DASTKAR, THE Society for Crafts and Craftspeople, is committed to helping the craftsperson, the craft product and the consumer.
Set up in 1981 by six women, the organisation deals with the problems of traditional artisans in contemporary India. Dastkar's goals are to make crafts groups self-reliant, in control of their own lives and independent of organisations.
Dastkar is now working in 12 States with 75 crafts groups, half of whom receive the whole gamut of Dastkar services and the rest benefit from marketing activities. The society intervenes to provide ideas and stimuli for creativity and innovation in the craftsmen themselves, to help develop a range of products that incorporate different traditional skill levels and to harmoniously integrate the colours and motifs of the region in products with a contemporary appeal.
SEWA Lucknow, Ranthambore Artisans' Project and SEWA Banaskantha are all symbols of successful empowerment. Such success stories could be replicated by other millions of artisans who exist in the hope of fulfilling their dreams. Dastkar exists to serve them.
The Dastkari Bazaar comes to Hyderabad after six years combining the colours, skills and motifs of 52 of its traditional craft groups all adapted to suit contemporary lifestyles and tastes. The bazaar will be held at the Institution of Engineers, Visvesvaraya Bhavan, Khairatabad from March 11 to 15.
There are tussar weaves and godna paintings from Bihar, lambani tribal embroidered and kasuti soft furnishings and gift items, vegetable dyed bags from Karnataka and bright bandini pomchas with a shimmer of gold and silver from Rajasthan. Also dhokra castings, vegetable dyed, mirror-worked garments, leather accessories, beaded and tribal jewellery and wooden toys and pottery find a place.
Wednesday, December 17, 2008
A novel dimension
GRAPHICS, THOUGH a very advanced form of art in the West and even in the Indian advertising world, is still in its infancy in Kerala. Even with all the advances the State has made in the field of Information Technology (IT), it has a long way to go to in appreciating graphic designing as an art form.
Using software such as Photoshop and equipment such as photo scanner, G. Mini has attempted to impart a visual dimension to some of the greatest plays in history. Her exhibition of graphic posters and installations, `Play Light', is an attempt to give a completely different dimension to the commercial activity of designing posters for theatre and cinema.
The exhibition, which was on at Suryakanthi Art Gallery, was an attempt at visual interpretation of some plays that the artist has directed along with her husband. Anything that forms part of our daily life - a remote control, her son's wooden toys, an old memento, an ice-cream cup - finds a meaning that is intricately connected with the graphical representation of theatre in Mini's works.
"Everything is interconnected and forms a part of life," says Mini. A poster for Romeo and Juliet has a Fair and Lovely skin cream tube included in the frame. Could anything be more telling? The poster depicts King Lear depicts the various stages of his life and even the colours of his life. The whiteness of his beard frames the poster. This writer, absorbed as he was in a poster of Othello, the `Moor of Venice', does a sacrilegious act by knocking over an installation and causing the artist to exclaim "Desdemona dies!" Another attractive poster was `The Mask' and Mini's favourite among these are `In-Out', `The Room' and Bertolt Brechts' `The Good Woman of Schetswan'. `In-Out' was an improvisation of Jean-Paul Sartre's `The Room'. For Mini, even Octavio Paz's poem, `Sunstone', needed to be visually depicted and it came out as an appealing work.
"Here, in Kerala, nobody considers theatre as a professional art. As a consequence, designing posters for a play does not count as important," says Mini, a postgraduate in Theatre Art Design and Direction from the National School of Drama, New Delhi. "In Delhi, designing and making props is part of a professional set up and poster design is a key component while staging a play."
Using software such as Photoshop and equipment such as photo scanner, G. Mini has attempted to impart a visual dimension to some of the greatest plays in history. Her exhibition of graphic posters and installations, `Play Light', is an attempt to give a completely different dimension to the commercial activity of designing posters for theatre and cinema.
The exhibition, which was on at Suryakanthi Art Gallery, was an attempt at visual interpretation of some plays that the artist has directed along with her husband. Anything that forms part of our daily life - a remote control, her son's wooden toys, an old memento, an ice-cream cup - finds a meaning that is intricately connected with the graphical representation of theatre in Mini's works.
"Everything is interconnected and forms a part of life," says Mini. A poster for Romeo and Juliet has a Fair and Lovely skin cream tube included in the frame. Could anything be more telling? The poster depicts King Lear depicts the various stages of his life and even the colours of his life. The whiteness of his beard frames the poster. This writer, absorbed as he was in a poster of Othello, the `Moor of Venice', does a sacrilegious act by knocking over an installation and causing the artist to exclaim "Desdemona dies!" Another attractive poster was `The Mask' and Mini's favourite among these are `In-Out', `The Room' and Bertolt Brechts' `The Good Woman of Schetswan'. `In-Out' was an improvisation of Jean-Paul Sartre's `The Room'. For Mini, even Octavio Paz's poem, `Sunstone', needed to be visually depicted and it came out as an appealing work.
