Jessica Singh

This interview was due years ago. It's been sitting in my inbox for the past three years gathering dust. 

Jessica Singh's work is part whimsy , part anime-like, part dreamy and all round beautiful. Her surreal little details add to the imaginative quality of her works. Her subjects are often coy and lost in a wonderland of their own. She is most definitely on my lust list!

one of the most interesting things about your work is all the little details that you layer, could you explain your process? how much of it is digital/handmade?

I find that I always tend to start with the eyes. If they don't work out, then the drawing never does. The entirety of the image is formed in Photoshop, with the drawing and coloring created with a pen tablet. I guess I find this a really great medium because it's easy to edit, quickly get ideas down, change colors and helps me achieve the things I see in my minds eye.

I tend to be a layer-o-holic. My more detailed drawings end up having about 120 layers. I also never label the layers, which is pretty counter intuitive when I'm trying to find a specific thing. In terms of what is handmade, alot of texture, patterns and collage is. For my Celestial Cocoon and Arkhana series I did hand cut the papers (indian comic books, japanese chiyogami paper), glue and collage them by hand, and then scan them in, and arrange the collage into the drawing.

I rely pretty heavily on my scanner. Sometimes I spend a day hunched over the scanner on the floor, scanning things I've collected, like alfoil, joss paper, fabric scraps and odds and ends. Scanners amaze me! I love textures and patterns and I find it pretty important to somehow bring a sense of texture into a digital format which can be a little 2D sometimes. 

what do you do to get your creative juices flowing? music/pop culture/books/magazines/tv shows

Music is a huge one. I guess I have to admit that I go into a kind of trance when I draw, and most of the time each drawing relates to a song I've just discovered and played on repeat. I'm usually inspired by the lyrics of the song at the time, I find they speak to my soul. Sometimes I dance while drawing - somewhat sad, but true! That's why I find it hard to draw when people are around. As if their aura disrupts me, and the freedom to feeling. 

A big inspiration to me creatively is Bjork - I admire her boldness, it's as if she's made from fire. I think when I draw I hope to express my inner flame too.

how would you describe your work? I see a lot of asian/mystical influences , what draws you to them?

Describing your own work is so difficult. Whenever I look at my work I can only see it in sections, not as a whole. But I'm digressing. I guess I would say bold, colorful, feminine, a bit strange. But these are all fairly obvious. What I would prefer to say is esoteric, mystical and powerful. Powerful in the sense that the characters I draw are powerful, maybe even super heroines! I would also say that in some ways I see each one as a self portrait, either as a section of my personality that lives within, or just as characters that float around my head.

Yes, there tend to be alot of asian and mystical influences. What first got me into drawing was my obsession with japanese culture and subsequently, anime and manga. As I grew older and currently I've really taken a love for all cultures, in terms of folk lore. I'm really inspired by colorful headdresses and textiles, traditional ceremonies and so on. My mother is quite an esoteric character, and she did kind of introduce me to a mystical world of crystals and spirits and things like that, and my father being indian is a pretty spiritual dude himself. 

who are your favourite artists/designers

The first that always comes to my mind is Japanese illustrator Minchi. Actually there are so many illustrators I love I can hardly keep track. But at the moment I am really admiring Nathalie Lete. Really inspired by more hands on painters, and I'm hoping to bring a more painterly quality to new artwork.

how does your south asian-ness influence you/ at what moments does it peek in?

As I kid growing up I think I really rejected my Indian heritage (My father is Punjabi). But I recognise that as pretty normal for those crucial years. I think living in an isolated city (Perth, Western Australia) can really contribute to that. After having lived in London for 2 years I came to really appreciate my Indian heritage. Just after I graduated, I created the Arkhana! series which was pretty carthatic. I suppose it was coming back to my roots. I used to be obsessed with the comic books my father bought back from India, and am only realising now that their levels of fantasy and mysticism, strange colorings has really filtered into my drawing style now.

Whats your current colour palette?

Good Question! I love stealing paint sample cards from hardware stores - sorry! At the moment it's kind of a vivid blue, pale pink/peach, pale violet, bright orange - taken from a new drawing I'm working on. 

