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I've been thinking about ways in which I can share my work with an engaged public, while continuing to innovate and experiment with my visual language," said artist and curator Sharmistha Ray, about the launch of Bellevue Brunches a kind of at-home art adda held yesterday at her residence-cum-studio in Khar.
Ray, who used to live in New York before moving to Mumbai, says, "I am opening up my studio and practice to allow access to a range of people and allow them into the process, and in turn, it opens up the worlds to which I engage with. This is partially a social experiment. The closest thing I can think of is Warhol's famed New York studio The Factory, which became a legendary hangout for a cross-section of people. Eventually, these hangouts led to famous collaborations with his work."
We have always liked it when people re-think how to infuse spaces with new meaning. Kamala Das holding poetry readings at her home at Churchgate in the eighties, Art being exhibited recently at High Street Phoenix, flash mobs daneing at Churchgate Station, book readings at the Tasting Room, street theatre... urban living calls for innovative ways to express ourselves, and Ray's concept could be just what the art
"I was prompted to do this world needs. "It's on this Sunday from 11.30-to 2.30," she'd said, "and about 60 people are invited."
And though we didn't meet all 60, of commerce or transactionally in from the looks of it, Bellevue Brunches galleries. I am always crossing sea-link to go to town for an representation of Mumbai's art and exhibition or lecture and the brief media crowd like Gieve Patel, engagements with people at these Tasneem Mehta, Gitanjali Dang, events always leaves me wanting Anupa Mehta, Ranjit Hoskote, Nancy Adajanis, Shilpa Gupta, Man's World editor Radhakrishnan Nair and Elle magazine's Aishwarya Subramanyam, along with Amrita and Sumit Chowdhury, Saloni Doshi, Devita Saraf, was off to a flying start.
"I was prompted to do this because I felt that Bombay has a dearth of cultural spaces, especially the further up north you go. Art is also almost viewed in the manner of commerce or transactionally in galleries. I am always crossing the sea-link to go to town for an exhibition or lecture and the brief engagements with people at these events always leaves me wanting for more direct engagements. A continuation of the conversation, hopefully in time, the direction of traffic for these events will flow in the opposite direction from South to North," said Ray with a tiny smite at prevailing: Soho-Nobo snobbery.