Raza's Universe

“Painting is something alive as human beings in its different manifestations… it is a vital process of becoming. Just imagine how fascinating it is that the seed contains the total inherent forces of a plant, of animal life, and so on and so forth. And that could be the same process in Form too!”

Raza's Universe

If art is a language that transcends the physical then no one speaks it more coherently than Raza through his work. Observing Raza is like being audience to a deaf and mute couple interacting through sign language and sharing emotion , you have evidence of communication but you are far from deciphering it. Watching how Raza uses simple form and colors to create intricate masterful artifacts seems like he holds back a secret, a secret to the universe which is unknown to most. There seems to be an inherent order and theme in the communication which is palpable but not decipherable. The canvases look like torn pieces from a vastly larger fabric of a parallel limitless universe.

Raza calls his work a result of two parallel enquiries aimed at a 'pure plastic order' and 'the theme of nature' respectively. Both converge into a single point and become inseparable - the Bindu. In the late 70s, he focused on pure geometrical forms; his images were improvisations on an essential theme: that of the mapping out of a metaphorical space in the mind. To quote Raza, "As far as my work is concerned, I am coming to crystallization of a potent symbolism in its simplicity and elasticity. The process is continual and through elimination, my means are getting more and more economical and I am looking at my destination without the superfluous
and the unnecessary."

I Found.

I Found.

There’s a Chinese saying that the best way to understand a person is to go through his trash? Or maybe it’s from the FBI rule book.

I moved from India to United States to pursue higher studies at the Institute of Design which entailed a heavy dose of ethnography and user research. ID differentiated from other colleges by the mantra “User Centric Design Approach”. During my two years there I learnt various methodologies and frameworks to understand the “user”. But they all seem very “intellectual” and conditioned. The whole act involved an ensemble of tools like camera, notebook, questionnaire, etc which made the research very staged and left the user highly conscious of my motives. I graduated with a Masters degree and all the tools in my bag but little knowledge of the inherent idiosyncrasies of the culture that thrived around me. The concoction of cultures that constitutes America puzzled me. I was so preoccupied with the courses and lectures that I missed out on experiencing the true squeaks and smells of the masses. I wanted to meet the everyday American, know what he does, what he thinks. Almost wished I could dress up in a black robe and have a bunch of people confess to me their deepest desires, dreams, fears, perceptions, aspirations. The stuff that makes people tick, and get out of bed ever morning. I needed something that could make me catch up all those lost years of growing up with them and empathize with this culture at its deepest crudest level.

I came across this magazine called FOUND. I was amazed to find all my answers there. I laughed at some and was shocked by others. An of course there was also the dirty found. In all as I flipped through pages I was going through what people call cultural sensitization. The book was a collection of found stuff: love letters, birthday cards, kids' homework, to-do lists, ticket stubs, poetry on napkins, doodles-- anything that gives a glimpse into someone else's life. Anything goes. Here was a bundle of information, a lens to look through. Information people generated when they were least conscious of their surrounding many in their most honest hour.

Does user ethnography start with digging through the consumer trash or simply collecting found pieces? Objects and artifacts that people create tell stories. Many, many stories.

Distorted Scale

Distorted Scale
When the physical attributes of an object are scaled does that new scale affects the physiological impact the object has on the onlooker? We all know bigger is better but is bigger really big or is it small in its conclusion. The conclusion being what the mind retains after the experience is long over. This question has troubled me for years before I chanced about these series of sculptures by Don Mueck. Does the sculpture of the couple look more insecure because they are smaller or if they were actual scale. Does the scaled up boy squatting look more lost in a small space or less? Does scale distort or amplify or shrink the emotive message behind the object. What in Don Mueck’S sculptures makes them haunting and unforgettable? Is it the copious amounts of plastic used in their manufacturing, the keenness to detail in replication or amplification of emotion
through distortion of scale?

Coolness in avoidance of coolness.

Coolness in avoidance of coolness.

The manifesto that MUJI carries stating “because there is elegance in plainness”, “depth in the minimal” has a resonance in my mind the echo of which can be traced to my college days. I remember as an architecture student during “my days of experimenting with truth” understanding the concept of Gandhism and the simplest approach I could seek at that point in time was to investigate and scale down this concept and ideology to the persona of the man who invented it, Mr. Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. Like a sleuth with my rustic camera bag slung on my shoulders and my old Bata sandals I visited the Sabarmati ashram, Gandhi’s (place of) residence during India’s freedom struggle. As an 18 year old half way intoxicated into the world of consumerism, the absence of “STUFF” in that little shack rattled my state of sobriety. For a persona as big as Gandhi it was hard for me to define him through his set of belongings which I could count on my figures. There was this pair of spectacles which had an uncanny resemblance to the ones that inspired John Lennon’s in later days, a diary, an ink pot, a fountain ink pen and few other forgettable articles of necessity. In an age where people define themselves and clutter their lives by things it was hard to imagine all this man could attribute to his greatness was his simple thought. As a designer what intrigued me most was the banality of design of these few articles. There was nothing unnecessary or meaningless in the gestalt of these objects, a simple honesty and functionality where the occasional wear and tear of time added embellishment and detail. The objects screamed of silence in a way only understood by its owner. It almost felt as if each of those could only be deciphered, owned, and deserved by someone who understood and practiced simplicity and minimalism in every facet of life.

When I see Muji products it gives me that similar sense of leaving some of my attributes onto these objects rather than them defining me and my life. http://www.muji.net/eng/