Lockdown days with Art Podcasts and Books-Audiobooks

I thought it didn’t matter much, personally, since I had been living in a kind of isolation a good part of my life. Being an artist it’s nothing new. Every artist is in isolation most of the time, working alone, scarcely interacting, thinking aloud at times probably, listening to music or podcasts, movies and characters to give company...animate and inanimate objects around by and large...the foundation of a “sound artist” not dependent on the money they make of course and does not depend on the size of the studio too whether it be a whole complex or the bedroom of a one bhk. Likewise, my days are moving onward, engaged in my work as much as time and energy permits. I listen to podcasts, audiobooks and movies while I am at work. It keeps me engaged not when detailing my work though. I need complete attention there.

Bearing this instance in mind, I thought of putting together a blog post on the podcasts I listen to...in fact podcasts I can't live without. There are some more than the one given below which I listen to on and off but the ones below are absolute gems! I am inclined towards women-oriented ones - I found that out while compiling this list!

In case you are interested, check them out.

Podcasts I can’t live without –

Bow Down: Women in Art (*Rating - 4.9/5)

Bow Down is a podcast about significant women artists from the past, hosted by Jennifer Higgie, Australian novelist, screenwriter, art critic and editor of the London-based contemporary art magazine, Frieze.

“Women have been expressing themselves since the beginning of time. Yet, ask around and you’ll find that most people struggle to name even one non-male artist from before the 20th century. For each 20-minute episode, Jennifer invites an artist, writer, historian or curator to nominate an artist to whom we should all … well, bow down.”

This feels more of an academic podcast where Jennifer takes the listeners through the lives of the said artists through brief episodes and yet is seeped with information about each artist that one will get hooked to it instantly. She has her fingers on the pulse of the art world and it’s rightly said so. She can gauge the rate and rhythm at which it beats and set the tone right.

Their first season is now over with 9 episodes and am anxiously waiting for their new season. You can check on what they already have by clicking the link above.

The Great Women Artists (Rating 4.9/5)

Hosted by Katy Hessel, a 26-year-old curator, writer, and art historian.

“The Great Women Artists Podcast interviews artists on their career, or curators, writers, or general art lovers, on the female artist who means the most to them.” and celebrates women artists on a daily basis. “Writing about art in an accessible and fun manner, my goal is to readdress the gender imbalance in the art world by reinserting women of all backgrounds back into the canon of art history.”

Katy is a cheery and delightful host replete with a zest that she definitely will impart to the listener. One can feel her curiosity in all her episodes, so full of life and knowledge and with intense desire to spread the same. She is sure to make us sit on the edge of our seats asking for more. Katy surely thinks out of the box and her quiz that she holds live on Instagram is one of my favourites. Her unquenchable thirst for knowledge and determination to bring it all together is sweetly infectious. 

Season 2 is currently on and you have 28 fantastic episodes there.

ArtCurious (Rating 4.8/5

“...where we explore the unexpected, the slightly odd, and the strangely wonderful in Art History.” This podcast is by Jennifer Dasal, a contemporary art curator with nearly twenty years of art-historical studies and experience.

“Think art history is boring? Think again. It's weird, funny, mysterious, enthralling, and liberating. Join us as we cover the strangest stories in art. Is the Mona Lisa fake? Did Van Gogh actually kill himself? And why were the Impressionists so great?”

Art Curious is the first podcast (and the oldest in this list) I started listening to a couple of years back particularly during my commute between Palakkad and Ernakulam and back when I was in India. It is a kind of art detective podcast where Jennifer takes us on an adventurous trip into the not-so-known-regions of the art world. Her words are enticing and you go along with her, through the dark corridors, looming shadows and mysteries of the artists' world while she unravels the secrets for us. I absolutely love the signature music, the tagline and the intro every time I hear it.

Currently, Season 7 of The Coolest Artists is on. Rivals, Shock Art, True Crime are all my favourites; Art Curious has a total of 91 episodes. 

The Jealous Curator (Rating 4.7/5)

Hosted by artist-curator, Danielle Krysa.

“ART FOR YOUR EAR brings you stories from some of my favorite contemporary artists. When I studied Art History, the best part was, well, the gossip. I loved finding out why artists did certain things, what was going on in their personal lives, and behind-the-scenes details about other artists they knew and worked with. This podcast is exactly that ... inside-scoop stories from the artsiest people I know. You'll hear first-hand from these talented, successful, full-time artists (who also happen to be regular people with hilarious stories) BEFORE they’re in the Art History books."