"Here, in Kerala, nobody considers theatre as a professional art. As a consequence, designing posters for a play does not count as important," says Mini, a postgraduate in Theatre Art Design and Direction from the National School of Drama, New Delhi. "In Delhi, designing and making props is part of a professional set up and poster design is a key component while staging a play."
A family affair
THE ONGOING exhibition at Sumukha Art Gallery is unusual, mingling the works of a father-and-son duo. "The present series has an environment from the past," writes senior artist Amitabh Sengupta about his works, "... an undeniable influence of what I saw in the rock-cut shelters, temples, and all those metaphors of heritage lying alone and left to decay... These paintings are not the records of the past as from the historical meaning."
It is not too difficult to relate to Amitabh's words, as one views his canvases filled with old structures having crumbling walls, disintegrating roofs, carved pillars, imposing passages, and doorways and so on. The images exude a nostalgic feel even as the artist tries to provide some visual annotations and interpretations. Sentries of Time, for instance, sights a couple of stony sentinels in the vicinity of carved pillars, doors, and balconies. The stillness of the mood is interrupted by a patch of flame in the bottom half of the painting. Amitabh employs similar technique (ploy?) in several of his other canvases and tries to create "an empirical frame to view the abstract zone."
Unfortunately, the gambit does not pay off always; instead a sense of veiled monotony and predictability seeps in. Still, one cannot deny the mature attempts in some works such as Absurd Zone of History II, where the surrealistic intrusions are able to enhance the overall feel in the tight and intriguingly developed compositions.
Joydip, who is still in his early 30s, completed his BFA in Shantiniketan and MFA at the College of Art, New Delhi, as well as the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, UK. Joydip employs a variety of situations, subjects, and objects in his works — like a silent brush, wrinkled polywraps, vacant chairs, high tension wires, and crumpled automobiles alongside mythical figures, bathing ladies, and exercising men. As a result, his paintings exude a throbbing energy and confidence to snoop into different levels of reality, even as his efforts remain focused on creatively combining elements of fact, fiction, and fantasy.
Joydip deliberately divides his painting into different parts and creates rhythms and patterns, which take several forms, as in the rugged bust of a uniformed officer, behind whom is positioned a wooden horse. In another painting, an intriguing figure grabs the viewer's attention even as the street scene showing a row of cobbler shops slowly comes to light. In Silent Storm, the left side shows a group of burkha-clad women while on the other side stands a frontal image of a violent and ready-to-attack mercenary. In Infra Red, there are three parts, with the central one profiling an unsmiling woman on whose hand is perched a parrot. On either side are aggressive army pictures, the triptych combines to make a telling visual statement. Sleep is an even better effort, where a realistically delineated slumbering man on top of a wooden plank seems somewhat dwarfed by the rag-tag, torn posters and paper, swamping the bottom of the frame.
It is not too difficult to relate to Amitabh's words, as one views his canvases filled with old structures having crumbling walls, disintegrating roofs, carved pillars, imposing passages, and doorways and so on. The images exude a nostalgic feel even as the artist tries to provide some visual annotations and interpretations. Sentries of Time, for instance, sights a couple of stony sentinels in the vicinity of carved pillars, doors, and balconies. The stillness of the mood is interrupted by a patch of flame in the bottom half of the painting. Amitabh employs similar technique (ploy?) in several of his other canvases and tries to create "an empirical frame to view the abstract zone."
Unfortunately, the gambit does not pay off always; instead a sense of veiled monotony and predictability seeps in. Still, one cannot deny the mature attempts in some works such as Absurd Zone of History II, where the surrealistic intrusions are able to enhance the overall feel in the tight and intriguingly developed compositions.
Joydip, who is still in his early 30s, completed his BFA in Shantiniketan and MFA at the College of Art, New Delhi, as well as the Duncan of Jordanstone College of Art and Design, UK. Joydip employs a variety of situations, subjects, and objects in his works — like a silent brush, wrinkled polywraps, vacant chairs, high tension wires, and crumpled automobiles alongside mythical figures, bathing ladies, and exercising men. As a result, his paintings exude a throbbing energy and confidence to snoop into different levels of reality, even as his efforts remain focused on creatively combining elements of fact, fiction, and fantasy.
