Integrative Studio

Faculty- Vedant Sharma

30.7.2019

Week 1

“WHO WANTS TO RAID AREA 51 ?” was the first thing that was written on the board. Everybody was looking at each other with blank faces, and the question turns out to be the most unexpected thing, a meme. A discussion followed after that and by definition a meme meant a picture or a text which is a joke that has become viral.

Moving forward, the class was about perception and how everybody perceive things differently and why is it so important. Perception is about how we see things or how we understand things and situations. Perception helps us to develop perspective on certain things. Everybody is different and hence will perceive differently. This helps to bring forward different thoughts and perspective.

Based on this we did an assignment on abstract art. Abstract art is a type of art that is made of lines,dots or shapes and is not at all realistic. It can truly can be understood by the creator only, so the different opinions made on it is nothing but the perceptions of others.

The assignment was to make abstract art in 4″X4″ boxes using lines and dots only based on these 5 given topics.

Feeling that you get when you wake up

When I wake up I feel focused. All my energies are directed in one particular direction which is the goal that I have set for that day.

Describe your best friend in one word

In one word my best friend is supportive. In the moving life presented by the broken lines,I always seek support to make my tangled life untangle. The straight middle line representing my best friend whereas i seeking support is the tangent.

Thoughts that you have when u look outside the window

When I look outside the window, I always feel like flying. Looking outside the aeroplane’s window makes me wonder what it would be if I could glide on the clouds

One highlight when you were coming to school

One of the main highlights while going to school is getting my white sole shoes getting dirty from the muddy rain water on the streets.

Your happy space

One of my happy times is when I’m dancing and these lines represents how my body moves in rhythm

3D models of the sketches

Week 2

6.08.2019

We were told to make 5 paper 3D models of size 4x4x4 inches of the best 5 abstract sketches we had done in the previous class.

3D Representation of what i feel when i wake up in the morning.

This is the 3D form of what I think when I look outside the window

3D form of describing my best friend in one word

3D form of my dirty shoes when I walk from home to college

3d form of demonstrating my bestfriend-unique(in a world of straight lines,he is a tangent)

Metaphors abstraction

Week 3

13.08.2019

We had to abstractly draw the metaphors that we had written about our qualities in seminar class on file card.This exercise turned out to be more easier for me as we could use shapes and colour.

Her life is a domino (a procrastinator, hence the troubles and workload keep falling one by one)

She is an unsharped pencil (blunt in nature)

Her replies are a dogs tail (because my replies are never straight)

She is a volatile stock market (varied mood swings)

Her heart is like a turtle(hard on the outside and soft on the inside)

she is an unused battery(possessing a lot of potential but never using them)

she is the tortoise in the rabbit race(determined and slow and steady)

3D models of the metaphors.

week 4

20.08.2019

In this class we had to make 3D Models of the metaphor drawing that we had done using file card,so this is what i made;-

Review day

week 5

Today our 3d models were to be reviewed. I was confident enough as i had an idea that my models look nice and i could score a good score. I was hoping to get an A- but got a B+. Nevertheless, i was satisfied.

Who am I

Week 7

Today we had to combine our 10 file card models into one model representing who am i. Honestly i had no idea what to do and whatever I tried to make would either keep falling or didnt look good. I completely blanked out and wasted the classes by just playing around.

Review day

Week 8

I could finally come up with my file card model. My model represents my name “shristi” which means universe. i have given a circular base to my model representing the universe. There are five qualities that stand vertically and 5 that are taking the support of the vertically held to stand horizontally. The vertically placed are my good qualities – straight forward,adaptable,unused potential, sensitive, determined. Whereas my bad qualities are moody,lazy,indecisive,sarcastic,procrastinator. This model show that how in my universe all are me both my good and bad qualities are important.

Visit to bhau daji lad museum

The visit to the museum was very fascinating. The moment you enter the museum the grandeur of the museum takes you aback.We learnt a lot about the history of the museum as to how it was in ruins and now is one of the most prettiest places in mumbai.

The history of mumbai was very fascinating too. I coming from kolkata didnt know much. So when i was told that mumbai was initially 7 islands made me surprised. The bombay islands were first taken over by the Portuguese and then to the english. The East india company turned the scenario of the islands which in first place were marshy lands.

The interesting things that i saw were:-

This is the model of the manor house situated in fort.

These are the different communities who lived here. The all migrated to do business.

Bombay was always a very good harbour city and these were the battle ships used by the english that time.

Overall it was a very nice and educative trip to the museum.

What makes Mumbai, Mumbai.

Week 9

Our class started with a latin phrase ” PRIMUS URBIS INDUS” ,which meant first city in India. Hence mumbai was the first urban city in India. Making references to the museum visit we concluded that mumbai is mumbai due to to particular characteristics. Its only this city that promises dreams and no other city does.