Danielle Krysa, one would feel, is the next door girl who you know so well. Her episodes are light-hearted conversations with friends (but mind you they develop into real intense stuff too) who sometimes come on air more than once showing us their progress over a period of time. One would get to know all there is to know about the artists. The episodes are around one hour long and really good to listen to when you are developing time-consuming works. Sometimes she invites her son and husband too and it's wonderful to hear them together.

TJC has 100 episodes to their oeuvre.

Art and Cocktails (Rating 4.9/5)

An art podcast by Ekaterina Popova, artist and founder of Create! Magazine.

“Casual conversations about art, creative business and more" is how the podcast has been described and it's totally true. 

Art & Cocktails speaks not only about the artists' journey in the art world and their processes but also about the struggles, handling disappointments, the nitty-gritty of business involved in art, the tips and techniques of various aspects. It speaks about anything and everything related to art. Ekaterina is a strong believer in community-building and renders guidance and support through her podcast and her empowering work at her magazine, Create! She herself is an amazing artist. 

A&C recently completed two years and they have 100 episodes to their credit.

'Aside': I have a wish to meet all these gorgeous women, who herald such incredible shows, in person. Some day! And some day it would be!

Books and Audiobooks:

Aside from these podcasts, I had been reading and listening to a couple of books and audiobooks. I am following Reese Witherspoon's book club on Instagram, I always check out her recommendations and they suit me fine. So some of the books were from her monthly picks. Audiobooks are from Scribd (it involves a subscription fee). You could choose Audible too. We took Scribd for my daughter’s project and then I came across a collection of wonderful audiobooks and I got habituated. So the site now serves me more than her. 

Only the ones I liked the most, so far this year:

1. Big Magic – Elizabeth Gilbert (Absolute favourite - every human must read it!)

2. The Far Field (debut) – Madhuri Vijay (Debut?! Seriously!! Awesome)

3. The Dutch House – Ann Pachett (Tom Hanks' narration and Ann's book and the "delicious" book cover!)

4. The Scent Keeper – Erica Bauermeister (I can still smell the fragrances! Magical)

5. The Shopkeeper of Tehran – Marjan Kamali (Old world charm!)

6. State of Wonder – Ann Pachett (Still in wonder! Amazon - I have to come to you!)

7. Letters to a Young Poet – Rainer Maria Rilke (Some incredible advice!)

8. The Unlikely Adventures of Shergill Sisters – Balli Kaur Jaswal (Wow! Three NRI sisters reuniting in India at Mother's funeral...what a journey!)

9. The Henna Artist – Alka Joshi (almost a decade after independence, people enjoying the newly acquired independence, the art of henna, Jaipur and sensuous ladies...so much to talk about this!)

10. The Signature of All Things - Elizabeth Gilbert (Lack words!! Incredible research, stunning characters and a jaw-dropping tale of a wonderful woman in the 1800s!)

11. Eleanor Oliphant is Completely Fine - Gail Honeyman (again an awesome debut of a not-so-ordinary woman. Waiting to see Reese as Eleanor!)

and 

12. Story of your Life - Ted Chaing (Story of the movie "Arrival" Read it as soon as I finished watching the movie, literally. Such a meta-physical delight!)

I hope these lists help you to engage in a positive way during this lockdown.

Do leave your comments/ recommendations/ podcasts -books-audiobooks suggestion if any... All eyes and ears.

* Apple podcast rating

image courtesy from respected sites which I photoshopped along with the picture of the host.

Landscape Paintings of Kerala

I am taking part in the Art Chain India movement, an initiative that intends to assist and encourage the development of the art community through peer support in this uncertain period. I do believe it's a wonderful way to support each other at this point in time, a program where sale culminates in a buy and that idea is actually good and feasible. If only we had more of such initiatives and I do pray this movement succeeds whereby we can help each other out. 

These artworks were all part of the DISTANT and PERSONAL group exhibition of September 2019 that happened in the Lalithakala Academi Gallery in Kozhikode. All these are landscapes from in and around my native land like Nemmara, Malampuzha, Alappuzha, Kawa and Nelliampathy. They are original works and not prints. Details are given below:

🔗
Titles -

1. Feel the Light

2. Songs of Blue

3. Kawa

4. Island Home

5. Malampuzha in a whimsy

6. Winter Breath

Size - 24.13x17.18 cm (unframed)
Medium - Acrylics on Linen paper
Year - 2019
Price - 4000 INR each (52 USD)+ courier/shipping charges

Please comment below or email me at deepagopal.pkd@gmail.com if you are interested in purchasing the artworks or even prints. These works are part of #artchainindia. I am sharing some works by myself priced under INR 10000/- Every time I reach INR 50000/- I will use INR 10000/- to buy a work of another artist under the Art Chain India and support a fellow artist.

