Art by Aarohi » kitsch

In iDiva

aarohi — Sat, 07 Jan 2012 09:19:53 +0000

I had no clue about this write- up. Got a call from a friend in Delhi who saw the paper first thing in the morning. And then congratulated me on Facebook.

Me? I am clueless at that point.

So I did a little digging, found the write up was indeed about my work and my house

Thank you Meenakshi for the wonderful write up.

Thank you Pavita for sending the hard copy to me all the way from Delhi to Bangalore.

Here it is…

Sorry it took me over a month to post this… too much happening!

To the Gods…

aarohi — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 01:55:27 +0000

There are gods and then there are gods. In India, we have them in all shapes, sizes and denominations. This kettle is dedicated to some of the ‘Gods of Cricket‘ down the ages- Kapil Dev, Sunil Gavaskar, M.S Dhoni and the one and only Sachin Tendulkar.

To cricket and it’s many big and small gods – We love them, we hate them, we love to hate them….but as a nation we can’t seem to live without them.

Outer face. Inner demons…

aarohi — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 14:47:52 +0000

We all have them. Those fears that don’t let us sleep. The demons that show are frailty, our vulnerability. It makes us human.

Superstars have them too!! Both Amitabh Bachchan and Shahrukh Khan have spoken of their fear of anonymity publicly. Mr. Bachchan on ‘Rendezvous with Simi Grewal’ and ShahRuhk on a mini series on his life (I forget which channel it aired on now )

I hope this new year brings love, laughter and resilience in all our lives. I hope it allows you, my readers and me to embrace the future without fear.

Happy New Year everyone!!

And to both the Shahenshah and the Baadshah of Bollywood – I wish you both more success and more fame. May you both never have to fade away into obscurity.

In Prismma again

aarohi — Sat, 24 Dec 2011 13:58:18 +0000

My Thayyam trunk made it to the accessories page in the magazine.

Thank you Rekha Nambiar. Prismma has recently changed it’s format into a delightful spread of little nuggets spread across six sections. Very well done.

My work has been featured along with the super talented Vineeta Nair of Artnlight, Swati Seth of Colour Caravan and last but not the least, Varnam at Shopo.

The Poonam Mojito !!

aarohi — Sun, 06 Nov 2011 16:42:13 +0000

This piece was a custom commission. It is a gift from Roopa to Poonam for her birthday.

And as you can imagine, it was a lot of fun to put together, especially with all the disparate elements involved. The hope was to show how much of a super woman Poonam is, in efficiently and effectively managing a top level job, children, friends, interests and all that. The imagery of a multi-armed goddess was borne of this idea.
After lots of research and many conversations with Roopa- this was the end result. Each of the elements depicted from the dress and jewellery to the items she ‘holds’ are typical of Poonam.

I hope she enjoys it as much as I enjoyed making it!

Happy Birthday Poonam!!

Life’s Little Luxuries!

aarohi — Sun, 18 Sep 2011 15:47:19 +0000

Thank you Siddharath Baruah of Lx- World for this wonderful write up.

You can click here to read the entire article which features my work along with that of Play Clan.

In their own words Lx-World.com brings you Life’s Little Luxuries!
It offers its customers a 360-degree experience of Luxury through its different sections: And my work got featured in Lx-Report this month

Lx-World.com is an online media and e-commerce portal dedicated to serving the exponentially growing segment of consumers of luxury products and services in emerging markets. It plans to become the destination of choice of these emerging Internet savvy customers of Luxury. And is available to it’s customers in English and Mandarin with Spanish and Bahasa versions scheduled for launch soon.

What*s up Bangalore?

aarohi — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 01:08:53 +0000

I would like to thank the team at ‘What*s up Banglore’ for featuring my work, always a pleasure.

Update: Gandhi vs. Gandhian kettle goes to team Anna in Delhi

aarohi — Thu, 25 Aug 2011 16:57:42 +0000

How cool is that?!!