Joydip deliberately divides his painting into different parts and creates rhythms and patterns, which take several forms, as in the rugged bust of a uniformed officer, behind whom is positioned a wooden horse. In another painting, an intriguing figure grabs the viewer's attention even as the street scene showing a row of cobbler shops slowly comes to light. In Silent Storm, the left side shows a group of burkha-clad women while on the other side stands a frontal image of a violent and ready-to-attack mercenary. In Infra Red, there are three parts, with the central one profiling an unsmiling woman on whose hand is perched a parrot. On either side are aggressive army pictures, the triptych combines to make a telling visual statement. Sleep is an even better effort, where a realistically delineated slumbering man on top of a wooden plank seems somewhat dwarfed by the rag-tag, torn posters and paper, swamping the bottom of the frame.
Designs on films
LIFE HAS been a full circle for Manish Malhotra - prêt wear, trousseau, designer jewellery and costume designing. He has even styled a restaurant, and now the fashion guru is geared up to host the Manish Malhotra Show on haute couture. But that's not all. After 14 years, over 500 films, including international flicks such as Meera Nair's Vanity Fair, and innumerable awards later, he is now set to do his own thing. "I am directing a musical with lots of dance sequences. It's a multi-starrer," he says about his untitled film that is scheduled to hit the silver screen in December.
As the recipient of the first Filmfare Award for best costume for the flick, Manish Malhotra re-wrote the ensemble script for silver screen. He did away with white shoes, multi-coloured shirts and the rest of the jazz that ruled the screens in 1980s and 90s, only to present his hero in a new cool dude avatar. Today the youth can emulate their icons with much ease, a SRK in Main Hoon Na or Saif Ali Khan from Hum Tum. If he was elementary in toning down the flamboyance for the leading man, he walked that thin line between sensuality and art for the heroines. His much talked about makeover for Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani, chiffon magic for Madhuri Dixit in Dil to Pagal Hai and the current wardrobe for Rani Mukherjee in Hum Tum, again, all have found takers beyond the reel world.
"Masses always copied the filmy look. Now I have classes looking at movies as a barometer for clothes," he explains. "I make clothes according to the character.
How does he go about it? "I make clothes according to the character. In Yuva, the middle class small town youth couldn't wear designer clothes as we had for K3G," he explains.
Off screen, Manish is equally sought after for his to-die-for structured silhouettes. Some of his clients include Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Sharon Stone, Van Damme and Michael Jackson. His much talked about international line Pickadeep embroidered jeans collection was modelled by none other than supermodel model Naomi Campbell. "I think Indian fashion industry is in progression. Indian culture and heritage are hot internationally. Ganesha is a rage in fashion circles all over the world," he says.
As for his new prêt line for men, Maya, that he unveiled recently, "the collection is inspired by Hawaiian prints and holiday motifs. Leather jackets can be hot. So here are dressy jackets in cotton, and shirts. I have used turquoise, shells and corals for ornamentation. The shirts are structured while the pants in linen and cotton feature drawstrings - its basically fun clothing. Its high time men began dressing in funky turquoise and pink," he says.
As the recipient of the first Filmfare Award for best costume for the flick, Manish Malhotra re-wrote the ensemble script for silver screen. He did away with white shoes, multi-coloured shirts and the rest of the jazz that ruled the screens in 1980s and 90s, only to present his hero in a new cool dude avatar. Today the youth can emulate their icons with much ease, a SRK in Main Hoon Na or Saif Ali Khan from Hum Tum. If he was elementary in toning down the flamboyance for the leading man, he walked that thin line between sensuality and art for the heroines. His much talked about makeover for Karisma Kapoor in Raja Hindustani, chiffon magic for Madhuri Dixit in Dil to Pagal Hai and the current wardrobe for Rani Mukherjee in Hum Tum, again, all have found takers beyond the reel world.
"Masses always copied the filmy look. Now I have classes looking at movies as a barometer for clothes," he explains. "I make clothes according to the character.
How does he go about it? "I make clothes according to the character. In Yuva, the middle class small town youth couldn't wear designer clothes as we had for K3G," he explains.
Off screen, Manish is equally sought after for his to-die-for structured silhouettes. Some of his clients include Preity Zinta, Kareena Kapoor, Rani Mukherjee, Sharon Stone, Van Damme and Michael Jackson. His much talked about international line Pickadeep embroidered jeans collection was modelled by none other than supermodel model Naomi Campbell. "I think Indian fashion industry is in progression. Indian culture and heritage are hot internationally. Ganesha is a rage in fashion circles all over the world," he says.
