In Conversation with Ayo and Shirin Neshat

Above images: Shirin Neshat
Ayo myspace

The challenge of conversation is the challenge of being an artist, working in your own studio and for yourself. Often, until the work is created and exhibited, it is quiet. This morning however, I was fortunate enough to have a conversation - in my heart - with Ayo and Shirin Neshat.

We spoke about telling the truth and our role as artists.

During her live performance last night, singer/songwriter Ayo said to a small audience, "Have nothing to hide". If you listen to her music, it is evident that she has nothing to hide, the stories of her life are made visible through her music, through the words and the sounds. This truth underwrites her skill as a musician.

Shirin Neshat also speaks truths, counter-Truths as it were. On the role of immigrant artists' like Shirin Neshat, Hamid writes: "The effective role that an immigrant artist thus loses she doubly gains by the freedom that she cultivates from her angular vision of the cultural center. There is something profoundly liberating in engaging in a dialogue with a culture or two with no immediate audience in either and yet something profoundly important to say to both. To speak two counter-Truths to two powers--one colonial, the other patriarchal--is what Shirin Neshat does through her silent yet screaming counter-gaze."

Hamid further writes: "She looks at the patriarchal father/brother/husband with a flirtatious eye towards the colonial officer, while at the same time she mocks the colonial officer via a transparent exposition of the absurdity of his image of her."(1) This is the creative intelligence of Shirin's work, quietly and forcefully existing between one assumption and another. Ironically, the veiling of Shirin's own body in these self-portraits, like Ayo's music, has nothing to hide.

With these rich ideas for conversation, I found that I had this to say:
While I set-up a design studio attuned towards communicating organizational and business needs, what I am quietly preparing myself for is a life of photography. The kinds of images I want to create can only be created here, in a diasporic, Canadian state of imagination. Ironically, traveling back to New Delhi, reinforces how much I am actually rooted here, not there. It forces me out of my childhood imagination and asks me to take responsibility for where I am now and what I am doing with my time here. It sharpens my desire to be an artist and helps me realize the power of an artist to make images that pierce assumptions with beauty. An artist has the power to draw someone in, to take them a step further on their own journey of self-discovery, to willingly take them deeper into their discriminations, of which we all have many. An artist helps prepare the mind and the heart for what the body does next. Will you change who you are because of what you have seen, heard, read? I feel a responsibility to compel you to say "yes".

(1) Hamid Dabashi, "The Gun and The Gaze: Shirin Neshat's Photography" in "Shirin Neshat: Women of Allah", Marco Noire Editore Torino: Italy, 1997.

MISC.

Misc. is short form for miscellaneous, a word that most people can't spell, many people can't pronounce and even fewer people have positive associations with. Well, i'm gonna change all that!

MISC. is my new identity as an independent creative studio. In this case, MISC. stands for meera sethi creative, in other words, intelligent, intuitive, kick-ass creative work that will rock your world. No diggity.

MISC. also stands for miscellaneous, defined as "having various qualities, aspects, or subjects". While this definition in of itself is an apt description of my never-a-master-of-JUST-one-tool, creative practice, miscellaneous also conjures up other ideas: extra, peripheral, heterogeneous, edgy. As a creative studio, MISC. aspires to be on the cutting edge, all the while being rooted in and finding inspiration in the peripheries.

Stay tuned for sketches of a new identity. In the meantime, enjoy the miscellaneous images of work in progress.

On What It Is.

It is that I have found the focus I was looking for am back in Toronto after a three month creative sojourn in India. During this time, what has become clear to me is Part 2 of my (creative) dreams: To build a socially responsible and financially sound design studio that will also make it possible for me to photograph the inherent rudeness, resilience and beauty of identities not often seen in print.

To build these dreams, I am banking on the idea that self-love is infectious and good for business :) As I learn to love myself entirely, mistakes and all, I realize that what I dream is possible. And this realization feeds my higher purpose for all the work that is to follow: to teach them youth to search, understand, respect, love and develop in art, aesthetics and, most of all, in themselves. The sentiment of this is best expressed by Lauryn Hill in "The Passion":

"If they only showed love, they owed love, owed love, like this
before
If they only knew love, true love, to love, like this before
If they only gave love, saved love, brave love, like this
before
If they only showed love, they owed love, they owed love, like
this before

La la la la la, la la la la, la la la la la, La la la la la..."

