Welcome

May 5, 2019

Tweet with Sticks

In many respects, the ‘Dhol’ (Indian drum) with its hollow wooden barrel and animal hide stretched over its open ends, and the humble ‘Dholwalah’ (drum beaters who sounded the drums) who carried the instrument slung around the neck are relatable to ‘Twitter’ of our times. A long-lost cousin of sorts; this ‘tweet with sticks’ had the same function for the Mughal establishment of yesteryears as any sane or deranged president or politician of our times.

While today the ‘Dhol’ is mostly associated with folk music, Bhangra dance, wedding parties and religious processions, the ‘Dhol’ and ‘Dholwalahs’ played an important part in shaping the history of the sub-continent.

In his book ‘Delhi-The unknown tales of a city’; R.V. Smith dedicates a whole chapter to the drummers of Delhi and writes “In the medieval day they (Dholwalahs) were employed in large numbers to act as messengers. They had a code, of course, and this was communicated in a sort of relay until the message reached all the cities and towns in a radius of several hundred miles. Sometimes, the message warned of an impending attack and sometimes it gave news of a court proclamation that the emperor was journeying and would need fresh horses at such and such a place. And so every time the drums beat across the miles, people knew something important was afoot. During the 1857 uprising it was either the lotus or the chappatis carried by runners secretly at night that warned most villages and towns that the revolt against the British was to break out soon. Wherever the symbols could not be carried the message was passed on by the beat of drum”

Now fast forward a few centuries into the present. In this artwork, I have used the drumbeaters as symbols for proclamation -albeit not for or by a person of prominence, but an announcement or a ‘tweet’, if you will, aimed at welcoming the travelers who visit the Little Indian prescient.

The narrative around the historical background is reinforced by different motifs on the art work. The top band depicts a typical marble floral inlay design and similarly the mosaic pattern at the back is inspired by geometric tiled pattern common of the period.

The bottom bands depict the elements of journey and travel. The silhouette images of the lower purple band depict a royal caravan with rows of elephants, horse and camels (journey) and the winding pattern on top is aimed at representing waves, travel and motion. The choice of colors for the bands was not only driven by the overall aesthetics of the piece but by using different colored zigzag lines my intention was also to universalize the welcome message to include all who have come to the country (ochre), by water/boats (aqua) and air/planes (light blue).

Welcome, khush aamdeed, savaagat he

Though over the years a lot of customs and traditions in the subcontinent have evolved or eroded away; fortunately, the customs around hospitality and honoring of guest is very much alive to this day. Travelers passing through the sub-continent cannot help but notice this fact. According to one traveler, “The countryside seems populated with people willing to drop everything to help an unknown foreigner find his destination or to serve him tea.”

Hospitality is valued by Muslims, Hindus and Sikhs alike. In Pakistani Islamic culture, the guest is considered a blessing from God, and in neighboring India the slogan “Atithi Devo Bhava” (guest is god) defines the importance of the guest for the host.

Folks take great efforts to make sure that the guest are happy and provided for. Often the host will offer best dishes, sweets and fruits to their guest then they would consume themselves. In some countryside areas, a guest of one family is considered a guest of the whole street or village. Many restaurants owners and shopkeepers even refuse to take money from foreigners.

These cultural traits are evident in people even when they move away from their homeland and settled in other countries. Case in hand, while I was busy painting the pole, a Sikh gentleman who owns a shop in the area became a silent admirer of my work and offered to provide me chai and soft drink and refuse to take money when offered.

I have tried to highlight this cultural trait in the pole artwork by writing ‘welcome’ in several regional and international languages. The initial plan was to cover all 23 regional languages spoken in the region but unfortunately my patience with Dr Google and the time run out and I settled with covering a dozen languages only.

Epilogue

This commissioned public art is part of Stage 2 of the Indian Cultural Precinct revitalization works that have been sponsored by the City of Greater Dandenong and is aimed at enlivening the streetscape and showcase the color and vibrancy of the culture of sub-continent. I hope the people will appreciate and enjoy this piece as long as it last not only for its aesthetics but also the message it aims to convey.

Breaking Bread Together

February 3, 2019

This blog is about the 2019 Australia Day art activity held at Balla Balla community center which was aimed to highlight the power of meal to bring people together.

Reminiscing Rekindling Tour of Morocco

December 31, 2018

This post is not intended to be a travelogue per se; the intent is to record some experiences and insights during and after my travels and more importantly to acknowledge some of the beautiful people and personalities that I met and grew friendships with along the way.