Ankur Gupta

Ankur Gupta is a lover of stories. His frippery is heavily laden with sequins, crystals, dusted with glitter, and held together by embroidery. Fix your gaze anywhere on his garment, and a tale will gradually blossom, taking you through the textural treats of his homeland India. His kaleidoscopic mind’s eye is replete with imagery from his childhood, capturing wonder and naiveté. Ankur Gupta still embodies an innocence, that allows him to create without inhibition. His work is a sartorial piece of soul,  embellished with bursts of colour, creativity and compassion. His clothes fuse emblems from Hinduism, fables from jungles,  animal mandalas and chunks of nostalgia from his very own life to actualize detailed, fascinating articles of clothing .

Whats your favorite article of clothing?

Jackets, ties, dress shirts.Apparently silhouettes in my first collection " Ambiguous desires of a child" were highly inspired by jackets (though partly inspired by shapes of fishes, tortoise etc)  which can be worn as dresses and otherwise.But i can feel i am getting inclined to dresses

What sort of music do you like to listen to while creating/ideating?

I am highly driven by strong emotions of varied kind which actually goes in each time I design, think, draw, talk and everything I do.

So the music I like also is what I call "Power Music", it could be a background from a documentary or special voices and noises from different places, regions, dialects.

I like Grizzly bear, Klaus nomi ( imagine the artist in today's world with all that technology), Yann Tiersen- my favorite for long, such an amazing Talent, M.I.A, The Doors ,Beatles. I also love magical Gulzar and Pandit Hariprasad Chaurasia,.

I think I will invest in good recording equipment to record amazing noises in India like the way they juggle tea, vegetable vendor screams about his stock, chants in small temples and mosques near small villages around a river.For me Great Music is kind of Magical Voice not just a Noise.

What are your plans for the future?

From my earlier experiences while still a student I learned that Indian artists and craftsman come to cities to find work while being underpaid or are forced to work overtime without will. They either do not start families or even if they do they do not have personal life because of (not on records) slave work!

Most of the crafts are on verge of extinct just because second or third generation of these artisan do not want to continue the same trade. They end becoming peons at local markets or something of same sort where skill is lost.

It’s very unfortunate to cut costs or to earn more profits something of this sort is done to an artist, who is human indeed.

I do not recognize this as part of Fashion.

Thus one part of my bigger plan, i joined hands with Japanese American designer to form "Atelier AM" where we will give embroidery solutions with vision of ethical and fair trade.

I am already working on my SS11 and Apart from this i have been offered to creative direct collection for next season by an Italy based company.

Favourite designers, why?

 They all very strong personalities with a strong poetic vision who have delivered the very best again and again.John Galliano, Karl Lagerfeld, Alber Elbaz, Alexander McQueen- his studio use to have crazy energy and i was in love with it, Dries van noten , Elisa palomino (i address her MAAJi- bcs of her strong oriental influences and of course because it means mother).

  

Comment on the Indian Fashion scene at home and abroad

At home I would say there has always been a penchant towards different forms of weaving, embroideries and printing from age of kings & queens to present day.

Which is The Great Indian couture and will always be.

At the same time there are designers, very well hooked and aware of trends and seasons in international fashion and thus creating and catering to markets of their respective choice and many have succeeded  to make their mark.

What sort of advice would u give to ppl with creative startups?

Be true to Yourself and your VISION.

You will be punched, kicked, laughed at and the same time overly appreciated, talked about but do not let anything affect you because everyone has a point of view.

Views with Visions survive.

Kali Arulpragasm

Kali Arulpragasm is Superfertile. She has a fearless personality, a brand of brash that works for her. Her jewelry is an extension of this firebrand quality. Big, bold pieces that make socio-political statements with just a gentle dose of subversion. Her inventiveness comes through by way of materials. In CRA$H, she uses infographic pie charts and bar graphs, solemn emblems of the recession, inlaid with glitzy stones and enamel , street styled on the working man – it’s safe to say she also possess a wry sense of humour.In her latest collection , Mankind, flesh toned clay figures gather around the models’ torsos, speaking a softer more universal message – love. I ask her abt her quirks and she retorts,’I’m the only South Asian I know who applies tanning lotion and bronzer to make me appear darker”. 

