I am thrilled!

What began with the selfish intent to showcase just my paper cut art has grown into a full-blown mini exhibition!

The three comments sheets we had put up on day one are almost full! Moreover, the artists who created new work for the exhibition said they thoroughly enjoyed the process!

It all began when Vijaya said she would like more people to visit the INFOCELL, known as ‘library’ by most people in office.

Vijaya C. MenonAVP - Director, Information & Knowledge Services, South AsiaHead of INFOCELL – GREY’s Research And Information Centre.

I would like more people to visit the INFOCELL

If people are not finding this place cool enough, maybe we’d have to do something cooler in here? She suggested that I put up my paper cut frames for exhibition. That sounded like a plan. But like most of my plans, the steam fizzled out and I completely lost track of the idea. But Vijaya didn’t. It is her nagging persistence that made Project Gallery happen.

It was around this time when it suddenly hit me that we could actually manage to make the exhibition happen. All I had to do was talk to all the artists in office!

I had seen Chris and Shantanu doodle in their spare time. Maybe they would be interested in doing something like this?

The back of Chris’ head and Shantanu’s rendition of it.

A doodle both Chris and Shantanu made together that now adorns their desk.

Shantanu and Chris readily agreed. I sent out mails every now and then asking them to bring their work so we could plan the exhibition.

I would gently remind them now and then but nothing would come out of it. I decided that it was time to create a deadline to work towards.

24th November, 2014 it was.

Shantanu was the first one to bring in his work. His pencil sketches, water colour paintings and digital art came with hope that we were indeed going to make this happen.

Chris promised to have some fun with clay and he did. Here are the clay monsters he made.

Lakshyya, then vacationing in Delhi, also confirmed her participation and did not let down.

Meet the clay creatures with kind eyes she made in clay.

And there’s this little something.

YOU’LL NEVER GUESS WHAT’S INSIDE THIS BOX OF MINTS

CLICK TO OPEN!

And there’s this little something.

The first one to put up her work was Tripta. She had the brilliant idea of hanging her candid wedding and travel photos like a clothesline. She added rice lights for extra pizzazz!

Tripta specializes in candid wedding photography and loves to click while travelling. INSET – portraits she made on her recent tour of Rajasthan.

Shazeb showed me his drawer and said I could open his drawer and take his book anytime I wanted.

This is my drawer. You can open it and take my book anytime you want.

Shazeb’s book Dispersed Diaries that featured digital art based on poetry is a collective piece of work bringing together unique styles, concepts and art forms by artists who are separated by space but united by thought.

Jagdish and Umesh smacked the dust off their art school portfolio and dug out gems. People still can’t believe one of Jagdish’s hand-painted works is not a photograph!

Portraits Umesh made in college based on live models – the elderly lady is made in coloured ink. The other one is a water-colour painting.

Deepak Salvi, who initially wanted a brief, finally relented and made one of my favourite cartoon characters – on paper and in clay!

Jigar Patel showed me this picture of a molecular structure. He said he wanted to make this for the exhibition. Not one to discourage any contribution whatsoever, I said ‘cool’ but tried to sound noncommittal.

The next day, he made these. He had stuck earbuds with instant glue to make a 3D rendition of the molecular structure! Jigar’s installation turned out to be one of the highlights of Project Gallery.

Prathamesh Mirashi wrote this after he saw Jigar’s installation.

When asked why he liked it so much, he said

Jigar’s work didn’t follow any form as such. This is art without boundaries…it is the purest form of expression. It has come out so naturally that the artist himself doesn’t know what it stands for.

“ ”

Mirashi himself got a lot of appreciation for his erotic doodles and pensive graphic novels. 

And I finally got to show off my paper cut work.

If it wasn't for this exhibition, we wouldn't have known that Janhavi is a Warli artist…

or that Dhruv (with his rocking handlebars) is a wildlife photographer…

or that Ulhas graduated from art school the year I was born (1986!)

Ulhas’ charcoal rendition of the Fuhrer and a water colour painting created with the wooden strip etching technique.

I’ve always liked the idea of things leading people somewhere.

In 2013, Tokyo’s Sunshine Aquarium built an augmented reality app that showed animated penguins on users’ mobile screens.

People who ‘followed’ the penguins were led to the aquarium.

Doing something like this has always been on my list.

For Project Gallery, we cut out tiny butterflies out of covers of magazines that are available at the INFOCELL. These butterflies were stuck on the railing of the staircase.

A sign at the bottom of the stairs asked people to follow the butterflies.

People who did, ended up smiling at the INFOCELL – the venue of the exhibition.

Those who didn’t, went on with their boring lives.

Let’s meet the artists who made Project Gallery happen

So here’s what people had to say about the exhibition.

If you have something to say about it or have a message for the artist, you can write to Vijaya.Menon@grey.com who’ll ensure that the message gets across.

As reported by Hari Chakyar, Creative Controller (Copy), GREY Digital, Mumbai.