Home is a Foreign Place - A Tribute to Zarina

“There is truth to the phrase, “You can never go home again.” I do not feel at home anywhere, but the idea of home follows me wherever I go. In dreams and on sleepless nights, the fragrance of the garden, image of the sky, and sound of language returns. I go back to the roads I have crossed many times. They are my companions and my solace.”  - Zarina

Home is a Foreign Place, 1999

Portfolio of 36 woodcuts with Urdu text printed in black on kozo paper and mounted on Somerset paper/ Dimensions: 16 x 13 inches

Zarina passed away in London on 25 April 2020, she was 82 years old. Her works were minimalistic and monochromatic with sparse Urdu calligraphy though towards the end she did use some gold. Zarina made her personal life the subject of her art. She did confess that it was painful to open up her life to the scrutiny of strangers. She liked natural materials that were close to the earth like Wood, paper, cloth; fragile materials connected to the earth. Fragility and that correlation stimulated her. Handmade paper was one of her favourites and she selected them carefully for each project; unbleached and natural. Zarina’s works are quiet and subtle, there are no figures, all there is are the lines and patterns. Borrowing Allegra Pesenti’s (Exhibition curator of “Paper Like Skin”) words “It’s not flush, not clean, it has a roughness” and yet a sacred purity resides, I would like to add. Paper, like skin ages, stales and keeps secrets and it also binds everything together and retains a sense of intimacy.

I came across Zarina, unexpectedly, a couple of years ago when YouTube recommended a Tate video, “My Work is About Writing”. I was instantly fascinated and remain so ever since. I remember her stating in another video that she was apprehensive about saying that she was an artist but instead preferred to say that she was a teacher. Zarina, on another occasion, also mentions that she had trouble being identified as a “Muslim artist”, “Indian artist” or the like. She is an artist and that’s it. Zarina, as she liked to be called, hadn’t resided in India for the past 50 years; New York was her home away from home. Her last years were spent in London with Rani's children; her family. She couldn’t really point to a single place as her home. Her travels took her to a lot of transient homes and this idea of a shifting home, the displacement, the isolation/solitude, the hideaways, the spaces, borders, journeys and memories attached to each space that she may have felt at home at some point were instrumental in the forming of her oeuvre. Having said that Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) quarters always brought back a sense of home to Zarina where she did long to return at some point.

Home was a confusing notion for Zarina. Zarina’s works Home I Made/ A Life in Nine Lines (1984 -92) is a set of nine prints of the homes she resided. Home is a Foreign Place (1999) is a suite of 36 woodblock prints which included a miniature floor plan of her Aligarh home. The works are accompanied by Urdu words like dust, despair, night, door, breeze, country, threshold, time, cage, border, etc. She wrote the word first and then the image formed; she chose a whole series of words that represented her. She engaged in creating these works at a very difficult time in her life soon after being threatened to vacate her life-space and working space in NY. Leaving home - What does it really mean to leave home? It is as much as this shifting concept of home as it is with life itself.

“Home is other people. I often have a dream in which I’m sitting in our courtyard and everyone around me is saying, “Oh, I’m so glad you’ve decided to come back.” When I wake up, I realize that I was sitting amongst the dead. Nobody is left in our house at Aligarh. Rani is gone. My parents are gone. Home has become another foreign place.”

Dividing Line, 2001

Woodcut printed in black on Indian handmade paper Mounted on Arches Cover white paper Dimensions: 25.5 x 19.5 inches

Partition left her scarred and she mentions the aftershock even after 50 years. It defected lives both in India and Pakistan - a line that disrupted and uprooted millions of lives. Zarina’s work is connected to language and poetry. Urdu is a poetic language as much as it is a dying one and  Zarina wanted to place it historically to indicate that there was a certain time that the language existed. She lived outside India for 50 years but kept up with the language because it has a cultural connection. Once you are separated from your language it’s a great loss; one loses access to one’s own scriptures, poetry, literature; it has an emotional connection too.

Urdu, a language Zarina loved which obviously connected to her home, became her idea of home I suppose. Her works were rooted in Urdu calligraphy, rooted in culture, reminiscent of her time in Aligarh and her family. Zarina often quoted Ghalib, Meer and the Palestinian poet, Mohammed Darwish.

