A collective song

 Creativity gives a boost to the ego of the individual who indulges in creating- call it the artist's ego. It is very easy for an artist to stay away from the maddening crowd and indulge in their own practices of art without getting bothered about the rest of the world. It is mandatory as well as stagnating sometimes. However, to come out of one’s own comfort zone does require some courage and to come out with an open mind to be able to give and receive, to begin a two-way dialogue adds to just another dimension to the whole story. For me, it is more about going with the flow, and the flow currently directs me to reach out and connect with the elements, 'self' and the fellow species...forget about entertaining the ego, I would rather sit with some Sufis and sing a universal song.…!

It all began when I worked with a group of artists in my first ever art residency, some 2 years back. The whole experience of coming together to create did give me a greater sense of belonging and desire to reach out for a higher goal- to be able to bring about some change (maybe minor) in the way our man-made ecosystem works. Working in a collective environment does bring down the ego and offers a lot of nourishment. It is then, when I got inclined towards the thought of community- based projects and since then I met and found many artists whose works resonate with the same sentiment.

To tell about the growth the collectivity offers, the mini installations that I started doing was the outcome of the collective environment in the same residency. Not forgetting to mention that these mini installations are part of the current series I am working on, including some canvas and paper works. It was a bit later that I started conceptualizing these community based collaborative art projects, the series of art installations I call as, ‘Swarth’ (finding the meaning of ‘self’).