La la la la...this is serious...la la...and fun...business...la la...run, come test.

Bam! So the story begins.

Thanks to Anonymous for telling it like it is or as I would like it to be. Whoever you are, one love for your love.
Creative fashion photography, Bam! I'm onto you.
So, let the hard work begin.

"Yes We Can"

Damn right. Obama for Prez. Damn right.

Never believe someone who says, "no, you can't" or "it won't work" or any derivative. Shared my professional dreams with three "professionals" here and was told that it would never work. Too bad they didn't know that "yes" begets "yes" just as love begets love. Too many naysayers a pull ya down. A sincere thank you to the fourth professional who said "yes". You helped me believe in myself.

"Yes we can". Damn right.

Btw, the brilliant illustration above was taken from the Times Of India, Chandigarh Edition, March 13, 2008. Page 11. Illustration credit: Neelabh

"Seek Knowledge Even Onto China" (1)

The famous classical, 11th century Muslim philosopher and theologian, Al-Ghazali, spoke about the necessity of travel in seeking knowledge. Travel he said allowed one to gain knowledge both of the world and of oneself and one's relation to the cosmos and the greater Self. Travel allowed one to "distinguish between truth and falsehood."(2)

Perhaps it is in the spirit of Al-Ghazali and after a visit to the dargah of 12th century Sufi saint Khwaja Moinuddin Chisty (affectionately known as Gharib Nawaz) that I have come to understand two key aspects of my personality that I must work to balance out as they hinder my development as an artist. They are my lack of mental focus and my strive for perfection. As a result, so many of my creative ideas never see light of day as I routinely fall of track or feel like they are not good enough for an audience. My goal now is to push through these and through self-doubt.

It was also Al-Ghazali who said "No one believes, until he has doubted."(3) I have been doubting myself all my life, now, I believe, it is time to believe.

Btw, the photo above is of an illustration on a plastic bag I saw in Ludhiana, Punjab. It is indeed a peculiar form of knowledge that I seek ;)

(1)"Seek Knowledge Even Onto China" is a saying of Prophet Muhammed that I came to learn of from an art installation by the same name by artist Jamelie Hassan.
(2) Taken from "Desperately Seeking Paradise: Journeys of a Skeptical Muslim" by Ziauddin Sardar, Granta Books: London, 2004.
(3) ibid.

Now Or Never

These were words I started saying to myself a few months back. Like a personal guide, "Now Or Never" is helping me live a life without regret. As Hafiz has said: (translated, of course)

One regret, dear world,
That I am determined not to have
When I am lying on my deathbed
Is that
I did not kiss you enough.
- Hafiz

Of course, "Now Or Never" is not poetic as Hafiz, but I believe the sentiment is the same. It is about cultivating and sharing your love, in every moment, in every day. It is also about acknowledging, cherishing and following your dreams, kissing the world as it were.

For me, following my (creative) dreams has led me to quit my full-time job as of last week, travel to India as of next week and share my love as of now.

And what are these (creative) dreams that I am following? They come in two parts. Part 1: I want to make fresh to death art, design and photography while financially supporting my family. I also want to be able to teach "disadvantaged" (1) youth of colour creative skills and an appreciation of non-canonized aesthetics. Part 2: It will become clear as I slow down and spend some time away, in India.

In short, life is short, so if you can and you want to, then do it now. And if you can't, but you want to, then prepare to do it and do it when you are ready.

A special thanks to my friends and family who have supported and encouraged me to make art and design. You know who you are and I sure as hell couldn't have taken this step without you. Peace.

[btw: up there is an old collage of my nana, masi, mother and colonial India next to a new sketch of ek onkar.]

Blogs were not meant for footnotes! But here goes anyway:
(1) The "disadvantaged" are ALWAYS advantaged in ways those always/already "advantaged" can never be and can often not understand.