How would you describe your aesthetic? What influences it?

My parents are very proud of their Tamil heritage. I was taught very traditional values and all the goodness that came from our heritage...culture, music, good spicy foods, perfumes, all the smells and colours, costumes, decorations, jewels and festivals...I was taught to be aware and be proud of what South Asia offered to the world. I was born in London, grew up mostly here, Yet I'm drawn to the Old India, and the parts which interest me are the parts that are not trying to be something else. Pretence is boring, I try to be honest with everything I do.

Your pieces are very conceptual in nature, what about the wearability factor?

Yes, the concept comes after the message and the wearability I have fun with.  Sometimes my message is so serious that I find humour in the design or Inject some Irony into the design. This is the part I enjoy and I think it makes my designs speak.

I'm a conceptual designer, message and communicating that message is important to me.  My concerns of wearability comes last because I feel that is the easy part. I can always take parts and make smaller pieces. Break it down. The inventors’ collection  come in one pendant necklaces, key rings and broaches. My tourism collection, necklaces were reduced to 50%, or parts of the necklaces were made into pendants, bracelets and ear rings. It's not that hard to work it out.

My most recent collection CRA$H is very wearable, I made pendants and chains in stones of statistics, numbers and facts of our very current Global financial economic crisis. They are Bar charts and Pie charts and statements. This has never been done with jewels. I read the economists of last 2 years, the FT and decided to show the glory of our nations debts and loss in bling!. It's a collection that got me respect from designers in Paris when I showed there in Oct 09. Only they know how hard to pull this off. Some pendants have more then 3000 stones, all paved by hand.

Who wears Superfertile?

Everyone that I would like to know.

Is jewelry your thing or do you create in other ways?

I wear many hats. After designing jewelry and production, I do everything else, from scouting models, art directing shoots, styling, make up, building installations and lookbooks. It's never ending...if I go onto do other things, I'd like to go bigger, add sculptures for homes, furnitures etc. You won't see me reducing impact.

For your The real super stars collection , you speak abt the relevance of glorifying inventors, the catalysts of change , why did you pick their heads specifically? Does this allude to yourself, as kali?

It's just a co-incidence that my name is Kali, it's actually short for Kalyani, but Kali also means 'New' in Tamil.I wanted to focus on inventors Face/heads for a few reasons, firstly it's there unknown faces that I wanted to present to the world, secondly, it's also miniature sculptures castings of their heads that you see in museums of important and Influential people. I wanted to preserve them and honour them for their contributions. It's also my way of delivering the unexpected. I wanted to show the possibilities of Design in Jewelry. And maybe there is a part of my ancestors influence in my work.  But I don't sit through history books but yes some of my designs after they are completely made up from imagination have some relations to dance costumes and temples, statues,  I have not physically seen before or maybe when I was a child l may and forgotten but still it's imprinted somewhere ...maybe I think in my past life I must have been a jeweller for the gods and maharajahs palaces in India. I'm very drawn to royalty, leadership and rulers. I can see one of my necklaces worn by a warrior at a royal function...I aim to dress all like warriors and kings and queens!!.

Whose work do you find most compelling?

I'm a big fan of Chanel. I watched Coco Avant Chanel many times. Coco is very compelling. Mc queen, hussaine Chalayan, Ashish and artists I have too many. Tracey Emin, Chris Offeli, Yoko Ono, Picasso, frieda Kahlo and all the local artists go by their first names in India, Africa, Mexico...my studio is filled with their work.

Whats on Kali's ipod these days?

Motown classics. I've lost my music after my Ipod crashed!

Do you follow  any of the South Asian designers on the scene today?

I love Ashish, he's originally from Delhi based in London. Were friends now and I wear mostly his clothes.

The dreaded question,  whats next for you?

I'm now made part of the Royal Academy of Arts comittee, so I'll be involved with the next event for the schools. I'll be going to Milan and Paris, for shows next year. I'd also be featured in a big movie that I'm so happy to be involved with. I have to produce some jewels for my new fan Alec Jeffreys, DNA finger printing inventor. Who discovered my collection recently. I'll be continuing my work as before.