It has been a long and uneventful flight. I had spent the 24 hours of flight time ‘wisely’ between sleeping, in-flight entertainment and flight meals; however, my attempts to go over the recommended reading materials again prior to landing in Morocco had been largely unsuccessful. Before this journey I had not met the organizer or the other fellow artist selected for this tour; and as the plane circled around Muhammad V airport, Casablanca, I was overwhelmed with mixed emotions of diffidence and excitement of what lay ahead for me.

My ‘Rekindling Tour’ journey started back in January 2018, with an email out of nowhere from someone who I hardly knew. A curator and an academic from Perth who studied Islamic art was putting together a grant to take a small number of artists to Morocco for training in Islamic arts and wanted to know if I was interested. She had come across my work done for SalamFest through the grapevine of social media and thought that I fulfilled the requirements for the grant.

Thrilled, honored and deeply humbled by this chance occurrence, I promptly conceded.

Hamida Novakovich who is an independent curator, writer and academic was the driving force behind the Rekindling: An Australian Artisans Tour of Morocco project. She and her team (Professor Samina Yasmeen & Azim Zahir) at The Center for Muslim States and Societies (CMSS), University of Western Australia, initiated this project with an aim to establish ongoing links between emerging Australian artists and Masters of Islamic Art in Morocco. The intent of the project was to provide Australian artists an opportunity to visit and train under Master Artisans, to learn new skills in traditional Islamic arts and,upon their return, disseminate the acquired knowledge to the community through innovative community art projects.The tour was funded by The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Council for Australian Arab Relations. The grant applications and processing, selection of Australian artist, coordination of flights and accommodation in Morocco and more importantly planning and coordination of activities with local masters were all done through CMSS. The challenges involved in coordinating artist from different states, art experiences and backgrounds and developing a program that fits all requirements and expectations cannot be understated and the Rekindling Tour organizing committee deserves high praise for putting together such a remarkable program.

The artist selected for the tour came from three different states. Tusif Ahmed and Osama Mah joined us from Perth (WA), Niccy Pallant from Adelaide (SA) and Zahrah Habibullah, Majdi Faleh and I were from Melbourne (VIC).

Our artistic and professional backgrounds were equally varied. Tausif has a software development and jewellery design background and is a paper cutting artist par excellence. Osama has a digital graphic design and animation background; he is a philosopher, practicing calligraphist and a digital artist. Niccy has an arts education and teaching background; she is a print maker and a visual artist and also conducts workshops in sacred geometry and leather embossing. Zahrah is a professional photographer and artist, specializing in jewellery design and metal works. Majdi recently obtained his PhD in architecture focusing on Islamic design and practices geometric art, and I have a mechanical engineering background and dabble in visual and community arts.

The Journey Begins

Situated in Northwest of Africa, Morocco has been at the cross roads of history and presents an interesting mix of Berber, Arab, Islamic, Christian, Jewish and European traditions.

The first stop in the Rekindling tour was Fez. This city was founded in early 9th century by the Idrissi dynasty; they are also credited for establishing the University of Al-Qarawiyyin which is the oldest existing, continually operating higher educational institution in the world. In early 12th century Fez was considered to be one of the largest cities in the world and gained a reputation for its religious scholarship and as a hub for trade and commerce.

My first memories of this city are intertwined with the clattering sound of suitcase wheels on the cobbled stone streets of medina as the group dragged our luggage from Blue Gate (‘Bab Boujlood’) via narrow winding streets to the multilevel house; the ‘Dar ’that was to be our residence in Fez.Our hotel ‘Dar Arsama’; was managed by a Spanish visual artist- Violeta Caldres and her Moroccan, handyman husband - Adil. Violeta and Adil had painstakingly restored an old house over four years to convert it to a residential hotel. Beautifully decorated and immaculately maintained with examples of traditional Moroccan tile designs and furnishings, in addition to Violeta’s own contemporary works on the walls, the house give a surreal feel.

Appearances can be deceiving, and I believe in no place is this statement truer then in Morocco’s medinas. Chaotic or maze like from a ‘western’ viewpoint for urban planning, the medina’s were designed to provide a sustainable space keeping in mind the ideals for the short and long term well being of the community. The city’s compact and dense fabric of housing, streets, thoroughfares and open spaces allowed people to practice their trade and live in the city without being exposed to physical and human harm.

