Chefs Reinvent The Rules of Art

 

(This article first appeared online and in print in the 10th September 2023 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 8 https://www.thehindu.com/food/indian-chefs-performative-art-artist-proof-food-installations-design-ai-storytelling/article67276235.ece)

Exploring dazzling Dubai in a day!

 

(This article first appeared in the 13th November 2022 issue of Deccan Herald newspaper's Sunday Herald section https://www.deccanherald.com/amp/sunday-herald/sh-top-stories/exploring-dazzling-dubai-in-a-day-1161039.html)

The Silver Lining

Segueing luxuriously into both modern and traditional Indian decor aesthetics, silver in its myriad avatars makes for premium art and design pieces around the home. And not to mention, good investments!

By Raul Dias

It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that in the context of home decor and design, silver has had a rather tumultuous existence. One that has been fraught with many ups and downs. Thankfully, with more of the former rather than the latter. In most traditional Indian home decor aesthetics, the precious metal has had a starring role for centuries. 

From silver jhulas to silver urlis and vases overflowing with mogras and marigolds, the metal has always been rather omnipresent in homes across the length and width of the land. However, as far as the modern, urban home decor aesthetic is concerned, over the last decade or so, silver has been slowly edged out in favour of the more linear, warm wood-centric, minimalistic, Scandinavian approach to home decor and design that places very little premium on shiny, ostentatious embellishments and curios.

But as far as the soon-approaching New Year goes, we predict that silver will be back with a bang. Shining its brilliant best as design and decor objet d'art and key investment pieces in homes across India!

Shining with versatility

Subscribing to the idea that silverware can fit into any type of home decor, be it modern or traditional is silver expert Prashant Sarawgi who is also the Founder and Managing Director of SR Artefacts, a company that specialises in sliver home decor articles and collectables. “Traditionally, silverware has been used to decorate homes of royalty and was considered to be a status symbol. Detailed nakashi and meenakari work add great value to the very colourful aesthetic of Indian decor. Since time immemorial, Europe and Latin America have been making silver articles for home decor. Candle stands and tureen bowls for example, work wonderfully in a home with western decor aesthetics,” believes Prashant.

Weighing in on this is Vandana Sarawgi, Brand Partner of silverware brand Episode Silver. “For a typical Indian home, one could use more thematic design and pieces like silver idols, carved boxes and bowls to complete the look.  For western home decor, contemporary pieces crafted in modern designs and finishes like mirrors, photo frames, laminates and candle stands could work wonderfully,” advices Vandana.

Giving us another perspective, by decorating one’s home with silver jewellery is silver jewellery and home decor designer Sangeeta Boochra, who hails from a family of Indian silversmiths who have been in the business since the mid-1800s. “There are multiple ways to decorate one's home with jewellery pieces. Vintage necklaces and bracelets can be framed in wood, while silver earrings on a wooden palette and these then placed on a feature wall make for great statement pieces. A silver hand harness or a maangtika can directly be framed on a marble slab or an onyx cut stone and placed as a decorative piece. The possibilities are endless,” says Sangeeta.

Making the bank!

Coming to the investment potential of silver, we see that the sky is truly the limit. A quick market analysis shows us that silver as a precious metal has increased 65% in last five months. No other metal has shown this sort of phenomenal rise. And in the past as well if we see the records, silver has always outperformed all other metals. Echoing this is Prashant who says that silver art piece keep appreciating in time. “Not just equivalent to their intrinsic silver value but also as they are not so easily found and manufactured any more. Therefore, of course silver art pieces work as great investment.”

Comparing silver home decor pieces to similar porcelain, ceramic or glass pieces, Vandana feels that they are definitely a far better investment. “Not only will the value of silver appreciate with time, it is also not as delicate and breakable as other materials used for home decor. Silver being a precious metal not only adds a luxurious and distinctive element, but is something that has an heirloom value,” says Vandana.

According to Sangeeta, silver even outperforms gold. “There are so many characteristics to the metal which no other metal has. Articles can be handcrafted in silver as it is a very soft metal, which is not possible in any other metal other than gold,” says Sangeeta. “For instance, anything made in silver is half the weight as compared to gold, as gold is heavier in weight when compared to silver. So let’s say an article in silver weighs 50 grams, the same piece in gold would come out to be 100 grams. So this gives an advantage to silver over gold as well.”

So, will 2021 be the Renaissance year that heralds the return of silverware art and decor pieces in our homes? Well, we’re surely hedging our bets on that and so should you!

Three tips for decorating with silver from our three experts

• Silver laminates are the latest trend in home decor and are used extensively to clad furniture and even walls.

• An all-time favourite as a grand silver idol at the entrance may be one of Lord Ganesha. 

• A silver chowky, traditionally used only in marriages, is one of the most useful items that one can own. It can be used as a foot stool in front of a lounging chair, as a magazine stand, or even as a planter base.  

(An edited version of this piece was first published in the December 2020 issue of LuxeBook magazine https://www.luxebook.in/)

The cycle of art!

