PumBhirri
I have been painting since the age of 9. I publish selected works under the name 'PumBhirri' (which means spinning top) and constantly reminds me of the temporal ambiguity in our lives.
Check our PumBhirri ↗︎ website here.
Art should neither be passive nor a mere pretty picture devoid of meaning! This is my artistic philosophy and the foundation of my creative process. Each artwork is based on a vision, one that I convey using minimal, yet obvious, visual cues in the form of shapes, lines, textures etc. There is just enough abstraction for you to fill in the gaps through your unique perception.
You may look closely and indulge in the impeccable intricate details, or zoom out to reflect on the intended vision. I believe that through this unconscious tapping into your memory and personal experiences, you lend a piece of you to the artwork, making it yours for play...and display!
As Paul Klee said "Art does not reproduce what we see; rather, it makes us see.”
Art should not be passive.
~ Experiment 01 ~
A project had brewed in my mind for a year before it came to fruition. As an Architect, I have studied spaces and cities from different perspectives and wanted to represent my understanding through the use of my artworks.
A city has three key elements: Natural Landscape, Built Landscape, and People. The interaction between these three, at varying scales, creates the identity, memory, and experience of the city. This understanding, developed by my formal training as an architect, influences my artistic expression. I have a keen interest in the visual representation of the ‘character’ of built environments and the delicate relationship they hold with natural environments and people. To really do justice to this ideology that influences my artworks, I decided to capture a few of them against the dynamic backgrounds of a city.
The first, a more simple, attempt was on Poste de Flacq beach in Mauritius on the occasion of Earth Day in 2018.
Click here for more details.
This experiment gave rise to a more formal and well-planned exercise to capture artworks against the dynamic backgrounds of Mumbai. This was also an opportunity to pay homage to this wonderful city that I had called ‘home’ for 5 years; through the depiction of its architecture, its geographic features and its people and their busy lives.
Collaboration with Varun Jain for photography
Sunset overlooking Bandra Worli Sea link from Dadar beach, Mumbai, this is not photoshopped!
The chaotic yet organized nature of the city of Mumbai.
The highlight of this experimental project turned out to be people’s reaction to it. While I was unpacking the paintings, these children from Dharavi showed a lot of excitement on seeing this particular artwork. Their instant reaction was an attempt at finding a resemblance of the faces to people they knew from their lives. Although intended as a static representation of elements of the city, the project turned out to be more than just a collaboration between an artist and a photographer.
The ‘Mumbaikars’, children from Dharavi.
The 130 year old Bombay Municipal Corporation building witnessing the busy life of its residents at 11pm on a weekday.
Flying away from the chaos of city at Powai Lake Mumbai.
Art should not be passive.
~ Experiment 02 ~
Most recently, I undertook an experiment of creating puzzles using my artworks. I leveraged my thinking as an Experience Designer to create an experience around the puzzles and launched it as a product on my art store in June 2021.
Check out the Find your puzzle ↗︎ quiz based on your desired puzzle-ing experience.