Our first workshop was at Craft Draft studios with Hamza El Fasiki. Hamza is a social entrepreneur, musician, author and an academic. He took over his family craft business from his father; who is a master craftsman and chair of the guild and founded Craft Draft studios with an aim to restore people’s connections to the traditional crafts. The studio provides an opportunity to learn and share the traditional arts by inviting both locals and foreigners to become apprentices and experience firsthand the traditional tools and techniques used by the artisans.

The great Muslim philosopher Imam Al-Ghazali stated “Four traits lift a person to the highest ranks, even if their works and knowledge are little: forbearance, humility, generosity, and good character”.

The traditional artisan journey from apprentice to the master, instil these principles. Children as young as 6 or 7 years old would join the crafts workshop as apprentices. For the first 2 years they would only observe their Master’s work, then gradually be taught to hold tools and learn simple menial task and then actually introduced to the creative crafts. It took up to 10-12 years of learning to replicate the designs and another few to become a certified Master (maâlem) craftsman recognized by the Guild. This learning process was designed to develop apprentice skills as well as the inner self (Nafs). The aim was to develop humility and character in the students as they venture forward in life to become master craftsmen and contributing members of the society.

The workshops at Fez with Hamza were intriguing and introduced us to the crafts of Islamic geometric patterns, leather embossing, book binding and brass etching.

While in Fez, we also visited ‘Culture Vultures’, an arts and culture organization situated at the market town of Sefrou. Culture Vultures produce art based socially impactful programs and activities which are facilitated by a network of local and international artist. This visit provided us an opportunity to learn about the community art projects completed by the organisation and visit local artisans involved with textile manufacturing, black smithing and garment making.

After a short hop at the Australian Embassy at Rabat, where the tour artists had opportunity to present about their works and the tour to the consul, our next stop was the coastal city of Essaouira.

Essaouira is located at the Atlantic coast and for centuries was considered one of the best anchorages of the Moroccan coast. The history of the area goes back hundreds of years when the Phoenician established a trading post in the area; since then the city has changed hands and occupied by Berbers, Romans, Arabs, Portuguese and the French. The ‘modern’ day version of the town was founded by King Mohamed III in 1760 with an aim to secure a harbor as close to Marrakech as possible and facilitate trade with Europe. Since its foundation the town has been a multicultural and multi-confessional center with people from Amazighs, Arabs, Africans, Europeans, Muslims, Christians and Jews calling it home.

In Essaouira most of the group stayed at Riad 7 Stones. This awesome hotel is part-owned by Jamaican born; American graphic artist Adellee Haley otherwise known as ‘Babylass’ and managed by Ismail Mouyahada and musician Melisa Stone. Affable and deeply engaged in her faith, Adellee is an abstract expressionist working with acrylic paints and a digital photo artist using creative computer techniques to manipulate and enhance photographs for her artwork. During our stay in the city we also had the opportunity to visit her beautiful home and studios situated outside the city, enjoy her hospitality and firsthand experience her artistic endeavors. The Raid’s manager, Ismail had an equally generous and inspiring personality. With a background in Geology, Ismail speaks several languages and had a deep insight to life. Like all things Moroccan; he had creative flair waiting to emerge. I am sure one day; given the time, resources and opportunity, he will make his mark in this field.

Our mentor in Essaouira was Imad-Eddine Dably. Imad is a musician, a traditional instrument craftsman and tradesman. He briefed us about the history of Moroccan musical instruments and taught us how to make drums. Imad coordinated and arranged tours with a number of artist and craftsman, who graciously took time out and shared their skills and give us insight to their crafts.

Mohammad Tifardine is a calligraphist par excellence. He has a unique contemporary style and has exhibited internationally including Australia. A serene and humble character, Mohammad Tifardine control over the lines and curves of the Arabic script is exceptional.His strokes are measured and yet fluid and it was a delight to see him work, let alone be taught a few skills and techniques of the trade.

Smarrai Anouar, owner of ‘Artworkshop’, is a calligraphist, sculpturer and a plaster crafter. Anouaris one of the more technology savvy local artists we met and had a number of videos and presentations about his artistic exploits to share with the group;he specialises in recycled arts and makes interesting mini-sculptures out of everyday items such as seeds, shells, copper wire etc.

A trip to ‘Had Dra’ - to explore village life in the midst of artventure or listening to drums and dance of Gnaoua music in the Raids courtyard may seemed out of place for some, but the experience added to the overall context of the artisan’s journey and greatly added to the overall culture and historic experience of the visit.