Aakash Nihalani : by Avinash Rajagopal

Street art is alive and kicking in Brooklyn. It writhes and pulses along the walls, singing along brick tenements, screaming across the doors of auto garages and warehouses. The artists are rebels who are supposed to be in hiding, but who operate under famous monikers and nicknames. Street art is invariably a statement about the urban landscape: Who holds power here? Who is allowed to express themselves, and who isn’t? It is a very rare kind of street art that operates just as well within the formal space of the art gallery, and that actually loses very little by this transmutation.

Such is the work of Aakash Nihalani, whose most recent exhibition opened at the East District Art Gallery in Brooklyn, New York. Yes, he operates under his own home grown Indian name: no fancy monikers like PosterBoy or Gaia. And his fluorescent pink and green outlines of isometric boxes are very comfortable on the bare white walls, forcing me to do a little jig as I move back and forth and to and fro, finding new ways of looking at them.

“A gallery allows me to place my work within the history of art”, he says, “It also allows me to show what I can do given a white wall.” It is this sort of informed comment that gives away his formal training in art, and his background before he came into the art world. Aakash began by studying Political Science at New York University, with the aim of becoming a lawyer. Born to Indian parents, growing up in a Jewish neighbourhood in New Jersey, this was the respectable career path to take. But Aakash admits he was always something of a rebel. He first started painting on clothes when he realised, that he not only wanted to make art, but that he wanted people to interact with it. Now all he had to do was to convince his shocked parents that their son wanted to shift to art school!

Aakash’s tryst with street art began with an exhibition he put up while studying Printmaking. He was taping his prints to the wall, and idly began to trace the outlines of a table’s shadow with the tape. The idea excited his teachers, and Aakash had found his medium. His work before this was abstract expressionist: a preoccupation with surfaces and textured backgrounds. He had already hit upon the device of creating a little enclosed space on the canvas for contemplation using an isometric cube: the basic unit of space. All that remained now was to replace the painted background with surfaces in the real world; and the cubes began to serve just as well to highlight the beauty of the mundane, to force passersby to stop and think a little.

To Aakash, this is the raison d’être of his work: watching people engage with it. In the street, people see sidewalks and staircases in a whole new way through his taped outlines. In the gallery, he uses mirrors with his taped boxes to reflect the viewers or their surroundings in intriguing ways.  And he photographs this endlessly. To me, these photographs are the final work of art: freezing the moment where the art and its audience are in conversation. Aakash explains, “It is a visual cue that cannot be fabricated. It is a function of reality.”

He uses a clean medium (the tape comes off the walls pretty easily) and therefore his work is legal: he hasn’t had a run-in with the cops yet. This consciousness is the most telling aspect of his work. It raises a very important question about street art: If it is really all about using public space creatively and about beginning an open dialogue, why are the artists in hiding?

 Aakash Nihalani is now extending his ideas from street art into other domains: the gallery wall and the internet. But the fact remains that in his work, and in the work of others like him (such as the Wall Project group in India), street art has begun to shed the baggage of secrecy and illegality that has dogged its steps from the beginning. And in doing so, it may finally realise its goal of being not just a serious mode of artistic inquiry, but a real and valid form of public self-expression.

For more images of Aakash's work, visit his website and flickr.

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Avinash is an aspiring design critic/teacher, currently pursuing a Masters in Design Criticism at the School of Visual Arts, New York. He studied to be a product designer, and his heart also beats faster for Indian art, textiles, crafts, social responsibility, mythology and history. 

Mithun Jayaram

Mithun Jayaram likes to work with expendable objects. The humble pencil, the charmless eraser, the square yellow post-it clones - all exalted by the ambitions Mithun sees for them.
From everyday utilitarian objects, he builds several little universes. All much more magnificent than anyone ever thought they would be. He carries out this task purposefully -sharpening, shaving, rolling , tearing and building inch by inch in full view of a skeptical audience.From curiosity some stop and watch, from amusement some stop to stare.

