Umesh Kumar's 'Hortus Mythos Indica' Book Launch

 " Department of Inter-dimensional Botany "

An exhibition of Magical herbology illustrations, sculptures and illustrated Books launch
Opens friday 3rd dec 2021, 6:30pm
Show continues 4th to 7th dec 11am to 7:30pm
@ 1Shanthiroad studio gallery, Bangalore

Illustrated book of Imaginary magical herbology
with 81 illustrations and texts.
This set of illustrations and book is about Magical fantasy, Healing and inter-dimensionality.
…….
Hortus Mythos Indica : Imaginary annotations form Indian mythologies and other Indias is a set of 53 illustrations with texts for each.
This set of illustrations and book is an attempt to imagine and also rewrite mythology and the multiple other Indias in a creative way. This is also to bring in an intermingling of various dimensions in terms of the various Indias we live in imaginatively and in reality.
....

Umesh Kumar’s "Hortus Mythos Indica" is filled with magical flora that can heal our ailments, grant our deepest desires, and sometimes go beyond and cause hilarious and irreversible side effects. An unusual amalgam of a grandmother's remedial cookbook, a botanical handbook, and at times subaltern polemics. The illustrations whet our appetite for visual information but in a guarded manner. The images range from subdued flowers that perform yoga asanas to surprisingly vibrant forests that make you amorous.

The book is an ode to times that held the possibility of magical transformation, stumbled upon treasures in unknown realms, and discoveries; lush forests and impenetrable villages are a recurring theme in the book. We live in a world with few untouched forests at a time when herbs in our kitchens are in an attempt to be patented. These pages offer a chance to slip into that magical realm where all things are possible and things that aren't possible are easily explained why.

“Magical herbology” is an Occidental twin to the book "Hortus Mythos Indica" and it has a markedly different attitude. The book is an ode to those foreign books that brought us stories and creatures and magical peas that made you big or small, and princesses who needed that particular flower to wake from their comatose sleep.

The book offers an alternate worldview when seen together with Hortus Mythos Indica. Here the pages offer something close to a Neopagan and a multi-dimensional universe constructed by an artist/author in a globalised South Asia.

Umesh concocts a world of details in his imagination of these florae that apparently live a thousand miles away in lands that many of us have never stepped in. I would call this a literary and artistic subversion at its very best.

- Dhanya Rajaram.

Making sense of sense - Lecture by Prof H.S. Shivaprakash

public event of the creative writing program 'MAKING SENSE OF SENSES' by Prof H.S.Shivaprakash, Facilitated by Mamta Sagar

A performance presented by Nalanda Arts Studio "Desdemona Roopakam"

 A performance presented to you by Nalanda Arts Studio called "Desdemona Roopakam, home kutcheri series".

at 6:30 The interpretation of William Shakespeare's Othello and Tishani Dishi's Girls Are Coming Out Of The Woods, directed by Abhishek Majumdar.

The performance shines through Pallavi MD and Bindumalini.

Next - Step Residency 2021 Open Studio

Next-Step Residency 2021 Open Studio

'I show you my town' workshop with Matthias Beckman

"I show you my town"

An online free documentary drawing workshop with Matthias Beckmann

Aim of the workshop:
We will learn how to create an exciting graphic reportage with the means of drawing, using visual means that we know from the film, storyboard, and comic: sequence of images, change of perspective, zoom, picture of the total scene, detail, etc.
We draw in front of the subject without photographic aids and develop a documentary drawing series about a place that has a special meaning for us.

Process:
In the daily Zoom meeting conducted and mentored by Matthias Beckmann, he gives suggestions, and the course participants discuss their work. The participants work independently on their series of drawings and receive individual corrections.

Result:
Selected works from the workshop will be presented on a website, and a series of postcards will be made.

Participants:
The workshop is aimed at students and professionals in the fields of fine arts, architecture, illustration, and design.
Matthias Beckmann will select 20 participants from the applications for each workshop.

Schedule:
You can choose your participation between two workshops( Please mention your desired schedule in your application)

Workshop 1: October 18 - October 22, 2021
October 18, 2021, 11 am: first zoom meeting(Introduction)
October 19 till October 22, every day at 5 pm: zoom meeting
every day: individual work
October 29 at 5 pm: final discussion of the workshop and the results

Workshop 2: November 8 - November 12, 2021
November 8, 2021, 11 am: first zoom meeting(Introduction)
November 9 till November 12, every day at 5 pm: zoom meeting
every day: individual work
November 19 at 5 pm: final discussion of the workshop and the results

About the Artist
Berlin artist Matthias Beckmann has been working for many years on documentary drawing series on selected places and topics: German Parliament, Charité Hospital in Berlin, Refugee Housing, Romanesque Churches in Cologne, Vietnamese Life in Berlin, Museums in Berlin, Bonn, Wuppertal, Paris, Ghent, Linz, etc.
Works by Matthias Beckmann have been shown in numerous exhibitions and are in the graphic collections of many museums.