As one of the most iconic socio-cultural symbols of Dhaka, cycle rickshaw art—revelling in all its kitschy, hand-painted glory—is clinging on to dear life with all its might in today’s changing Bangladesh.  

By Raul Dias

As a young boy growing up in a tiny village close to the city of Sylhet in eastern Bangladesh, Bulbul hated his name so much, that he soon started to refer to himself simply as “BB” once he hit puberty. Named after one of South Asia’s favourite singing birds of the passerine family that are closely related to nightingales, Bulbul says he was teased mercilessly by his posse of pals for possessing what is generally considered a feminine name.
Today, the 54-year-old’s name is his number one USP. And he proudly brandishes it—not just in sparkly silver Roman letters, but also pictorially in the form of a flock of neon green painted bulbuls—on the back side of his cycle rickshaw. All this, as he negotiates his way down Dhaka’s traffic-infested roads every day, ferrying locals and travellers like me to and fro.

Art Attack
I’m in Dhaka on a short, three-day post-Kolkata-work-trip holiday to visit friends, where a few minutes earlier I had chanced upon Bulbul at a busy intersection in the northern Dhaka neighbourhood of Gulshan. Despite my non-existent Bengali language skills, the broken English speaking Bulbul is more than happy to introduce me to his colourful world of cycle rickshaw art as we ride downtown towards Old Dhaka.
With over a million such three-wheeled pedicabs plying the streets all over Bangladesh, the country is often referred to as the ‘cycle rickshaw capital of the word’. Interestingly, more than half of these million cycle rickshaws can be found in its capital Dhaka alone. And each one of them, like Bulbul’s ‘kitschy aviary’, is dressed up to the nines with their flexible, accordion-like hoods festooned with buntings, tinsel strips bedecking handlebars and passenger backrests covered in vinyl panels decorated with intricate appliqué work.
But the one place that such artistry is on full is at the backside of the rickshaws’ chassis on the 2X4 feet metallic rectangles sitting below the hood. Here is where you will see everything from gaudy coloured depictions of flora—particularly that of Bangladesh’s national flower the shapla (water lily)—to hand-painted 2D portraits of rosy-cheeked local film stars.
I spot other specimens decorated with paintings of rural scenery and even edifices like the Louis Kahn-designed national parliament house called Jatiya Sangsad Bhabhan and the Tara Mosjid. The latter being a star-spangled mosque housed in the ‘Armanitola’ Armenian quarter of old Dhaka that incidentally also finds its likeness printed on one side of a 10-Taka bank note. 

Root Level
I soon find myself standing in front of a dilapidated storefront in Old Dhaka where the mood inside is nothing short of frantic. Insisting that I see how the rickshaw art takes shape, Bulbul has brought me to perhaps the only street in the world that’s dedicated to this craft. Bangsal Street aka. Rickshaw Street is where one can find around a dozen or so workshops that specialise in everything from painting and decorating to upholstering cycle rickshaws.
Breathing in air thick with strong odours of paint, vinyl and adhesive, all intermingling with each other, I step into Mesbahuddin Hafiz’s shop where I can see finishing touches being applied to a cycle rickshaw that I’m told is to be signed off in the next hour or so. The sexagenarian Hafiz tells me that the shop was started by his late father in the mid-1950s when the whole cycle rickshaw art scene started to take form.
“Though my father, who was one of the pioneers of this artform, started off painting more simplistic scenes like sunsets and beaches, it was only a decade later that his work started to take on a more political tone,” says Hafiz, obviously referring to Bangladesh’s struggle for independence from Pakistan in the early 70s. This was a time when more propogandist motifs depicting scenes of uprising and civil unrest started to creep into cycle rickshaw art, thus making it a great socio-political reflator of the zeitgeist.

Problems and Solutions
But sadly, these days it’s no less of a struggle for independence and livelihood for artisans such as Hafiz. Facing stiff competition from cheaper and faster to produce digital art and screen printing, work for him has almost dried up he tells me. “Twenty years ago, I used to work on at least five to six rickshaws a month. Whereas today, I’m lucky if I even get a single rickshaw,” laments Hafiz, who also puts the blame for his and his fellow artisans’ workload decline on something lethal to his trade. In a bid to help decongest the streets of Dhaka, the local government authorities have stopped issuing new rickshaw permits, which obviously means almost no new rickshaws to paint.
But all hope may not be lost, after all. Recognizing this imminent death of an art form and taking some proactive steps to prevent it is a local Dhaka startup called Biskut Factory. Helmed by Bangladeshi artist Biskut Abir, this art firm seeks to promote and sell rickshaw art by having it painted on everything from apparel and accessories to household items like kettles and mugs to even bringing it into the mainstream via platforms like the popular, annual Dhaka Art Summit. 
All this, showing people like Bulbul and Hafiz that there may very well be some hope for them at the end of their rather psychedelic rickshaw art rainbow!       