Mithun's latest work-in-progress , a post-it /eraser cosmos titled A Feeling Bubble of Forgetting , explodes slowly to the smells of coffee .He captures every awkward nuance of the journey in a space not conventionally used to showcase art. This can be revealing in it's demystification or completely fascinating in it's deliberate progression. To Mithun, the end does not matter. He works in public spaces to include an audience interaction , keeping the element of chance in space , turning it into a 'playground of ideas'.

He hopes people will 're-look' their waste. While the actual materials used in his installations are not in fact waste , he uses everyday , ordinary things, hoping to alter your perception of them.While this is not a re-cycling project, Mithun never throws away the materials, hoping to reuse them and the traces of their essence in a different context or arrangement.

As much as it is an experiment in observation as most things art are , it is also an experiment in introspection (as most things art are) Mithun is often asked by participants and onlookers if he was always this industrious or persistent but Mithun chalks it up to selective patience. A momentary yielding surge in tenacity for the sake of enlightenment, an opportunity to test his own limits and learn about himself.

He pushes on as he starts to seperate mind and body from the physical 'feeling' discomfort. While these little universes take shape , Mithun gains from the thoughts and conversations fueled by his creation.

Catch Mithun Jayaram at Gloria Jean's Coffee, Indra Nagar, Bangalore from 11 am - 11 pm. You won't regret it! More images on his facebook page.

Have included images from his previous installation at Citylink Mall, Singapore featuring pencils and their associated parts.

Divya Raman

Divya Raman graduated this year with a Masters in Digital Fashion from The London College of Fashion. She designs under the label FMCG - Fast Moving Consumer Goods , conceptualised during her masters program. FMCG merges fashion and digital art in the most entertaining way possible.

Her structured, heavily pleated pieces echo the lines of test card patterns. The volumnous shift's bear digital art that reinforce the collection's major themes - God & TV. Both extremely profitable products of & for mass consumption.

The cleverly titled collection unfolds like an enigmatic sci-fi fantasy series. The plot line : Heaven's cherubs are do-gooders with a television dependency . Regular broadcast has been interrupted for a special message to the minions of earth. What plot twists await the 'cathodic' soul? Stay tuned for more.



Tell us a little about your roots.

Traditional and beautifully cultured Chennai background, a PCM (Physics,Chemistry, Mathematics) student who sold her engineering forms for design.Fashion was an impulse and the rabbit hole led to an entire new core to discover my world.

What influenced your tele-commandments line?

My design ideology uses digital technology in fashion as a toy and tool. Tele-commandments: for a cathodic soul is pun intended on today's screen addiction through television and the nostalgic test card patterns. The collection explores moving graphic narratives from television through lens animation i.e lenticulars and digital textile printing.

Transmission breakdown strikes a screen addicted heaven. Tele-commandments is a disrupted live broadcast from the glorious home of god. Bless you for watching.

Do you see yourself doing any other sort of design?

Yes, creativity leads to new insights, it depends on that particular artistic moment or what we call the "glorious instinct".

Do you collect pieces of clothing?

Yes, vintage or one-of pieces from my travel, flea markets. It could be anything ranging from a 50's new look coat to an Irish brooch to temple jewellery. Criteria: The one that fits my wallet! Quirky, Simplistic, Edgy

If you could pick a song , movie or book (or all 3) to describe your state of mind , what would that be?

My state of mind : dreamy, blank sheet of canvas. Movie : Waking Life by Richard Linklater

What is your creative work process like?

Creativity is unpredictable, it works in unity with individual freedom and passion. Working systematically would make the process mechanical. Each time it taps a different experience, a new revelation, so just go with the flow!

Who do you envy?

Nature

What do you think of the fashion scene in India?

Fashion in India is conscious with the west. We should breakaway from that kind of comparison or "indo-west" look and let our own echoes rule the runway!

Your favourite designers?

Abraham & Thakore, Ingo Maurer, Margiela, Castelbajac, Moschino, Nam June Paik .

What can we expect to see from Divya Raman in the future?
FMCG (Fast Moving Consumer Goods), a womenswear pret-a-porter line.

Are you working on something now?
I am just traveling for the moment. Long awaited trip! Will keep you guys updated!!

