back (here).  As an extension of  the niches,  other objects that have been subsequently embellished using paint, paper-mache, decoupage and moulding.

In process.

The  idea has to do with the power of  the authentic object. Calendars, posters, old books. Vintage photography, coins, old hand written letters, postcards endless material that invokes nostalgia and longing.. add to it my own photography which in the past ten years or so has become a map of my life across countries and cultures in a way. Is it possible to pick up an old object and reinvent it with older material?

In a somewhat finished form, the project involves restoring old furniture- trunks, cabinets, stools, platters, boxes and containers etc ( pretty much all I could lay my hands on) and lending them a fresh layer of interest and therefore a new life using layers of old material- collected, inherited and found.

Check out images of some of the handcrafted Photo + art works at  the fabulous Bhavna Bhatnagar's An Indian Summer. I am thankful and thrilled to have her feature my work.

With much trepidation I will launch the initial set of objects coupled with select fine art prints at a day long AWC event at the Trident  hotel BKC  on the 30th of November.

Would love to share stories  about a few  objects over the next few days.  For above all, each painstakingly handcrafted object in the series this far  has multiple stories to tell. Will keep updating my facebook page at Chandan Dubey Photo + simultaneously.

I promise to post continuously over the next four days. See you around 

Laxmi

Laxmi limited edition fine art print
@
https://www.facebook.com/pages/Chandan-Dubey-Photography-/253623451376709

Wishing all dear readers a very very happy Diwali! 

I had just one more Diwali post to go, only s
ometimes, one needs to tune out the blog and the Internet, power off the camera and be in the moment ! The post shall be uploaded soon .. You have a great day of festivities and family.!

On Show : Madder Moon

Have you been to the moon yet ?!! 

A  brand new moon aloft Singapore skies. Madder Moon - a name derived from the Madder root that lends Indian textiles a rich deep red colouring. Also a name evocative of the dramatic celestial phenomenon, when on the moon turns a shade of  blush red.. 

 Only this moon is a brand new art and design space in the island city.  The brain child of two talented designers, Rajee Vissa and Priya Kainikara Sharma,  the gallery is housed in a historical Singapore style shop house. From the few tantalizing glimpses of the space I have had  in images, it is easy to sense a unique character and age old charm of soaring ceilings, stripped wooden floors and a  dramatic wooden buttresses  that holds the ceiling and sky light in place..

To mark the gallery's early December opening,  the girls have put up a debut show which is as striking as the space. With  dramatically  displayed goodies  handpicked from from a   disparate range of the products across the art and design spectrum, the show does all involved proud!  (Images) 

A selection of my photography is on display in the space from now until the 15th of December.   Check it out !

The Space

The Show

At the waters edge.

Have often contemplated `How  to paint a water Lily' a poem by Ted Huges.  Far from a naive  description of nature, the poem describes a scene of a fight. Behind the quite delicate beauty of the Nymphaeaceae blooms, hidden a real vision of horror. The poem celebrates the beauty of nature, albeit in its violence.

All of which only became clear to me one morning spent at the edge of a pond trying to photograph  vivid, bright blooms as they had just begin to climb out of the murky womb of stagnant water.  Although there were no dragon flies I  think I saw a snake slither in the undergrowth. ( I think ..!)

 The squelchy, muddy bank and the slimy, still, slow water.  Fishes, fat toads-thawing in the early morning warmth, unlikely companions  to the magnificent flowers. The buds themselves having to  negotiate the dark pond waters to respond to  the beckoning of the early morning sun.

While, any Lily pond will always remind one of what the impressionist  genius Monet immortalised on canvas, there is another side  to the pond, that is far from a setting of aquatic peace.  A whirlpool of natural chaos, a body of water that reflects the heavens as much as the abyss.

This contrast, dual character  is inherent to most of nature, only looking at the surface, it is hard to completely imagine what lies beneath. Although the Lily, rich with symbolism is an oft repeated motif in art, poetry, architecture philosophy and religion, it is this contradictory aspect of regeneration amidst chaos, that is most captivating. I came across the work of  artist Arpita Singh recently,  One of here canvases a Lily pond is used as a reference to depict a war zone, a jigsaw of gun toting soldier, fallen bodies and tanks. Thus highly politicising established ideas of what  a Lily pond may or may not symbolise.. It is a way of widening our perspective, opening our eyes to see the complete picture, accepting and pushing the limits of imagination and truth.

To that end on need not stray afar from the waters edge..

Light

Id and Ganesh utsav have come and gone. The year is already on the brink of the festive season. Dussehra, Diwali and Christmas.. Also the much awaited short but sweet Mumbai winter - if there is such a thing at all!..
Taking a  short breather before diving back into the year again.. posting random pictures taken from around  home, of homes and random streets....

(More about Chawl)

Its the light between two seasons that makes such a difference to the way we see things.. Shifting rays of the sun create unexpected, surreal changes to perspective. The way  the breakfast table lights up some mornings for example....

Or another random corner of the house late in the afternoon....

Also today afternoon, rambling around a shaded Colaba street, I chanced upon this balcony besprinkled with light.

While I was away..

Among the few things that happened early this year while I was away from the blog :

First:

A book which  features one of my photographs from this blog on its cover came out early this year.

A Festschrift titled Anthony Reid and the study of the Southeast Asian past - published by the Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. The book celebrates  scholar and historian, Anthony Reid's contribution  to the field  of Southeast Asian History. 

The cover uses a picture I had taken for a post on Indonesian Ikat (here).

Was thrilled to find my copy in the mail! Sharing an image of the book with all you readers:

&

Second:
Finding a space on Bangalore based Artist, Aarohi's blog!( here) I was thrilled to be part of the all women series Aarohi did on her blogger friends. 

I've been an ardent admirer of Aarohi and her involvement with the cause of  stray dogs..(read more).  In fact whatever this spirited woman takes on to do, she does with so much love and fire, it is an inspiration to just watch. 

I would like to say more about Aarohi and the various offshoots  of her artistic journey right away.. but something tells me I should wait. There will be more Art by Aarohi on this blog in time to come for sure.. ! Until then:

Thanks for the feature Aarohi and being the friend you are!! :)

The Hindu : Arts / Magazine : An orderly chaos

Pre event review of my upcoming photo exhibition at NCPA Piramal Art Gallery.

Sublime Chaos of Cities, featuring established photographers, Mala Mukerjee and Smita Barooah Sanyal, opens on the 6th of January thru 15th.

Be there guys!

The Hindu : Arts / Magazine : An orderly chaos