[Reader-list] What attracts an Artist must attract the Audience as well

[inder salim]

What attracts  an Artist must attract the Audience as well. This is
what I think right now; may be because I happened to see colour,
colour on the surface of cluster of thin balloons. Fifteen odd
homeless families from Gujarat make them for a living near the
abandoned Railway tracks of Shahdara near Mansarovar Metro Station.
They live there even without a  simple tent.  Suddenly, the nights are
colder in Delhi, aren't they?

But they push their own warm breath in balloons to make a spectacle of
colourful composition tied at the tip of a thin hollow reed.  The air,
within the Blue, the Red, the yellow, (the primary colours) become
colder sooner, but make the 'out there' of Delhi warmer. Children make
them for children.  Men, women and children sell them at busy traffic
points and in adjacent colonies.  They indeed know how to find the
right person to buy their products. They have studied their market
quite well, and that is how they survive in Delhi; it must be better
than Gujarat.

Our relationship with colour is as old as time, and needless to say
why colours play significant roles in our lives. Both on the surface,
and deeply between the eye and the mind, colours make and break our
thoughts, perhaps most lucidly. The world exists as much as colours
exist. But, a strange concentrated and compact fragment, a flower, or
a coloured pebble can be put on sale. We want to posses the colour, we
go out and do everything, and ensure that we are in possession of
certain colours. We become that colour, and sooner the space we live
in is possessed by these possessed colours. And every time we move in
that space, these colours jump into our eyes like a pet dog who jumps
into his masters lap and kisses most tenderly the hand which caresses
the back of that dog. These colours behave most innocently, as if they
are living beings, more or less like faithful dogs.

The relationship between buyers and the makers of these balloons is
quite universal yet a very limited one. Obviously, these balloons will
not last long, and neither will the money that was spent on buying
these.  Five Rupees for a set of one hollow reed with at least ten
small balloons tied to it. Text 'I LOVE YOU' is part of the
composition within each set of balloons on sale. The money invested in
the buying of these balloons quickly goes into buying an evening meal
for the family. Everything happens during the light of the day,
because they don't have any means to make their food late in the
evening.

Here, the colour of the balloons is the most visible bond between
audience ( inder salim ) and the makers ( these homeless families).
But, then is that all ?  I am indeed like a child, or a butterfuly who
got attracted towards these families on the abandoned railway track
surrounded by thousands of balloons. Everything is happening under the
open sky, and I ask myself, is 'the colour' the only lasting bond
between them ( the artists ) and me ( the audience).  Something
pricked the coloured balloon in my mind, and I saw the air of 'the
artist' disseminating in the air which we all breathe. A new
relationship begins.

So, I will go out and photograph them, the colourful prints should go
on sale, and the proceeds of that sale should go them. I will try to
know what  these ( artists )  homeless families, need to pass this
winter in Delhi. Last year they were just few, this year they are
more.

But, as audience are we less?

three image 2007

http://pics.livejournal.com/indersalim/pic/0007r5wp

http://pics.livejournal.com/indersalim/pic/0007s60f/

http://pics.livejournal.com/indersalim/pic/0007tsd4/

With love
Inder salim

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