Epilogue

Our formal exploits of the Rekindling tour ended in Essaouira as some of us headed back while others stuck around to explore the country further. Reading through my scribbles and notes it is very difficult to catalog each and every experience and occurrence, as they have been so many.

Being able to interact with ‘Master’ craftsmen and artists and being able to work and sit with them in their studios was enriching on a number of levels. Understanding the art journey of a traditional craft person from a student to becoming a master was humbling and thought provoking.

As we collected around the evenings, we work-shopped various aspects of Islamic arts, shared experiences and our own personal art journeys with our contemporaries. Getting to know fellow artist and sharing their respective art journeys was enriching and provided opportunities to learn from each other’s experiences.

Being able to soak in an environment so filled with art (albeit for a short time) has been a privilege and it is difficult to describe and predict what the future impact of this tour will be on my art. I am sure as my fellow artists and I move on with our respective art journeys, what we have learnt and observed will be reflected in our works.

21 full.jpg — Love and Peace

Street Art Project -Corner of Mason Street Foster Street, Dandenong.

Love and Peace

September 30, 2018

Love and Peace is a street art project completed for Dandenong Council in Melbourne, Australia. This blog narrates the artist experience and provide a brief about the inspirations behind the artwork.

Gathering

February 20, 2018

The Aboriginal people have populated the land mass of Australia for more than 60,000 years. Over this period they have developed a diverse relationship and understanding of the Australian Environment and this understanding and knowledge has been passed down from generation to generation. The first Australians have a special spiritual, physical, social and cultural connection with their “country”, to them land is not only the source of identity and spirituality, but also provides the context for human order. Their connection with land is underpinned by the belief that ‘we don’t own the land, the land owns us’. As the land provides for all their needs –food, water, medicine, and shelter – the Aboriginal people treated their provider with respect.

I wanted to portray this intimate connection of the first people with their land as the core preposition of the artwork. I used dyed skeleton leaves, seeds and earthly / sandy colours to display this spiritual connection and depicted Mother Nature’s many and varied offering for its people by positioning the leaves to extend and reach out of the central core. In addition I surrounded the central core with seeds and shells to represent growth, development and life’s continuance.

"We cultivated our land, but in a way different from the white man. We endeavored to live with the land; they seemed to live off it. I was taught to preserve, never to destroy. -Tom Dystra"

The aboriginal connection of the artwork is further high lightened by the overall ensemble; as when the six panels are placed together they form a contemporary interpretation of indigenous symbol for a ‘camp site’. This concept also reinforces the title of the work- Gathering.

Most of the dried leaves used in this collage where collected in and around the City of Casey. Typically I dried the leaves for a week and then spray coated them with clear acrylic for protection and longevity. I transcribed a few quotes on environment and sustainability on these leaves to initiate the conversation prior to the exhibition and to provide focus and give examples to others. As more and more people joined this conversation on Australia day, and added their names and quotes, the artwork ‘grew’ and towards the end of the day, we ended up covering all the backing boards

The leaves on this collage not only acknowledges humans dependence on land and nature, but the display is also reflective of and celebrates a dynamic multi-cultural Australian society where people with different backgrounds ‘gather’ and work together to contribute to the development of a country.

While the ‘Australia Day’ date and its association with the arrival of first fleet to establish a convict colony in New South Wales is a matter of contention and marked with countries darker past, which most would like to forget rather than celebrate. Still, Australia Day wether seen as Invasion Day or Survival Day does present an opportunity to discuss, reflect, understand and appreciate our ‘Australian’ ethos and commemorate what is great about this country.

The objective of this artwork is just that. I hope the participants who come to Balla Balla Centre on the day and those who would later view the finished artwork would realize the need for a sustainable and environmental friendly approach to living and are able to take this conversation further.

Last but not the least, I would like to take this opportunity to thank CHARM (Cultural Historical Association of Rodriguans & Mauritians in Victoria Inc) and management of Balla Balla Centre, whose continual support and encouragement has made this project a possibility.

"The land is my mother. Like a human mother, the land gives us protection, enjoyment and provides our needs – economic, social and religious. We have a human relationship with the land: Mother, daughter, son. When the land is taken from us or destroyed, we feel hurt because we belong to the land and we are part of it. -Djinyini Gondarra"

The Rumi Chronicles

November 12, 2017

Chapter 1- The Journey

Life is unpredictable, full of challenges and surprises. In the early part of this year when the hoop-la around my photo collage that I had completed at the Australia day event had died down, I received a phone call that changed the course of my artistic ventures for the year and perhaps will continue to affect the art I will do into the future.

