Summer Artist Residency
June - August, 2013
The Event
Saturday August 24, 2013
Bollywood Monster Mashup Festival
Saturday August 24,
1 - 11pm
Celebration Square, Mississauga (Click here for a map)
On Saturday August 24th from 1pm to 11pm, the artists presented ByOb, which stands for “Bring Your Own Bollywood” at the third annual Bollywood Monster Mashup Festival at Celebration Square in downtown Mississauga.
There was a photo studio set-up inside a tent at the festival where participants had their photos taken and superimposed onto original Bollywood posters in real time. Participants were given minimal props and costumes, and asked to mimic the poses and expressions of the actors in the original posters. The photos are viewable at http://byobollywood.com.
The event is FREE and open to the public.
For more information on the ByOb project, please visit:
http://byobollywood.com
For more information on Bollywood Monster Mashup Festival, please visit: http://www.bollywoodmonstermashup.com
This summer, the Blackwood’s public programming centers around a residency by local artists Tazeen Qayyum and Faisal Anwar which will culminate in a public event on Saturday August 24th. In preparation for this event, Qayyum and Anwar are the Blackwood’s Artists-in-Residence from June to August 2013 to utilize the spaces and resources of the Blackwood towards the production of their contribution to this event, while simultaneously working with and mentoring two Work-Study students hired to assist them.
On Saturday August 24th from 1pm to 11pm, the artists will present ByOb, which stands for “Bring Your Own Bollywood” at the third annual Bollywood Monster Mashup Festival at Celebration Square in downtown Mississauga. ByOb brings a visual art component to this one-day event by setting up a photo studio in a tent and inviting the public to have their photo taken, recreating famous Bollywood movie posters. The artists will work with the participants in how they are dressed and which props will be used for the shoot. The experience is a playful one where the public can momentarily mimic an icon of Indian Cinema. Once the image is taken, the artists will use their digital composition skills to create playful restagings of the iconic Bollywood posters that are being referenced.
This temporary access to and reversal of movie stardom and celebrity culture enables a reading of mass media images from the side of having participated or witnessed the various stages of image-production. The veil of image fabrication, and particularly the endless fabulations that are rendered possible with inventive stagings of tableaux vivants followed by photo(shop)montage techniques, will hopefully generate a better understanding of the myth-making power of images. Bollywood is a distinctive force in the creation of myths and images—it is, after all, a secular and spectacular manifestation of the syncretic. In other words, its amalgamating powers are writ large on the global cultural landscape. Embedded in Bollywood's hyper-plastic copying prowess, is an omnivorous palette that functions like a formidable machine where references reverberate, tropes transform, themes revolve, cultures mix, and styles collide. In short, mashups in action—we are bringing our own, are you bringing yours?
Visit the ByOb project website for more information: http://byobollywood.com
Faisal Anwar is a digital media artist living in Toronto/Pakistan with diverse backgrounds in theater, film, media, interactive art and graphic design. He is the founder and director of an interactive art and design studio called DigitalDip and an inter-arts platform called NewKulture Art Space. Anwar’s art practice explores sociopolitical spaces, which intrigues the mind and emotion by multiple layers of participatory experiences. His projects often bring together art, culture and technology in an odd configuration to explore perceptions towards architectural space, surveillance and social interactivity in modern urban cultures. He has shown and performed nationally and internationally. Anwar is a 2004 graduate of the Canadian Film Centre's Habitat-LAB Interactive Arts and Entertainment Program and did his Bachelor in graphic design from the National College of Arts Pakistan in 1996. He is one of the pioneers of The Puppeteers theatre group in Pakistan and worked on many performances addressing social awareness in Pakistan. Faisal volunteered on the Programming Committee of SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Centre) (06 – 07) and taught courses in 'Interactive Design' at Centennial College, Toronto. Anwar has directed six short films and videos which were part of various festivals in Canada and abroad, such as 'Monitor 3 South Asian Film and Video' presented by SAVAC Toronto, 'Pollution' presented by INTERart, Romania, aluCine Toronto Latin Festival, shortsnonstop.com and at TPW Gallery Toronto. His new film 'City Revenge', was screened at the Toronto Urban Film Festival.
Tazeen Qayyum is a contemporary miniature painter who received her BFA in Visual Arts from the National College of Arts Lahore, Pakistan in 1996. Her work has been shown internationally in both solo and group exhibitions, some of which include 'The Veiled' at the Textile Museum of Canada, 'The Rising Tide: New Directions in Art from Pakistan 1990 -2010', Mohatta Palace Museum, Pakistan, ‘Urban Myths & Modern Fables’, University of Sydney, Australia and UTSC, Toronto, ‘A Thousand and One Days: The Art of Pakistani Women Miniaturists’ at the Academy of Art, Honolulu, Hawaii, ‘JAALA Exhibition' at the Tokyo Metropolitan Museum, Japan, ‘Homecoming’, at the National Gallery of Pakistan and 'CodeLive Metro' at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics. Her work has received several critical reviews including in The New York Times (2009) and The Globe and Mail (2011). She has created several performance based artwork including a collaborative multidisciplinary project 'Double Date' (2006-07) produced by SAVAC (South Asian Visual Arts Center), Toronto and AKA Gallery, Saskatoon, Canada and 'A Feast in Exile' (2009) produced by VASL Artists' Collective, Karachi. Qayyum's work was included in the 10th Asian Biennale, Dhaka, Bangladesh (2002), 2nd Painting Biennale, Tehran, Iran (2002) and has been featured at the Sotheby's and Christie's South Asian Modern & Contemporary Art auction in New York (2008-9). Qayyum was awarded a UNESCO bursary (2000) to work and exhibit in Vienna.
In partnership with Bollywood Monster Mashup Festival and generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts. The artists and the gallery would also like to acknowledge the assistance of our summer Work-Study students Matthew Morales and Laurel Whalen.