Kehte hain- Daane daane par likha hain khaane wale ka naam. ( It is said- Every morsel has the name of the person who is going to eat it, inscribed on it).
My husband now says- Har ketli par likha hain paane wale ka naam. ( Every kettle already has a patron somewhere in this world).

Oh! and both the kettle and I made it to the pages of Deccan Chronicle on 21st Aug 2011.

I started this kettle on Thursday, it was ready by Friday, got lacquered Saturday morning and went to Freedom park Saturday afternoon. And on Sunday it was with Anna!!

Truth be told it was not made for him. It was a concept that I had been toying with for quite a while. And using Sonia Gandhi’s image was also only to be able to better depict the word play of ‘Gandhi vs. Gandhian’ in todays context. I want to say here, that Sonia Gandhi came to my exhibition in 1994 at the Triveni Kala Sangam in Delhi. She was extremely courteous, encouraging and actually a pleasure to interact with. And I can not fault her on anything as the person who met me that day. I quite liked her in fact. I still do. I am amazed at how far she has reached. And in that capacity alone, if nothing else, she will feature in my work again.

But, I also have to say- I don’t entirely agree with her politics either.

Here are two videos of my kettle being introduced at Freedom Park here in Bangalore on 20th Aug 2011 and one of me speaking to the crowd. I understand that given the nature of imagery on the kettle, it was not carried on to the dais at the Ramlila grounds in Delhi. It was in fact accepted by Team Anna and now sits in their office.

Gandhi vs.Gandhian

aarohi — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 19:10:32 +0000

Today my country is divided and yet, today it stands together, with voices raised that are demanding to be heard.

We are all fired up with one burning issue- the fate of the Jan LokPal Bill.

With opinions and counter opinions.. With allegations and counter allegations.. With supercilious and sanctimonious statements..

The emotional blackmail of an indefinite fast by Anna Hazare, a government that can’t seem to make up it’s mind, an opposition that is milking the situation for all its worth… and yet there is HOPE.

As my friend Ayush Gupta says-

” Lokpal is a scary idea but something’s gotta give. The governance structure: legislative, administrative and executive seem so rotten that its difficult to see how a change could come from within. So, anything is better than the wretched and stagnant status quo. Hope seemed to have died and anything that ignites that hope deserves to be nurtured, perhaps with caution, but not with indifference.”

So here is the first of a new series. I decided to put my money where my mouth is. They are not pretty kettles anymore and they are not limited to my life anymore. They, hopefully, will make you pause for a moment and think, regardless of which side of the fence you sit on.. or indeed whether you sit on the fence itself.

For information on the JanLok Pal Bill -http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jan_Lokpal_Bill

Ufffff, he quit his job!!

aarohi — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 16:24:50 +0000

Mr. Tom, that is!

So on Aug 5th, 2009. I get an email from one Mr.Tom who works in the Visual Team at The Future Laboratory.

This is what he had to say-

“I am contacting you from The Future Laboratory, a leading trends and insights consultancy. We are interested in featuring some of your designs in a report we are writing studying global trends. The Future Laboratory is a well-respected trend forecasting company which produces several industry related publications: THE magazine, Viewpoint magazine, LS:N and quarterly futures books focusing in on the future of specific industries such as food, luxury and retail. I have attached some additional information about Viewpoint magazine, and our website LS:N Global. I am wondering if you could send us a small selection of high res images of your work (300 dpi) please including your Chequered Past Kettle……”

So as you can imagine, I scrambled and did the needful and promptly forgot about it!!

Yeah…I know, daft of me to forget. But…

Now, turns out that Mr. Tom has moved to greener pastures and the company takes out multiple reports every month/year. So they have to trawl through all that data to find my report. And the task is harder as they don’t know what keywords it’s referenced under.

So I can’t actually post the report or even a picture from it just yet….but I can share this little nugget of news with you

Update- Oh! and as I just found out…some of their reports are licensed at about 2500 pounds each !! So I don’t think they will allow me to post the report after all !!!!!!