It all started with an overseas phone call in March this year, the caller had a simple and interesting proposition. “There is an artist coming for 'Parramasala Festival' in Sydney, and we are hoping to get him to Melbourne to paint a car for the SalamFest program using traditional Pakistani truck art design. He will be in Melbourne for 3-4 days and will require some support with the car painting. Will you be able to help?”. I was a bit amazed at this unexpected offer and before I could evaluate the pros and con’s I found myself saying “Yes, sure I should be able to help with this”.

Though I had researched Pakistani Truck art in some detail in the past and had assembled an art exhibition “Mechanical Imprints’ inspired by truck art back in 2014, my practical involvement with Truck Art is limited to inspired compositions on paper using ink and acrylic paints. I looked at this offer as an opportunity to work and learn from a seasoned practitioner and I therefore blocked off 3 days in my calendar for this event. I thought to myself, why not? With plenty of annual leave outstanding, 3-4 days of artistic work didn’t seem that big a price to pay for the experience.

As faith would have it, the gentleman did come to Sydney as planned and ended up painting a Toyota van, but unfortunately his Melbourne escapade of painting the car didn’t materialize and was postponed on one pretext or the other. A few days later, I received another phone call, “As the Pakistani artist arrangement has not worked out, will you be able to paint the car for us?” This time my anxiety kicked in and I tried to repudiate my initial response and acceptance by thinking of all the excuses that I could think of at the time “…but I am not a truck artist, I have never painted a car or as a matter of fact seen one painted, I wouldn’t even know what paint to use”. Credit to the caller, her persistence paid-off and after much rumination I agreed to take up the offer - on the condition that I will not be trying to replicate traditional truck art, I will be given plenty of time and that I will be given complete freedom to choose and execute my designs.

The next few weeks were spent researching materials on ‘How to’ of Pakistani Truck Arts. There is plenty of material in cyberspace on truck art- photos, YouTube videos, interviews and articles, but none (at least that I could find!), about how to develop designs for truck art and more importantly what materials to use on the vehicle surface.

Luckily during my exploits on the net, I came across a Facebook page about “Phool Patti Pakistan’s Truck Art Team”. This group is passionate about truck art and Ali Salman who is the managing director and brains behind the group was more than helpful and was able to brief me on typical truck art design, concepts and materials.

An ‘Art Nouveau’ movement, Pakistani truck art focuses solely on the decorative dimensions. Modern day ‘truck art’ practices are aesthetically bold, and rely heavily on standard motifs and slogans to cover the painted surface. It uses a variety of material and methods ranging from oil paints, stickers, reflective tapes and stencils to achieve this end result. Most practitioners of this art form have not gone beyond the aesthetic component of the style to compose compositions that attempt to narrate a message or pitch a story.

I didn’t wanted to replicate truck art in its traditional form as an exposé of colors and pattern without context. Rather, I wanted the artwork to convey the core messages of SalamFest, of ‘Peace, Love and Compassion’. In addition, I wanted the finished artwork to go beyond a ‘conversation piece’ to a raconteur that could intrigue and lure the viewer to explore the subject matter further.

The car donated for the project was a mid-sized sedan, a 2004 Hyundi Accent. Though not a gem of a design from a modern prospective, the car had a clean, ‘healthy’ surface, with a minor ‘dimple’ on the left side but nothing major that could not be fixed with some muscle power. I started doodling the designs on the sketch pad but soon realized that to get a true appreciation of the area involved I needed to work on actual scale. I scaled off the sizes from the free vector images available on the net to rolls of paper and soon had a paper equivalent of the car surface.

It was only then; that the sheer scale of what I was trying to achieve truly dawned on me. Compared to a typical size painting, the available surface area on the car is enough for one or two very large size murals or easily 10-20 pieces of artwork!

This was further complicated by the fact that unlike paper the external surface of the car is not uniform. Each car has a unique identity and persona; and the car body stylist and designers spend a huge amount of effort to get the contours and the shapes just right. Working on 1: 1 scale drawing provided me an opportunity to tap into these forms and lines to highlight various aspects of the composition.

CONGRATULATION IT'S........A CAR !

Just as naming a child is an exciting time and an important first step in shaping their identity, naming one’s ride has a nostalgic appeal, especially for oldies like me. In my younger years; owning a car was considered a step towards self-reliance and freedom. As the intent was to use the SalamMobile as a mascot for the festival, SalamFest team thought it would be nice to give the car a nick-name of sort.