Tele-commandments on Youtube.

Reem Khurshid

Reem Khurshid is waiting in the wings. This 22 year old shows the sort of potential that makes her artistic evolution exciting to watch. Her unconventionality is her main draw. As a college drop out from Karachi , she possesses none of the abrasiveness that you expect of a young rebel. Instead, she has her head firmly placed on her shoulders and a shocking clarity that belies her age. This budding entrepreneur is not just a visual artist but also co-owns an independent record label , Mooshy Moo. She is charmingly modest, endearingly polite and unarguably talented.

When did you first start to paint? Do you dabble in any other creative work?

I've been drawing and painting for as long as I can remember. My earliest memory of childhood disobedience is ignoring my kindergarten teacher while the rest of the class was lined up to leave for break; I was engrossed in colouring a drawing of a chicken. When I moved to Karachi (at the age of eleven) I went to a proper art supply store out of pure boredom and that's when I started taking things "seriously", because I was so mesmerised by all these materials that felt so sophisticated compared to the student's watercolour set I'd been issued at school. I was always a loner, painting is what saved me from being a sad loner.

All my creative work is visual. Apart from painting I do illustrations and one-off customisations (eg, shoes, bags, clothes, etc). I'm quite useless at everything else.

Tell us a little abt what story you wish to tell.

It's not just what I like to paint, but why I like to paint it. Even though there's an overlap of basic themes, I've come to distinguish my work in two separate categories. One is my illustrative work, often exploring childhood nostalgia, the fear/myth of growing up (Peter Pan syndrome) and the ambiguity of innocence. It germinated out of my own need for escapism (mostly when I should have been spending my time working on art school assignments), and has come to embody that for me.

The more painterly direction I'm currently heading in is almost anthropological, with particular emphasis on sprawling urban squalor, finding the margins and contradictions in the ideals and cultural values that are espoused. I can't do patronising paintings of the underclass, I try to find the common ground between themselves and me and paint that - what I call the Contemporary Anybody, icons or avatars of the modern age. It's a way of exorcising the demons of the angry young person in me - living in a city that has for a long time been perceived as a tinderbox, always being told that the only place I'm safe is within my own four walls, cloistered from any real sense of community behind alarms, padlocks and a massive gate. In an odd way, I suppose it's a homage to Karachi, or Karachi-like cities everywhere in the world.

Does your Pakistani identity translate to your work ?

I'm somewhat rootless, and I think to a large extent I'm still trying to figure out what a Pakistani identity is. The general characteristics I find could more reasonably be attributed to a Subcontinental identity rather than a Pakistani one. Our society is so hierarchical, entrenched in divisions and influenced by Anglicism (more recently, laissez-faire capitalism) and radicalism (so many isms!) that it's sometimes hard to find the common thread that connects us all. I think ideals have largely given way to day-to-day crisis management, for most people.

Whether being Pakistani translates in my work is up to other people to decide, the fact that I am makes it Pakistani art. I don't know if it means anything to me beyond the mild amusement I feel when someone who's seen my work is taken aback to discover that I'm from Pakistan.

What do you think of the Pakistani Art scene?

There are so many radically different Pakistani artists emerging (partly to do with the media boom at the start of this decade), making it quite apparent that the Pakistani voice isn't singular. However, I find the commercial art scene (ie, graphic design, music videos, animation), and to an extent the fine art scene, to be mostly complacent and derivative. I think it's a general failing amongst art institutions in Pakistan that they seem to be churning out graduates in order to cater to the market, not to define it. Creative and critical independence is some what stifled. There are talented and vibrant individuals striving to raise the bar in the art scene here, but more often than not they happen in spite of our current cliques, education and industry infrastructure, not because of it. We have a long way to go.

What is your daily schedule like? What would an ideal day in the life of Reem Kurshid be like?

