It seemed ever so small.
I was to go upstairs to the gallery space where Nisreen's paintings were being kept for the time being, and write down their titles, mediums and sizes for the catalogue. Work that was fairly easy and not time-consuming. Well, yes and no.
Lights are switched on for me upstairs, and then I'm left alone. As the door swings shut, a gush of December breezes past me. Winter's here, and I get ready to snug up to the damp coolness of the room, the cozy silence, and the endearing oddness that seems to be Nisreen. I take a stroll around the small space first, taking in all the pictures in one sweeping view. And then I'm ready. Paper and pencil in hand, I carefully check the back of each work for the required details and jot them down in neat columns. Diligence at its best.
Diligent, but intentionally slow. I let myself imagine what some of the works would look like in a graphic novel. Maybe I should suggest it? I am amused by the morning walker, who for some reason looks very familiar. And I linger on 'Once Upon a Time' and 'Windows 129', for there's 'something' in those two paintings that I know I have to find.........
Sweet nothings in the head of a dreamy teenager, you must be thinking! And yes, I did prolong those moments of lovely loneliness. But then it was back to work.
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6 comments:
i saw some of nisreen's work while drew's workshop was going on. I especially liked the ones where she fused her canvas with craft-objects.
I think that was so cool
The thing that appeals to me most about Nisreen's work are those windows through which you can catch glimpses of people's daily lives.
I have never lived in an apartment. So i have never really had the luxury of looking out of my window and seeing other people's lives through their apartment windows. But i have always loved heights. And i have always fantasized about the life Jimmy Stewart would lead in 'Rear Window', or that young boy in Kieslowski's 'A Short Film About Love'. (I probably wouldn't want the same consequences though!)
Bombay has so many flyovers through really crowded residential areas. And when i travel around Bombay on buses, the flyovers offer a very different look at the city. One can see the lives of people unfolding on the first or second floors of the endless chawls. People returning home from work, Children doing homework, women preparing dinner, someone sitting and drinking a lonely cheap whiskey. Each window or doorway has a unique story. But you don't catch the story. You catch only a half-sentence. Therein lies the beauty of the whole experience. These are glimpses of privacy, of intimacy, distinctly different from what you can see when you are on the road among shops and footpaths and busy public life.
Somehow such scenes are immensely touching. Not sure why.
Anyway, thanks for a sensitive, well-written and unexpected blog post.
Bishan I know exactly what you mean. I live in an apartment, that too on the eighth floor. And I've actually filmed the goings-on in a flat in the building right opposite ours!Very voyeuristic, so quite understandably that brief video has never been shown to anyone!
Thanks to you both. Glad I inspired some comments!
Oh you must give it to Ronaan to edit. I am really intrigued by this prospective little film :)
Do/Organise a short film festival please? pretty please. I want to show my film and mebbe shamoni could show hers too
yeah, once diya's cafe is up, we can have some sort of screenings.
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