Three years ago, much before Covid-19 turned the world upside down, I started thinking about life at a deeper level.... Read More
Three years ago, much before Covid-19 turned the world upside down, I started thinking about life at a deeper level. One of the results of this introspection is the birth of Coffee and Time Experiments. It started with me moving to Muscat, leaving my wife in India. We were newly weds but the opportunity was too good to pass up. The following 5 months is a period of intense introspection at the end of which 'Experiment I' was born and my wife joined me in Muscat.
Through my Coffee and Time Experiments, I try to explore the relationship between environment, human behavior and current events. 'Experiment I' is how our well thought-out plans always end up going in a route unexpected. I am the subject of 'Experiment I', my fragility is on the canvas. As my mentor used to say, when things fall apart is when they fall in to place. 'Experiment I' is my threshold, where my sense of self is a thing of the past. The painting though not very large took two years to complete. Around 80 layers of coffee with a modicum of gold accent were utilized on canvas over the course of 2 years. The painting started in Bangalore where I was based for a long time. Bangalore has a huge park in the center of the city called Lalbagh akin to Central Park in NYC. That is where the painting took its birth – its first layer – made from a single origin Arabica from Coorg. The painting then traveled with me to Sri Lanka, where a few layers were added, then Dubai and Egypt finally ending up in Muscat where I added few more layers of Omani coffee. The layers had a chance to dry in the hot arid desert Rub-al Khali of Oman and cool off on the humid seashores of Sri Lanka, it was exposed to Sheesha in Egypt and the busy Karama streets of Dubai.
It's like the purity of happiness of a baby's laugh at the same silly face, over and over again