As the car was inspired by truck art, the initial tendency was to pick names from Urdu and other regional languages. We wanted to select a single syllable word which would be easier to palate for the western tongue. I was tempted to name the car Harry (after the first camel which landed in Australia in 1840), but reverted against it when I realize that Harry the camel had a reputation for being ill-tempered. I even contemplated ‘Paulie’ after the animation parrot character which spoke and narrated its journey to its owner but refrained myself from suggesting this name due to possible association of the name with one of the stalwarts of ultra-right wing politics in this country who has the tendency to capture headlines for all the wrong reasons.

Love, peace and compassion are the cornerstones of Salamfest, and the event drew lot of its inspiration from sufistic philosophy and we wanted the car’s name to relate to this message. After a bit of deliberation, the name ‘Rumi’ was proposed after the great 13th century poet, sufi mystic and scholar Maulana Jalaluddin Rumi. Rumi’s thoughts and practice revolves around humanity, love, compassion, tolerance, and respect for others. This aligned perfectly with the festivals message.

Moreover, his works have been translated to a number of languages and is widely recognised in the west. In short, Rumi’s name ticks all the boxes and therefore it was a no brainer to name the car after him.

Naming the car, gave a sense of direction to the design development process. Just as Rumi tried to create an atmosphere of dialogue and tolerance through his writing and poetry, I wanted the imagery to give a sense of discovery and conversation.

Given the cultural diversity that exists within people who identify as Muslim, I felt it was important to make clear and highlight that; like other ethnic groups, 'Muslims' are not one homogeneous group of people, but are impacted by their unique history and cultural heritage. I sincerely believe recognition of this fact, is important to avoid 'branding' and promote assimilation and harmony within our society.

They are 1.6 billion Muslims in the world. The challenge was to capture the diverse nature of the people and cultures within this group in a format that acknowledges their heritage and yet maintains the affiliation with the faith. I started collecting motifs and designs from various Muslim countries which were unique with the region and soon enough, I had an album of images of Muslim countries floral emblems, textile patterns, traditional arabesque and geometric designs to work with. With so many countries to look into, it was not practical to include motifs and symbol from each and every Muslim country in the world; I therefore decided to group the nations into identifiable regions.

The interaction of Muslims with the local indigenous population in the early 16th century brings in an important dimension to the conversation about harmonious collaboration among the diverse group of people in this country.

The images of small sailing boats of Indonesian Makassan Muslims similar to the one found on Wellington Range in Arnhem Land, northern Australia provided this opportunity. Similarly, the key role that the Afghan cameleers (camel drivers from region that is now covered by Pakistan, India and Afghanistan) played in the late 19th and early 20th in opening up the deserts, providing supplies to remote stations, and helping to lay crucial national infrastructure like the telegraph line and the north to south railway needed a mention.And lastly, I felt that there was a need to tie these historical achievements to the present day roles and contribution of Muslim Australians.

I feel that the ‘popular’ discussions around immigration (whether by boat or plane) in this country, is lopsided and tanned by short sighted political agendas and ignores the benefits of multiculturalism to the host society. Thus I wanted Rumi’s design to initiate this dialogue and highlight the journey as well as contributions of the new citizens to the Australian community.

I believe, all faiths fundamentally focus on goodness and humanity. Somewhere along the line in our quest for the ‘right verses wrong, them verses us’ debate, we tend to abandon the fundamentals of the message. We start focusing on rituals but ignore the underlying principles. I wanted to convey this thought in my artwork and reiterate; that though we may follow different pathways to the truth, they are a lot of underlying similarities that needed to be acknowledge and celebrated.

And last but not the least all these individual component needed to be tied into the universal message of peace, tolerance, acceptance, compassion and love which were the key message of the festival and explicit in the writing and teaching of Rumi.

Finding symbols that identified with Rumi was not difficult as whirling dervishes are universally identified with Rumi. The difficult part was to select a few key quotes which were representative of the overall message and yet brief enough to be manageable within the confines of the available space. I started off with a nearly a hundred quotes and eventually selected four that got included in the car design.

Once I had a reasonable idea on the type of imagery I wanted to use, I started putting these designs to my paper equivalent of the car, to get a feel of the scale and aesthetic implications of the choices that I had made. I had to drop some components and rethink some others but eventually was able to pull together nearly 70% of main designs on paper before I actually started painting the car.

