PROJECT DESCRIPTION
‘the alive project’ was an idea that waited a long time to be realized. It was this residency coupled with the current climate and tragedies that pushed me into actualizing it. Using social media and the internet, the interactive platform is intended as a getaway, one that is a global diary that records the moments that make us feel the most alive. Viewers anonymously share their memories, experiences, or desires, while being able to read and experience those of others. The space attempts to champion nostalgia and collective memory, and through this introspection make us more aware and grateful for the little moments we find worth living for. The crises putting the world on standby have marred human connections and the severe loss of life has made human mortality and transience increasingly visible. The alive project responds to these developments by creating a space that aids in rejuvenating the former and harnesses an understanding of the latter as a core component of its base rationale. It, hence, hopes to push us into acting on the momentariness and ephemerality of our existence.
THE PROCESS
Initially, all efforts were focused on finding the aesthetic and tone of the project through graphic design. It was important to create a visual that was captivating yet bare enough to allow the text to be at the forefront. As the work is a public project, it is still in the process of creation and is constantly being brought to life; as I continue receiving submissions, they are shared on the page. Gradually, more features will be added to the project and it will expand into more nuanced areas!
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Nostalgia, childhood, memory, and human connections
Media: Digitally rendered color pencil drawing.
‘Growing together’ aims to portray and call back to the friends and bonds that always stuck by us. The series depicts this through the visual of chairs drawn in color pencil on cartridge sheet. In the work, both the choice of the symbol and the medium are significant and directly connect with my school experiences. The red and green chairs are visual recreations of those used in my junior and high school for decades. Through this, I attempt to create an intimate portrait of our collective and shared memories of growing up and childhood. Similarly, the first fine art medium taught to students in the institute is color pencils, and hence this choice also develops this nostalgic re-exploration even more. The original drawing has been digitally rendered and repeated to compose the final work, and this integration of technology and new skills with old mediums and visuals intermixes the past with the contemporary, hence becoming indicative of my personal growth.
The work, in its visual narrative, depicts a classroom through the multitudinous chairs huddled together. This full, busy, and occupied visual and composition is juxtaposed with the other which depicts only two chairs placed in great proximity. Through this material object (i.e. a chair) and its relevant context, the work harnesses a nuanced yet representative imagery, one which captures human bonds and connections without depicting a specific human form, and hence allowing a more open-ended and accommodating viewing experience.
The drawing purposes itself with prodding the viewers into reminiscing on memories and experiences, and through this re-examine our past bonds, appreciate them, and if lost, rekindle them .
PROJECT DESCRIPTION
Marginality, oppression, and violence
This subset and its works explore the theme of a standby through varied perspectives. In different socio-cultural contexts, or for different people, what is responsible for putting their livelihoods on standby? Are there factors beyond COVID-19? The first work in the series explores this through a female lens, questioning the forces that put the life of some women on standby. Moreover, these factors I speak of create a threatening farrago with the current pandemic and COVID-19, exasperating their influence even more. The second work explores hereditary hate and conflict, and hence, in general war and violence. Such conflict has locked young children, full communities, or even nations in a perpetual standby that now has prevailed for years. In this manner, both these works explore violence and its various shapes and facets, and its ability to be both explicit and implicit.
INDIA I MULTIMEDIA ARTIST
A multidisciplinary creator dedicated to parallel explorations of grief and joy, Parumveer Walia is a young emerging artist from Chandigarh, India and is 18 years of age. Despite a natural inclination to installation and sculpture, Walia works in a fluid manner, often harnessing new and different media for his projects. His practice exists on two separate planes and trajectories but converges at a common goal. In one half of his working, he examines shared grief and pain as a lesser taken albeit necessary pathway to sustained happiness and peace. Hence, these works are charged with an emotional vulnerability and unravel the chaos of our internal landscape. Contrastingly, in his remaining works, he intends to create that which directly elicits joy and comfort, warmth and nostalgia, or tranquility and laughter. Here, he intends to do away with an artist’s preoccupation with satiating an analytical gaze, and create in uninhibited manners.