Most people who know me would laugh at the assumption that I have a schedule, so I'll explain my process, which can take anywhere between a couple of hours to several weeks depending on what I'm working on. The first step is doing research for my work, basically absorbing things by reading, media watching and endless Google searches. I've stopped working from direct visual references, preferring to first etch out a concept, then refine it with quick studies and sketches, references of references. I find that starting this way makes painting far less rigid and predefined. I have more words and phrases jotted down in my sketchbooks than sketches. I love reading, so it's easy to procrastinate for the sake of "research" and I do that a lot too. Eventually I get off my lazy bum and paint. And then it's rinse and repeat. I do freelance work in teacher training workshops and on the days/weeks that I'm booked for that, I get up at a respectable hour and work till midday, and on my personal work in the evenings. Usually though, I just like being left alone to do my work. I have no social life.

An ideal day would be the same thing, including long walks and taking the time to cook a nice meal to share with someone. Long walks are impossible for me in Karachi. I'm a cynical city kid with a country bumpkin heart.


Are you working on anything currently ?

I'm working on some paintings, tentatively titled the Necropolis series, of which I vaguely spoke of earlier.I'm also working on a commissioned painting, which is my largest to date, at 6'4"x3'4". It's a huge challenge, I've always painted on a very small scale until recently. It's called Jenericho, and is an offshoot of the same themes I'm exploring in the Necropolis series. I guess both paintings are of a city under siege.

Another commission (that I've only done sketches for so far) is a custom bookplate, for a fellow book lover who's always losing hers to people who've lent them from her.

What do you do for fun?

I'm living the Peter Pan life, I paint because it's fun... and I somehow manage to scrape by making money, because I don't care (as much as I probably should) about making it. Otherwise I make a big pot of green tea (or, if it's one of those days, a bottle of red wine), grab a cat from the garden and mellow out, watch good movies and listen to music with my partner, Sheryar Hyatt. A recent addiction of mine is doing big, thousand piece jigsaw puzzles. I never did one as a kid, so I'm compensating now.

If you could live in any other part of the world right now , where would that be?

Hunza, because it's far away from everywhere else. It seems like a place with a genuine sense of community and connectedness with the environment, which appeals to me.

What mediums do you love working with?

It's a love/hate relationship with all mediums, but I mostly work with acrylics these days. I collect a lot of junk and scraps so I use all sorts of things when appropriate. The only medium I don't use is oils, despite its amazing properties I can't get past the asphyxiating smell. One day, when my studio doesn't also happen to be my bedroom, I'll give it a shot. I'm more interested in exploring different supports these days, I've dabbled with painting on wood panels (that weren't properly cured and so promptly munched on by termites) and I want to do some work on plexiglass, for its transparency and endless possibilities for layering.

Who are your fav artists?

Klimt, Bosch and Goya. My favourite contemporary artists include William Kentridge and Phil Hale. I'm also rather taken with the work of David Choong Lee (a Korean based in the US) and Ala Ebtekar (born in the US, of Iranian descent). As far as local artists are concerned, I love A.R. Chughtai's work (I have a book of Ghalib poems illustrated by him from 1928 which is one of my prized possessions), and it's hard not to find Shazia Sikander's work impressive. I also love the work of Chris Cunningham, Michel Gondry and the Brothers Quay.


Tell us a little about Mooshy Moo & how you are involved

Sheryar and I started Mooshy Moo because we were sick of whining about how our work didn't seem to fit anywhere, or the fact that we weren't comfortable with the system that our work did not fit into. So we just made up our own, very simple, no nonsense approach : put work out there. Both of us owe a lot of our learning and progression to the Internet, this was a way of giving back. I do all the artwork for the site and we try to offer young people another perspective on what it means to be a 'success', something that isn't entirely measured by the amount of dog and pony shows you're involved in just to be seen and known.

Having said that, we're still just at phase one of what we hope to do, at the moment we have neither the time nor the means to fully exploit the Mooshy Moo ethos. But we've got encouraging coverage both locally and internationally and I'm very proud to be a part of it, even if it is in stasis at the moment.

What are your plans for the future?

I'd really love to do video art - traditional and stop motion animation, so I need to get over my fear of technology and learn to do that. Becoming financially self sufficient, exhibiting often, being more productive and not prone to ennui, tending a garden, finding like minded people to work with are also on the list. I'd also like to figure out a way of making the popping sensation in my spine go away.

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Check our Reem's Page for more.