I had elected to use oil based paints for painting the car on the pretext that they will be more resilient to weather and general wear& tear that the car surface would endure during its travels. The ready to apply enamel paints available at the hardware store were easy to apply and relatively quick drying and cured within a day, whereas artist oil paints had an extensive pallet of colours but was taking too long to dry. I explored quick drying additives and mixing of enamels and oils to achieve the required properties of colour and drying performance.

Earlier in the piece, my truck art friends from Pakistan had provided me with a catalogue of various styles and types of stickers used in their razzle dazzle industry; I selected a handful of designs and imported these across to Australia to be used as fillers and connectors in the overall composition.

The enormity of the task in hand became apparent once I started the work. I soon realised that I will need some help to complete the project in time. I live in south east suburbia and most of my contacts live on the ‘wrong’ side of town. The SalamFest team made a few artist call outs and they were a few hands raised but unfortunately most of the people were an hour plus travel time away and though committed at heart, it was apparent that the logistics of the exercise will make it impractical for them to contribute on a regular basis for weeks at end. A few of my artistic family friends (Jamil Khateeb, Shanaz Akhtar and Anushe Khan) tried to assist where possible despite the lengthy commute and contributed where they could. An honourable mention especially goes to Jamil who not only spent couple of hours travelling each weekend and participated in the painting works but also took ownership of the design of his panel.

Luckily, my sister in law Shagufta (Sha) who lives nearby and is a budding artist herself; and my wife Lubna came to the rescue. While I pondered on transferring the paper designs to the car surface, working out placements and forms, these ladies started brings the designs to life by coloring them in. Though time constrained, hours spent by them were the hours not spent by me.

Considering that I was only able to paint on weekends, I always anticipated that the project would take a few months to complete. I soon realized that hours literally fly when you are having fun. There were some moderate size sections of the design that took 8-9 hours to complete and other smaller pieces which took days to achieve the end results. Soon 8 hours shifts stretched to 10 and later to a 15-hour sojourn. Weekend work become 9 days continuous 12-13 hours daily stretches during a week off and in the last few weeks I was even working after hours during the normal work week. Holidays, celebrations and festivities were all gobbled up by the project.

As the work on Rumi progressed, my admiration for the Yemeni Sufi mystics who introduced coffee to the world grew, and coffee and sugar loaded crackers became my favorite snacks. Proper food was an project interruption; that could and where possible, had to be avoided.

Me and my contributing artist did not maintain formal time sheets, however towards the end, cumulatively we would have easily spend an impressive 1000 hours plus on this project.

Earlier in the project I had made choices regarding paints and materials based on intuition and limited research. I had not worked with these materials before. As the project came to an end, the apprehension regarding the durability of the artwork kicked in. Once the artwork was finished, I carefully washed the car, each scrub and wipe was examined to see if the paint was holding on to the surface. Luckily, it did. I then applied couple of coats of clear gloss acrylics to the surface to provide additional protection and gloss. Once dried and cured, Rumi got two coats of premium polish with lots of 'elbow-grease', to create a lustrous shine.

While at times the physical support was limited, I had plenty of people supporting my effort. Out of the blue, a start up video company ’C61 Media’ got hold of my efforts and proposed to do a short documentary about my art. The talented duo, Main Shabaz Munir and Abdul Basit Javed spent nearly a whole day recording me to deliver an incredible three-and-a-half-minute short film,“The Mechanics of Love”,capturing the essence of my work.

The whole SalamFest team was behind me in spirits throughout this journey. They cheered my every effort, thumbed-up each Facebook post that I posted and provided messages of support to ensure that I continued to be on a ‘high’ throughout this journey.

The Journey that started around 5th of March came to an end on 7th of October, when I together with some of the contributing artist finally handed over the car to the SalamFest team. We commemorated the unveiling of Rumi with a celebration and cake cutting ceremony to mark the end of the journey and perhaps flagging the start of another.

From now onwards Rumi will be out and about amongst the people, it will be exhibited in various gatherings and festivals up until the last week of November, where it will be displayed outside the State Library of Victoria for SalamFest 2017. The intent is beyond November the tour will continue in perhaps a less hectic pace.

Only time will tell how the people will react to Rumi and whether this art-venture is successful in initiating a dialogue and understanding amongst the wider audience as intended.