Travel log
Getting There 
There are several daily direct flights linking Dhaka with New Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. To travel within Dhaka, one can either hop into a taxi, auto rickshaw (locally called “baby taxi”), cycle rickshaw or public bus, though the last two options are only for the adventurous lot. While Indian citizens do need to have a Bangladeshi visa in advance before travel, the tourist visa is easily available at the Bangladeshi Embassy in New Delhi and is issued free of charge.

Stay
Dhaka offers an excellent choice of accommodation options that will suit most budgets. Located in the heart of downtown Dhaka, the luxurious InterContinental Dhaka (Rs 11,053 for two with breakfast, ihg.com) is one such option as is the well-priced, three-star Asia Hotel (Rs 4,177 for two with breakfast, asiahotel.com.bd), which can be found next to the Ramna Park and the historic Curzon Hall.

Tip
* One of the best ways to truly immerse oneself into the ethos of Dhaka is to cruise down the city’s main, arterial Buriganga River in a small wooden boat, often captained by singing boatmen! These boats known as koshas can be hired for as little as 150 Taka (Rs 127) per hour off the many piers next to the chaotic Sadarghat Boat Terminal in South Dhaka.

(An edited version of this article first appeared in the 7th December 2019 issue of The Hindu Business Line newspaper's BLink section on page 19 https://www.thehindubusinessline.com/blink/takeaway/disappearing-hand-painted-cycle-rickshaw-art-from-dhakas-bylanes/article30164711.ece) 

Notes from Sofia

By Raul Dias

Here’s an honest observation. Sofia isn’t a beautiful city. The modest sized capital of the Eastern European country of Bulgaria will never be up there with the top five ‘must-visit’ destinations in one’s lifetime. Nor will it ever be bestowed with those silly, rather patronising monikers of ‘Paris of the East’, ‘Venice of the South’ etc. But what it does have in abundance is character. Everywhere you look there’s an oxymoronic grittiness coupled with a breathless vibrance. And probably one the greatest contributors to this is Sofia’s bounty of street art and graffiti in all their candy-coloured brilliance and in-your-face insouciance.

First ‘Impressions’
Ever the thrifty traveller, one of the first things I did after checking into my hotel was to sign up for a free graffiti and street art tour of the city. Run by a bunch of passionate art students and experienced street artists who double up as guides, the two-hour long walking tour is their way of helping visitors discover Sofia and its colourful history.
And speaking of history, I was told by my guide Stella that it is thanks to Bulgaria’s socialist past that the street art sub-culture and era of the true-blue graffiti artist emerged. The drab, Soviet-style apartment blocks with their plain, grey exteriors provided the city’s 21st century street artists with a range of ideal surfaces for large scale mural art. It was also the sudden ‘invasion’ of satellite television and the emerging hip-hop scene of 90s America that served as harbingers of this sub-culture.
At first frowned upon, slowly street art came to be respected for what it is—art! In fact, graffiti is so well-accepted in Sofia that the tram stop under the National Palace of Culture (NDK) is officially called “NDK Graffiti”, all thanks to the abundant, ever-evolving graffiti than can be found around the tram stop.
Municipally sanctioned street art in particular also started to be used as a means to deter artists from committing random acts of vandalism. A few years ago, “Theatre on the Street”—an art project by Bulgarian NGO, aptly named Transformers—saw 30 artists, over 10 days transform 51 pavement-side electrical boxes into graffiti art along Sofia’s theatre-infested Rakovski Street.   

  

Interpreters of Maladies?
At one of our stops, a car park on the city’s arterial Knyaginya Maria Luiza Boulevard, a little north of the busy Serdika metro station, we were met with a rather evocative mural by local graffiti legend who goes by the tag of Bozko. A veritable nom de plume, a tag we’re told, is not just an artist’s signature and mark of territory, but also an allusion to their style.
In the case of Bozko, that style is something that borders on hallucinogenic with otherworldly characters harbouring hidden social messages. For example, painted below a peeling Chupa Chups lollipop advertisement, his Pinocchio-like figure from a project series titled Urban Creatures seems to reference the untruths the advertising industry perpetrate with its ever-growing beak-nose. The interpretations are limitless.
With a diametrically opposite style from Bozko, Nasimo, another local Bulgarian muralist, I was told, is known for his dreamy, largely figurative works that draw a lot of inspiration from classical art and convey a sense of escapism from reality. Behind the old Turkish Thermal Bath House, we stopped by two of his pieces a few meters away from each other. Both sublime. But the one that caught my attention the most was a photorealistic mural depicting an embracing couple with cupid superimposed onto them. The fading rays of the evening sun bouncing off the glass panels of the adjacent building and casting fluid-like rippled effects onto the wall, made the piece even more magical than it was.

(This article first appeared in the 28th July 2019 issue of The Hindu newspaper's Sunday Magazine section on page 27 https://www.thehindu.com/life-and-style/travel/notes-from-sofia/article28723200.ece)