'Untitled' - mousumi de (2007) for an eye for an eye?
"the gun and the camera were invented in the same year,
they do more or less the same thing"
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2005-2007 An eye for an eye ? is an interactive documentary that questions if it is naïve to think that non-violence can work in this century, against violent weapons of the military and silent weapons of the media. Shot over a period of 17 months in over 7 countries, this documentary started as a compilation of people’s experiences and opinions; but has emerged as a compilation of their stories, that lie beneath the skin of their opinions. In the heart of these stories lies the human in different faces. An eye for an eye ? invites you to see the human that lies beneath the garb of nationality, race, regime, class, creed, colour and the different faces of god. As for non-violence –"an eye for an eye" can just make the whole world blind, but what do you think?
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of military tanks and Barbie dolls 2006 Of military tanks and Barbie dolls is a short film. It is based on the experience of creating artworks for a visual arts peace project called As-salaam that was initiated after the London Bombings in 2005, with some young British Muslim girls in Coventry. The art for peace project however was not just about art and not just about peace, there is a lot more to it and the girls have a lot to say…its about ‘being told off my Mooshmi’, about ‘testing one's patience under the light creating straight lines’, about 're-discovering friendhip', about 'what it feels to be called a terrorist', 'what it feels to be a Muslim' and ...last but not the least, its about all the fun we had!
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center for revival of indigenous art 2006 Center for revival of indigenous art is a non-profit organization, that I co-founded with Geetha Bhat.The centre is run by a handful of voluntary people and is committed towards building awareness of and preserving indigenous art practices in India, through research and development; most importantly the centre is concerned with the upliftment of artisans whilst safe guarding the socio-cultural and ecological aspects of their artistic practice that mutually benefit them and the environment that surrounds them. |
as-salaam-a visual arts peace project 2005-2006 As-Salaam was a project initiative conceived and implemented just after the London Bombings on July 7th 2005. The project hoped to initiate an inter-cultural dialogue between the strained British Muslim and British Non-Muslim communities and make a small contribution towards understanding the perceptions of Islam, especially as a peaceful religion, among its young believers. It aims to use visual arts as a means of expression, allowing young people to explore their own beliefs and notions of peace and share it with the wider community. But peace is a lot more than what people think it is, its about dairly milk chocolates, Barbie dolls, Barbie cars and a lot more... |
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1986-2006 the art of doing nothing is not a project, its a compilation of some of my illustrations that I did mostly when I had nothing to do, and even when I had loads to do...like listening to lectures in chemistry class...when I made the most of such monotonous moments by making drawings. over the recent years, I don't have that luxury of doing nothing, so I end up drawing in airports waiting for flights, on paper napkins in restaurants while travelling, when I sit down to make NTL or other customer service calls for utilities etc, because it takes about 20 minutes before you get to a human to speak with and, of course when I am utterly frustrated with the politics inside me as a response to the politics outside that I can't do much about.... |
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2006-2008 the circle is a hypertext novel, which is a collation of my experiences in England. In the last five years I have changed houses 11 times and the 12th time would be in September 2007. I started taking pictures and collating these stories since 2006 and would probably finish compiling in the summer of 2008. There is a story behind every move, every house has a story and every house mate has stories to tell.The stories are very simple, they range from my bowl of gold fish to the begger on the street, from gardens and taxis, from toilets to friday nights, from wine to coffee, from the Malawian to the discrete Englishman and many more... sometimes the stories are the same no matter which culture people came from and sometimes the same stories have different meanings. In the heart of these stories is a journey that questions and explores what being civilized actually means in different civilizations, as what Huntington defines as civilizations and what happens when they cme together and share the same space... |