As for his new prêt line for men, Maya, that he unveiled recently, "the collection is inspired by Hawaiian prints and holiday motifs. Leather jackets can be hot. So here are dressy jackets in cotton, and shirts. I have used turquoise, shells and corals for ornamentation. The shirts are structured while the pants in linen and cotton feature drawstrings - its basically fun clothing. Its high time men began dressing in funky turquoise and pink," he says.
A house of fashion
WITH THEIR teaser ad campaign hitting the bull's eye, the pre-launch event of the five-storeyed Kalyan Jewellers & Kalyan Sarees was a sell-out. Throw together a VJ, a karoke singer, students of a dance school and models from Chennai and Bangalore, and you can be assured of a teeming crowd. That's what happened at the Ramakrishna Kalyana Mandapam, the venue for the event.
Organised by Disoni Event Management Troop, the event saw people weaving into the hall well into the evening.
The fashion show showcased sarees, designer clothes and party wear. For the Benares collection, the models sported bright-hued sarees with heavy embroidery and ethnic jewellery, while the evening wear round saw them sashaying down the ramp wearing diamonds.
Miss South India 2004 Shraveya from Chennai, Christy, Nitya, Sweta Singh, Neeta, Sheetal, Sangeeta Shetty and Kripalini took part in the show.
Dancers of the John Britto Dance School, Chennai, won applause every time they executed their well-rehearsed steps. The settings were great, so were the well put-together costumes. Sai Manju, a karoke singer from Banglore, was another crowd stealer with her mellifluous voice. Avinash, a singer and VJ, was the emcee for the evening
Organised by Disoni Event Management Troop, the event saw people weaving into the hall well into the evening.
The fashion show showcased sarees, designer clothes and party wear. For the Benares collection, the models sported bright-hued sarees with heavy embroidery and ethnic jewellery, while the evening wear round saw them sashaying down the ramp wearing diamonds.
Miss South India 2004 Shraveya from Chennai, Christy, Nitya, Sweta Singh, Neeta, Sheetal, Sangeeta Shetty and Kripalini took part in the show.
Dancers of the John Britto Dance School, Chennai, won applause every time they executed their well-rehearsed steps. The settings were great, so were the well put-together costumes. Sai Manju, a karoke singer from Banglore, was another crowd stealer with her mellifluous voice. Avinash, a singer and VJ, was the emcee for the evening
Food from the Land of the Free
THESE ARE people who deep-fry slabs of chocolate. They coat Mars bars in batter and dunk them in boiling oil, so they can eat them — hot and gooey — off a stick. They make piles of pancakes, layer them with chunks of melting butter and drape them in thick maple syrup. They like cookie dough so much, it's now a best selling ice cream, with hunks of unbaked dough between frozen vanilla.
Obviously, the Americans really enjoy their food. Which probably explains why American food has so much variety.
Forget the cheese laden pizzas and meaty burgers that masquerade as original Americana in most part of the world today: there's a lot more to the food of the Land of the Free.
Especially today, when cultures from all over the world — Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Italian, Thai, Japanese, etc. — are finding their way onto American dining tables.
Lot of research
So when Elango Rajendran, Executive Chef of the Radisson, decided to hold an American food festival at the Garden Café, the hotel's coffee shop, he said it took a lot of research, and the toughest part was narrowing down their choices so they could fit them all on one menu.
While the Radisson's collection does include the obligatory Pepperoni pan pizzas and half-pounder burgers, they have also included a healthy helping of traditional America in their `American Food Shindig.' Creole crab cake with mustard and Cherokee pepper soup feature in the `Starters' section, for instance.
Not that we ate anything that healthy!
"Calories, calories, calories," snorted Chef Elango, "Everything has calories. Just enjoy your food." He then proceeded to order potato skins, which were fried to a crisp and then loaded with crumbly cheddar cheese. And to accompany them, fried chicken wings, sticky with barbeque sauces and served with a thick cheesy dressing.
Traditional section
We skipped the pasta-pizza-burger route and headed to the more traditional section of their menu, which lists meat loaf with Creole sauce, casseroles and quiches.
But the good Chef had his own ideas. And they involved buttermilk battered half chicken and lots of French fries.
The chicken arrived hot, crisp and golden, along with a helping of mashed potatoes and one sprig of thyme to ensure we got our vegetable quota. They also dished up a Pascado abueletia, fish baked with lime and rosemary.
The food is simple, the flavours basic and the quantities are, of course, substantial. The smoothies, however, are a let down and waste of good stomach space — essential if you plan to complete the course with dessert: all American Peach cobbler, sweet, tart and crumbly
Obviously, the Americans really enjoy their food. Which probably explains why American food has so much variety.