As far as my personal artistic fulfilment is concern, during the past 216 days, I have learnt a lot about the content and the practice. I have met some wonderful people, made new friends and learned to appreciate the efforts of the special group of people who volunteer and go above and beyond their normal calling in life. I am humbled by the accolades received about my art and contented about the tiny contribution that I might have been able to make to bring people closer and appreciative of the difference between them.

So, to the question of hind sight, knowing what I know now, would I do it again?

The answer is a resounding …Yes.

The making of Gondwana

February 12, 2017

Gondwana, Super continent...Artist blog?

While I may have just been able to sneak into the two second attention span of most of my readers as you browse the net, any further dwelling on the science of ‘palaeogeography’; I’m sure will result in a ‘finger flick’ and loss of readership.

So rest assured, this post is not about the 180 million years old split of the Godwananan super continent that eventually resulted in the development of the landmass that we now call Australia, but about my journey and behind the scenes thinking process for putting together a community art project that I recently completed to commemorate Australia Day.

For the past 3 years I have had the privilege of hosting community art events in collaboration with CHARM (Cultural Historical Association of Rodriguans and Mauritians) at Cranbourne’s Balla Balla community center on Australia day. The artwork completed on the day is then displayed at the community center for the year. These projects are designed not only to engage and involve the participating crowds in a short, fun filled activity, but also to reinforce, reaffirm and reiterate the message of tolerance, integration, harmony and multiculturalism – i.e. all that I consider great about modern day Australia.

This year the idea started off as a simple concept, take a bunch of instant photos and organize them into an artwork ‘Portrait of Australia’ that is aesthetically pleasing and can be easily displayed at the community center. With this goal in mind, I started throwing around a few concepts in my head. The trick was to develop a unique design that relates to Australia and conveys a message of harmony, integration and multiculturalism (concepts that are dear to me and very pertinent to the country and the municipality I live in).

The overall dimensions of the finished artwork had to be large enough to accommodate a sufficient number of photographs but at the same time be easily transportable. Similarly the piece had to be sturdy but light so that it could be easily displayed at the community center rail hanging system. It is always good to recognize and work within the limitation of the display locations as this may impact the overall design of the piece.

I decided to use the Australian map as the back drop, but had to use artistic licence to modify the geometry to maximize the number of photographs that could be fitted in. The backdrop was cut out of thin plywood but had to be strengthened with wooden bracing to keep the final piece from collapsing on itself. I decided to break the mainland into 3 parts to facilitate construction, transportation and display. The display wall had a slight curve, and ideally the art work needed to conform to the wall contours.

Tasmania being separated from the main land presents an interesting challenge as it needed to tie into the overall artwork while maintaining its isolation from the rest of the continent. I decided to use brass studs to maintain the gap and at the same time attach Tasmania to the main piece. Later, I used the same technique to change the aspect ratio of the final art piece, creating a gap between the three pieces on the mainland map as well.

Defining the final outcome of a community art activity is difficult, as the audience participation and enthusiasm can vary. Contingencies had to plan into the design, so that lack of audience participation does not impact the overall aesthetics of the piece. My initial plan was to have a simple pre-marked grid to locate the position for each photo and I extended this theme to included colour grids. This not only made the overall art work more vibrant but also contributed to the overall theme of cultural diversity and harmony.

I used doted lines to highlight the indigenous theme and to integrate the piece together into a single body. Though seemingly random, each line was designed to intersect with the others at various locations signifying collective effort and the coming together of the community in achieving a common goal.

Just like communities, I wanted the art piece to evolve in a random fashion during the course of the event. I numbered each grid and introduce a sub-activity of requiring the participants to draw out numbers that defined the location for their photo. This improved participant engagement and also avoided formation of groups based on ethnicity, colour or background. We invited participants to sign their photos and write messages and also provided token gifts to encourage participation.

Community participation based art projects require one to take up multiple roles – designer, organiser, communicator and an events manager both before and during the event. My experience suggest that its best to recognise that that this is not a single person job and therefore it is best to get some help especially during the event. For this year’s event I was lucky enough to recruit two volunteers who took ownership of the event and helped me in executing the project.

We had great participation from the community and the project was a great success. I am sure as long as the artwork hangs on the wall of Balla Balla centre, it will serve as a constant reminder of what we as Australians stand for and should aim to be as a society.

Long live peace, harmony, integration and multiculturalism.

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Welcome, khush aamdeed, savaagat he

Epilogue

The Journey Begins

Epilogue

Chapter 1- The Journey

CONGRATULATION IT'S........A CAR !

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TOGETHER