“I am not a writer; I need to retrace my steps to places I have passed through to understand how I got here, at this place, at this point and time.  I used the means available to me, a language of symbols and words. It has nothing to do with nostalgia; I have no desire to ever go back up to pick up the threads of my old life.”

Zarina was first captivated by printmaking when she attended a diplomatic party in Bangkok with her husband, Saad Hashmi. She enquired about the work and was told that it was a Japanese woodblock print. She wanted to learn the art and though it took a few years for her, Zarina did finally reach Japan and did study the art form under Father Gaston Petit and apprenticed at Toshi Yoshida Studio. Along the way, Zarina did learn woodblock in Bangkok, Intaglio in Atelier 17, Paris under S W Hayter under whom she was eager to practice.

You may find articles on Zarina from experts. I am no expert but I loved Zarina and her works. It’s like admiring a movie star whom everyone knows and one feels attached to even though you don’t know them personally. Probably it is this shifting idea of the home that drew me towards Zarina. Living in a country away from home brings about a lot of changes. I have lived feeling displaced a lot of times. Sometimes even when I am at my own home, there is a sense of longing for a place called home that I am yet to find.

Zarina’s upbringing moulded her independent outlook of life. She was surrounded by books and printed stuff early on as her father was a History professor at the Aligarh Muslim University. She remembers that was where her love for the printed words emerged. Mr. Rasheed wanted her daughters to be well educated, unlike the times they were in. At one instance, he took Zarina for a ride on an airplane when she was about five. It stirred up her love for topography and architecture eyeing it all from an aerial perspective. This probably led Zarina to join Delhi Flying Club in her twenties and she learned to glide. Her sculpture, Flight Log (1987) reminds us of this instance.

Flying Log-Sculpture

I tried to fly

Got lost in the thermal

Could never go back

Having lost the place to land.

These four lines are my whole biography.

I can’t go back because there’s no place to land.

Where will I go?

- Zarina

Rani (Kishwar Chishti) was a constant support in her life. They had worked on several projects together and Zarina sought input from her sister at all points. They shared a strong bond. Letters from Home (2004) – a portfolio of 8 woodcuts and text by Zarina, is one such iconic and personal work. It’s a compilation of 6 unposted letters written by Rani to Zarina which was later handed over to the latter during one of their visits. It recounts the passing away of their parents, selling their home, the grief she felt after her children moved away and how much she missed Zarina.

“Rani (my sister) and I spent countless afternoons there. The sense of being enclosed within the courtyard’s four walls was an opportunity to reflect on life. On summer nights, we would sleep under the stars and plot our journeys in life. Sometimes it would keep us awake until the sunlight faded the stars from our vision.”

Travels with Rani, 2008

Diptych - Travels with Rani I: intaglio printed in black on Arches Cover buff paper Travels with Rani II: woodcut printed in black on Okawara paper and mounted on Arches Cover buff paper Dimensions: 24 x 20 inches

I admire Zarina for the strength that she had to grow and nourish herself in her times when it wasn’t easy to go about as a single woman artist, reside in an unknown country, travel and make friends and realize her aspirations. Of course, she had unflinching support from her sister Rani and her family. At one point during the process of moving from New York to LA, Rani and her children visited Zarina, they rented a car, picked up Zarina’s belongings and drove. It was a week-long road trip, two Asian women with kids and an adventurous cross-country trip. Travels with Rani (2008) is an ode to that.

“I like to travel; it's cleansing.  That trip helped me rethink my life and focus on what's ahead.  I saw the highway as my life's journey, many exits I took, some detours, and many I did not. I will never know what those exits contained.  I think I still took the route I knew and got to where I should be.”

Like most women artists, Zarina faced difficulties at home, her marriage. She couldn’t fit in the role of an ideal wife of a diplomat arranging parties, small talk and forced appearances. However, it did take Zarina around the world to major cities like Paris, Bonn, Tokyo, Los Angeles, London and New York. Ever since her first travel. She never looked back; she loved traveling extensively and it added to her work, obviously. Zarina points out that “Human beings are supposed to travel. Stillness is death. We like to move.”

In a way, she has lived a life that we would dream of:

“I went to art galleries, watched art films at the Cinémathèque française at Trocadero, took art history classes at the Louvre, and visited the graves of Vincent and Theo van Gogh. I drew maps and traveled through France, often on my own. I read Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Nathalie Sarraute, and Alain Robbe -Grillet. I met the most fascinating people: André Malraux, de Beauvoir, Beckett, and Umberto Eco. I saw all the art I could: Naum Gabo, Antoine Pevsner, Kasimir Malevich, Constantin Brancusi, Max Ernst, and Maria Helena Viera da Silva. I discovered Paris through art.” 