Forget the cheese laden pizzas and meaty burgers that masquerade as original Americana in most part of the world today: there's a lot more to the food of the Land of the Free.
Especially today, when cultures from all over the world — Chinese, Mexican, Greek, Italian, Thai, Japanese, etc. — are finding their way onto American dining tables.
Lot of research
So when Elango Rajendran, Executive Chef of the Radisson, decided to hold an American food festival at the Garden Café, the hotel's coffee shop, he said it took a lot of research, and the toughest part was narrowing down their choices so they could fit them all on one menu.
While the Radisson's collection does include the obligatory Pepperoni pan pizzas and half-pounder burgers, they have also included a healthy helping of traditional America in their `American Food Shindig.' Creole crab cake with mustard and Cherokee pepper soup feature in the `Starters' section, for instance.
Not that we ate anything that healthy!
"Calories, calories, calories," snorted Chef Elango, "Everything has calories. Just enjoy your food." He then proceeded to order potato skins, which were fried to a crisp and then loaded with crumbly cheddar cheese. And to accompany them, fried chicken wings, sticky with barbeque sauces and served with a thick cheesy dressing.
Traditional section
We skipped the pasta-pizza-burger route and headed to the more traditional section of their menu, which lists meat loaf with Creole sauce, casseroles and quiches.
But the good Chef had his own ideas. And they involved buttermilk battered half chicken and lots of French fries.
The chicken arrived hot, crisp and golden, along with a helping of mashed potatoes and one sprig of thyme to ensure we got our vegetable quota. They also dished up a Pascado abueletia, fish baked with lime and rosemary.
The food is simple, the flavours basic and the quantities are, of course, substantial. The smoothies, however, are a let down and waste of good stomach space — essential if you plan to complete the course with dessert: all American Peach cobbler, sweet, tart and crumbly
Ice cream dreams
In the far North of Italy, the people of Dolomite created gelato - ice cream - and in the far South, it was created by Sicilians. In Dolomite, gelato was prepared with cream, milk, sugar, eggs and natural flavours. It was considered a rich man's dessert and few could afford it.
Snow was stored in the basement during the winter, and when tourists travelled during summertime into the mountains of Dolomite, the sale of gelato was one of the major sources of income for the people. It is still recognised as one of the highest quality desserts by discriminating food lovers across the world.
Now in Delhi
It's no surprise that when our very own fashion designer Vijay Arora went to Italy he was also spellbound by the delectable gelato. But unlike others, he went a step ahead and decided to bring the rich man's dessert to Delhiites. At Gelato Vittorio, Arora's Italian ice cream parlour, which recently opened in the Capital, you can try a range of sorbet, slush, yogurt, milkshakes and sundaes in different flavours and a sugar-free range of desserts and drinks for the health conscious.
Though gelato is made from the same ingredients as ice cream, there are certain guidelines to follow. While ordinary ice cream has 18 per cent butter fat, gelato is said to contain 4-8 per cent fat, and fruit flavours are water-based, containing less than 1 per cent fat. Also, it is produced daily to ensure the product is always fresh, unlike ice cream, which is manufactured and stored for long periods.
At Gelato Vittorio, aficionados have a wide range of 36 flavours, including orange chocolate, rich Belgian chocolate, vanilla chocolate to choose from. While the parlour in M Block market, Greater Kailash I, has a seating capacity of 40, home delivery is also available
Snow was stored in the basement during the winter, and when tourists travelled during summertime into the mountains of Dolomite, the sale of gelato was one of the major sources of income for the people. It is still recognised as one of the highest quality desserts by discriminating food lovers across the world.
Now in Delhi
It's no surprise that when our very own fashion designer Vijay Arora went to Italy he was also spellbound by the delectable gelato. But unlike others, he went a step ahead and decided to bring the rich man's dessert to Delhiites. At Gelato Vittorio, Arora's Italian ice cream parlour, which recently opened in the Capital, you can try a range of sorbet, slush, yogurt, milkshakes and sundaes in different flavours and a sugar-free range of desserts and drinks for the health conscious.
Though gelato is made from the same ingredients as ice cream, there are certain guidelines to follow. While ordinary ice cream has 18 per cent butter fat, gelato is said to contain 4-8 per cent fat, and fruit flavours are water-based, containing less than 1 per cent fat. Also, it is produced daily to ensure the product is always fresh, unlike ice cream, which is manufactured and stored for long periods.
At Gelato Vittorio, aficionados have a wide range of 36 flavours, including orange chocolate, rich Belgian chocolate, vanilla chocolate to choose from. While the parlour in M Block market, Greater Kailash I, has a seating capacity of 40, home delivery is also available
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