Works been on the lighter side for the past two weeks now and i keep knocking my head against the wall on what a perfect time it would have been to take a quick break away from this heat … For some reason, i am smitten by the thought of visiting Jakarta.. hmm i wonder why ?

Muse went to an exhibition recently that showcased Kartika Affandi’s work. I had never heard of Affandi before, but excited by her enthusiasm, i did my own bit of research and found this piece ( the only one on the web )

From the very little that i have seen of Affandi’s work, stylistic parallels to Van Gogh are apparent. The use of colors, signature wavy lines and rhythm are definitely characteristic of Expressionism albeit verging on delightful abstraction at times. Her technique of applying paint directly to her hand or canvas has been referred to as unusual… but am not sure i agree with that as its not too uncommon for an artist to attempt and break down the seperation between himself/herself and the medium.

I thought it was quite interesting that the subjects of her paintings has always been people of other national or ethnic group than her own Javanese one. I’ve been on the look out for “Woman from Kalimantan” ,”Hindu Priest” & “Opium Smoker” but alas nothing on the web. . From the very little that muse has told me about one of her paintings, i would guess that she seems to enjoy the idea of portraying the human experience of a struggle from the ‘other’ side seldom heard.. almost becoming a voice of reason for some communities or groups.

hmmm… i wonder if there are artists here in dubai who would dare to take on such a gutsy task of becoming the artisitc voice of reason… maybe there are ’secret dubai canvases’ hiding in this desert… ? Ofcourse i can see how embedding the messages under layers of imagery becomes imperative.. to the point it becomes undecipherable … but its still worth the shot … what say !?

For those in touch with the Creative Glitz here in Dubai, Tonic’s win of the Creative Lion is old news.. but thought i should still put it up here, because Raffray makes some super-duper excellent points. Personally, i find the creative on this ad to be quite ho-hum by international standards ( sorry Vince ), but i credit Raffray and his team immensely for being able to jump ‘client service’ and ‘client’ hurdles to get this piece out there. All the hoo-haa may seem quite unecessary to many … but i assure you winning a never ending battle with client service and clients deserves this and much more.

Tonic Communications has won the Golden Lion for the it’s advertisement for Sony Middle East called ‘Paperclip’. It is the first time in the 52-year history of the Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival that a Gold Lion is awarded to a Middle East Agency. Tonic Communications won Gold in the Press category.
Click to read what CD Vincent Raffray has to say about his Creative Lion win (impt bits highlighted)

The natural inclination of humans is to go with the group…. but us creatives are born with the need to abandon reason and approval and make sure that every ‘creature of habit’ out there keeps twitching for the rest of their natural existance ;P

Raymond Loewy had coined term MAYA (Most Advanced Yet Acceptable Solution) and said that creative professionals are experts at MAYA. UAE so far has been operating on what i call MASA (Most Advanced Yet Standard Solution) … so cheeers for Vincent for being radical but more so for getting accepted Hoorah !

Was reading Curry’s latest post on ‘the bubble’ this morning and its something that ive been pondering about too.

I only realized that the bubble was taking over AGAIN when the symptoms became more apparent – the ever so familiar nausea accompanied with an odd sense of superficial comfort that makes one utter the deceptive words ‘aah! lifes good’. The doctor said it was merely a case of a ‘common bubble condition’ … it would pass.

Am i losing some of you ?? well .. most expats like Curry, Champagne, Adnan, Atheeqe and myself who have been born and bred in this city and quite inadvertently lived here for most of our lives, would know what im blogging about .. i guess… i hope. For the rest of y’all let me demystify the chatter behind ‘the bubble condition’

UAE tends to be just one of those blissfull countires where kids are raised, pampered and protected from the harsh lessons that life generally teaches kids growing up elsewhere. Mercs and Beems are the second car on the road and one in every five cars around has a millionare in it (a useless but true fact, based on recent studies). So you see, its not peculiar for one to grow up thinking that such is normality… or grow up believing that only wealth defines success. Ironically, in the bubble, one grows up but never does grow up at all.

Usually, there comes an epipheneous moment for some where the existence of this matrix becomes clear and setting forth towards lands far and beyond ‘in search of the ring’ becomes imperative. ‘Pop’ goes the bubble and ‘Tap’ go the heels.