Crawling House, 1994

Cut and molded tin

Saad Hashmi passed away in 1977, their relationship had strained by then and Zarina was living alone in New York focussing on her art. It was there that she became part of the feminist artists and their community, took part in the marches, worked in the editorial board of ‘Heresies’, co-curated with Ana Mendieta at the A.I.R, became aware of the Third World artists; the ‘other’ in America, embraced a whole new self. Her world changed radically.

Zarina felt that her identity was that of an exile though it wasn’t something exclusive to her; this century is full of such people. Transience is part and parcel of human life. Zarina was a quiet artist and wasn’t immediately embraced, it took her some time to find her place. In a way, she was able to bring down some barriers. Probably that made it easy for her to see her path with clarity. She believed that Life offers choice at every turn and one has to believe in the Divine Will for clarity. Uniting with the Divine, the Blinding Light is what she sought.

“When the journey towards God ends, the journey in God begins. This is a small part of our existence, it’s not eternity. Eternity is when we enter the other realm.”

Blinding Light, 2012

22-karat gold leaf on Okawara paper Dimensions: 73 x 39.5 inches

My humble tribute to an iconic artist:

Zarina

Acrylic Ink

Image credits: moma, guggenheim museum, zarina website, forgottenmap 

Times of Isolation and Art

With the new, never-before encountered situation circling the coronavirus we are completely encased in our own shells/cocoons to prevent the pandemic from not only entering our own realms but also in the effort to avoid becoming carriers and unwittingly help spread the pandemic. It has devastated the lives of many, changing lives beyond repair for many and yet it remains almost the same kind of ritual for others particularly those who have been in the confines for long times. I have heard some friends panic while some others take it in their stride. For me personally, since I have always been working from home, it hasn't changed much in my limited environment except that my daughter and husband have started attending classes and working from home respectively. The change, however, is the fact that I can't move around freely as I wish during the day and I am confined more inside the room and the kitchen. We have become like individual islands inside the home during the day and each home an island. The marked change, however, is the less traffic and sighting of people around. I can hear choppers every now and then and the siren of the ambulance frequently. The sirens give me a twinge in the gut when I think of the people in it and what they would be feeling at that moment though all the cases may necessarily not be Covid19.

Pondering continues all along on the concept of life and the home itself among others. The news of the rise in domestic abuse is also a matter that wrenches me. It is not something new though; I have always wondered how people can be so uncompromising, egoistic, violently sadistic and ridiculously savage knowing that our life could end in just seconds. It's all so transient. None of us know how long we may get to live and yet we act like immortals! I wish people would be willing to listen to and be more accommodating! 

As for home, isolation has deepened my sense of home as my native place and the space that I share with my family. It has always been so whenever I am away for a long time; feeling home-sick. I have friends and family who tease me over it but then that feeling has always been strong. I need my mother and daughter particularly to complete the feeling of home. It could be perhaps that they are the ones who understand me the most and who catch me at the slightest of a change in expression and gauge my disposition and vice versa.

Here's a couple of selected works from the past 3 weeks that I had posted on my Instagram. 

I have used Arteza and Daler&Rowney gouache on Moleskine for the first. Daler&Rowney FW and Ecoline ink on Strathmore Mixed Media sketchbook for "Rise", watercolour and gouache on A4 size card paper for "Be Aware" and added the text digitally.

 A trial at Therese Schwartze’s work. I have tried a different face and a slightly different expression. I love the way the lady and dog (Puck) look at each other. Staying home, pets seem to be great companions from a lot of shared photos these days. Here’s to all who have been diligently staying home!❤️

 “Rise”

"Be Aware"

We are in our own bubble now so that the situation can be contained. I see two extremes- one who isn’t bothered at all leaving caution to the air and the other in panic. They somehow miss the point and I do hope they don’t end up causing trouble to self and the others! Adhere the midway- be aware, follow precaution and not panic. Be kind. Be safe.

I was experimenting with watercolours and gouache on Moleskine as well and these I photographed, unlike earlier times. The third one is on Japanese Rice paper.

The gouache set of 24 colours from Arteza and a book by Geninne were my daughter's birthday gift for me.

How are you all coping with the situation?

Stay home! Stay safe! Take care!