The main characteristics are:-

Diversity
Architecture
Population
sea
food
infrastructure
films
commerce
sports
politics
currency
crime

The we had to pick out few topics from this list and create an abstract symbol representing that.

City exploration

Week 10

We had to explore different parts of the cities. We shortlisted few areas of mumbai which have a separate character which added to the city.

Places we shortlisted were;-

crawford market
kala ghoda
marine drive
colaba causeway
mohmed ali road
cst station

We got kala ghoda and we had to make 15 sketches of that place- 5 fish eye view, 5 ant view and 5 birds view.

We then left to explore the area

Aspects

week 11

In the this class we discussed the different aspects that an area has that makes the area for what it is known for.

Kala Ghoda has following 4 main aspects-

Art- Kala ghoda is flooded with small and big art galleries. There are artists selling their beautiful art on street in contrast to the fancy Artists who are selling their work in enclosed gorgeous galleries. The main art gallery there is the Jehangir art gallery as well as the delhi art gallery.
Fashion- The area has showrooms of high end designers like the gaurav gupta, sabyasachi, pernia popup, ritu kumar,tarun tahiliani,abu jani and sandeep khosla etc.
Architecture- The architecture is old and new at the same time. Most buildings are old and have the persian stye architecture whereas some are modern and new.
Diaspora aspect- The area has the only baghdadi synagogue in mumbai and is one of most oldest and famous one. The entire kala ghoda area had been built up by a jewish family called the Sasoons.

Hence we decided to go for the diaspora aspect as it was not explored that much and not many people knew about the diaspora aspect of the area.

Boundary

week 12

In this class sir helped us to create the boundaries and limitations in which we have to explore the area so that we could do that in more detail.

Later in the class we continued to make the drawings

Drawings and questions

week 13

Context for questionnaire-

Our group is going to throw some light on the Diaspora aspect of Kala Ghoda. Amongst many aspects like the art, fashion, architecture that make Kala Ghoda so iconic, we have chosen the diaspora aspect because of the contribution of the Baghdadi Jews in the making of the area.
During World War II, a part of the Bhagdadi Jewish community imigrated to Mumbai, India. David Sassoon became the leader of the Jewish community in Mumbai. He, and later his family contributed in building the major buildings like the David Sassoon library, the Kala ghoda statue, the Kenneseth Eliyahoo Synagogue etc.
The Baghdadi Jewish community being is a minority community played a major role in history of Kala ghoda. Hence we decided to explore and at the same time discuss this aspect.

The questions that we wrote down are:-

1.How far do you live from the Synagogue? If they live in Kala Ghoda, is it their ancestral house?

2. How frequently do you visit the synagogue?

3. Is your business in kala ghoda? What is your business ,and is it the family business?

4.Did your forefathers contribute to the development of kala ghoda?

5. How have things changed after people of all faiths have been allowed to enter?

6.How do they want or imagine the future of kala ghoda?

Since we were exploring the diaspora aspect prevalent,we visited the synagogue and realized that the Jewish community is a very small community and hence being a minority they are heavily protected. Therefore nobody was willing to give us any kinf of answers that would help us in our research. Secondly the synagogue was baghdadi synagogue and most of the immigrants had left and went back to where they had come from. We did talk to a jewish man called Shalom benjamin and he was a bene israeli and he was helped us by answering few questions. He said that when very few jewish people stay in kala ghoda and most of them had shifted out. Also he said that when the jewish synagogue in kala ghoda restored, it was a very big deal in the community. Him being a bene israeli did not quite have connections to kala ghoda.

Installation Ideas

week 14

In this class we made few installation ideas for the aspect that we had chosen,which is the diaspora aspect.

Symbolizing the horse and the jewish 12 pillars of truth

Compilation and Installation

week 15

In the class we compiled all our work together and presented it.

Keeping in my our aspect, we made our installation on the the jewish community. Kala ghoda has many art galleries so we made a gallery of all the aspects that are there in kala ghoda. We collected cards,pamphlets, tissue papers, menu cards, and even pages from the library. The frames combined together looks like a horse and all the 12 frames on the 12 sticks represent the 12 pillars of truth of the jewish community.

The scraps that we collected are, a flier from the kenesseth synagonue, ‘ayubs’,kala ghoda cafe,bombay street treat menu card, a flier from max muller bhavan, delhi art gallery visiting card, jehangir art gallery pamphlet, painting from the street, a page from the libray, tissue paper from 145 kala ghoda ,etc.

The base is blue in colour to symbolize the jewish community as the whole area has been built up my david sasoon and jacob sassoon. Withut the jewish community, kala ghoda wouldnt have existed and nor would the beautiful architecture present there.