In time however, few return to be consumed again, some return to bid adieu and others never look back. Life as we know it, is usually never the same for those who return. They begin to suffer from momentary bursts of soul searching, day dreaming and mood swings, that are accompanied by reminiscing conversations that begin with ‘back in …. ‘ and end with a *sigh*

In some very extreme cases of denial, alternative stories of a life that ‘could be/used to be’ are carefully constructed to compensate for the monotony and routineness of life within the bubble. For instance, i am now almost convinced that i actually lived in Madrid for a fair bit of time. I was tall and hot and erm…. a vagabond of some sort who carried along the speedy spirit of ‘Gonzales’ and poetic words of ‘Neruda’… and oooh ooh .. i could also play a mean ‘Bamboleo’ and ‘Baila’

and then the bubble happened again ;( and i became a Dubai boy.
…

sympathy – most welcome ;P

Geeez Louise! yesterday was just one of them days when Murphy decided to shower us with tubs full of love and affection. Am not going to go into the trivial details … but i simply have to vent and so I SHALL !!

So ‘the company’ has a new gm and it so happens that he walks into the middle of a summer campaign and kudos to him .. cuz he actually set more than a few things into place .. anyway…

deliverables:
22 simple visuals
designed + printed + mounted by Wednesday 8:00am for presentation to ‘the clients’

series of screwups:
06:30 pm – Printer runs out of magenta toner
07:00 pm – Blackout and all systems down at the Zone
08:30 pm – Realize that the printer shops close at 10:00pm
09:15 pm – A dangerous Montoya impersonation on a little vw begins
09:30 pm – Diversions on the road that takes me off the map and the road
09:45 pm – Out of gas upon reaching the shop
10:00 pm – Printer bribed to stay and work beyond closing time
10:30 pm – Printer screw up mounting and reprints follow
11:45 pm – No parking available at home
12:30 pm – Baked Beans for dinner

arrrggghhhhh !!!

its 9:45 am the next morning – the client service have gone for presentation …and whilst i sit and write this post.. i realize that all my recent posts have been so godamn bimboesque and hollow. Where have i lost the will to write about the stuff i really want to write about ?? such as design and pretentious dubaisms….

i can actually feel the familiar ‘dubai bubble’ growing around me now …
somebody please give me a hairclip – a pencil – a knife … anything …. aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa !

…

i’ll be ok .. soon .. i think

Gosh! . can you believe it? all that spam in just a little less than three months!
but then again .. all of these 6815 emails cant be spam … could it !?? i must be over reacting ! .. lets see…

… Viagra and Cialis ads – *delete*delete*

… porn spam – *delete*delete*

… letters from Nairobi businessmen, eager to send me 21 million dollars – *delete*delete*

… email from Katie – Hi Raj, how are you ? – hmm ??? *click* – “Dear Raj, Last night was amazing .. never thought id meet a person like you. The drive down the Ocean Road was so romantic and i am sure that you would love to meet cindy and the rest of the girls” – ARRRGGHH .. *delete*delete*delete*

… letters from the wife of the late Arafat requesting me to withdraw cash from her husbands swiss account because we alleedly share the same last name – hmm !! Amritraj Arafat !? .. dont think so !! *delete*delete*delete*

… CV of a Paki Webdesigner looking for a job in my ‘hightly reputed yet non existant multinational firm’ ( i was curious to check out his cv and so i briefly skimmed through it to find that under ‘interests’ he had listed ‘Internet usage along with email and faxing’ ) – rrright ! … *delete*delete*delete* and oh miss. muse found him cute !!! ARRGH ! *delete*delete*delete*

OK THATS IT .. i give up !! *select all 6815 emails and DELETE*

Ok so ‘the company’ wanted a concept to market their ad spaces all over sharjah freezone and they wanted it ‘fasssst’ (as they do) …. put together a quick fruit salad of an idea.

Considering the fact that the emirate of Sharjah is quite conservative and pro islamic, dont think the authorities have spotted it yet.. or maybe .. they think we are just being fruity ;P

A little tongue in cheek never hurt anybody… innit ?