Apparently there has been a rather strange story doing the email/sms rounds amongst the islamic community of the region (more specifically the American University of Sharjah), about a rather feisty muslim girl who miraculaously turned into a rat after flinging the Holy Quran to the ground.

I chanced upon the story in the Leopard – The Official Student Newspaper of the American University of Sharjah

Click on the image to read the article

Can you believe that ? I bet Patricia Picinini had no idea that her piece which was initially intended to be pose thoughts about evolution would end up becoming the centre of much hoohaa in the middle east !

I remember this one Matt showed us at AIM and from the huge banner of ‘The Young Family’ that was hung up on Lonsdale Street, Melbourne.

I’m not even going to begin with the ‘how stupid i think it is’ for someone to have taken her work and then use it to hoax up such a ridiculous story to serve as means to meet their own misunderstood religious ends. Now, I personally have not seen the images and videos that are currently on circulation here but am led to believe that images of her silicone rubber sculpture were incorporated in a video with verses of the holy quran playing over it.. to support the story as evidence.

Not surprisingly, the site that hosted this material is temporarily unavailable because the set bandwidth limit was exceeded. However, forums such as ‘Islamic Broadcasting Network’ attracted umpteen enquiries into the matter:

Name: javeria ahmad
Location: Manchester UK
Message: salamz Please can you email me more information on the girl that became a monkey/kangero what state is she in now and what are they doing to treat her? can she talk? how is her family taking it? did the Quran actually fall on the floor? is there an actual website with her pictures of what she looked like before the incedent?

Name: uzma
Location: birmingham
Message: i want to see the girl who turned into a monkey

Name: Nadeem Raza
Location: London
Message: Please send me pictures of that girl who became a animal like a kangero. I am waiting for ur reply. Thanks

This by far is my favorite,

Name: love_ahlulbayt
Location: deaborn
Message: Salam. ive been hearing a lot about the girl turned in the monkey actually, and , it would be great if someone could show everyone here apic of this girl. this is a story that truly shows that Islam is the right religion, and Imam Mahdi(3ajallah ta3ala faraju is coming soon). soo please if n e one knows n e websites to paste them here. Ma2joreen and salam.

jeeez!

****update****

Matt said:

I have been following the hoax involving Patricia’s work. The way she discovered something was strange when the hits on her site went out of control and they were mainly coming from the Middle East when she looked at things further.

I remember one of her installations at the Melbourne Zoo involving her siren mole creatures being mistaken for ‘real’ animals by children as they were set up cleverly in the zoo enclosure with low lighting etc. Her intention, however has never been to trick – I remember her saying that alot.

Its still bugging me … she waltzed right into the studio and said;

“The client wants it to look MODERN”

She said it with such ease.. like that was it and it was as simple and definite as that.
For her, it wasn’t anything more than playing messenger girl and telling an art director exactly what the client had said in those very exact words. But what exactly did M O D E R N mean?????? – The messenger didn’t know, the artist was confused and perhaps the client had no clue either! Perhaps, he used the word ‘modern’ lightly with respect to something HE had never seen before? Perhaps, he referred to minimalism? Perhaps he referred to an image of a dead rabbit?

ARRRGH!!! WHO WAS TO KNOW??

I asked the always-wise dictionary.com and it returned with:

#1. Relating to or using ideas/techniques that have only been recently developed or are still considered experimental
#2. Relating to or belonging to the present period in history

HUH???? Big help that was. Question still remains as to how these definitions would translate to design in an era where multiple styles exist and the term experimental is popularly an excuse to ‘art before thought’

No! am not in anyway trying to sound like an intellectual here or trying to make any groundbreaking point of any sort whatsoever. Instead, all I am trying to do is present the intense dilemma of the 21st Century artist who is forever stuck in a constant state of conflict and disorder. He has a world of art to explore, a storehouse of hundreds and hundreds of years of art at his command, not to mention the numerous ‘how-to-manuals’ of ancestral artists …….. BUT!! The problem does not lie in the choice of style. It lies in he absence of a clear-cut goal.

Over the years, since the impressionist rebellion of the Renaissance resulting from the entrenched authority of the French Academy, our artsy ancestors sadly fell victim to a governing school of thought that clearly demarcated art and science. Frustration amongst artists led to social exile and the eventual death of art (art as we knew it then). The picture plane traced its steps back further and further and further ….. and further to a point where it became a barren shell, decorative patterns and shapes emerged. The artist’s emotional power and insight in human affairs got lost to conveying personal moments of excitation and despair. Personally, I am of the opinion that ‘this’ was the beginning where creation of art started becoming subjective and for ‘the self’. After all, what were they to do than make art for themselves?

A crack in the system became a gaping hole and today it has come to a point where we i.e. the 21st Century artist instinctively reject science, renounce it as a tool and practice free of any discipline and rules. We do all this and hide behind ‘CREATIVE LICENCE’. Our school of thought teaches us to disregard science and its role in art:

After all ‘How can Science – a discipline so precise, logical, intellectual and mechanical compare with Art? After all, Art is pure! Feelings are not precise, emotions are not mechanical and inspiration is not logical. SCIENCE AND ART DO NOT MIX!

The very canon of art i.e. the human form (that can probably be still considered as the ideal bridge between art and science) has lost its form too. Leaving behind the much-recognized form, it has taken on numerous diverse forms ranging from biomorphic depictions of two stones placed next to one another to others that are kineomorphic, mechanomorphic and what not ..

The point??

The point is… with so many varied interpretations of a human body, we have essentially reduced 20,000 years or so.. of human anatomy research to an esoteric symbol. Popular art has officially rendered the ‘anatomical man’ dead. I shouldn’t really be complaining because its not that I understand human anatomy perfectly either… and that’s great for me because it allows me to get away with murder.

Anyhoo… getting back to my point re: the definition of ‘Modern’ –

The extreme personalization of the art has now given non-artists the false responsibility to take it upon themselves to use words such as style, taste, feeling, intuition, inspiration, perception, creativity and MODERN irresponsibly in ways that are non-defined. This leaves artists like myself perplexed and confused and lost.

Thucydides had said, “When common everyday words lose their definitions and meanings, there is a general crisis in a given field”

Well!! I would guess we are in crisis then.. because I still don’t know what the brief means when it says ‘the client wants a MODERN design’

Art terminology has lost its power to convey sense, idea or meaning or art expression. It has become a chaotic wasteland, a lost continent of culture – a continent where art in its entirety is reduced to something amateurish.

The looming questions still hang about like fog…
* Do we make an attempt to reclaim back what we have lost?
* Should we walk back old roads, put down our egos and embrace science once more?
* Will that be easy? Will science accept art?
* Is another manifesto in the writing?
* Will we ever be able to answer the question ‘What is Art?’

Sigh… i have noo idea..

Thats my little tribute to ‘understanding human anatomy’ … wanted to turn it into an entry for illustration friday last week for the word ‘escape’ .. but couldnt make it on time

People! i know its one big ass post … but if youve read it and left a comment with your opinion, you win double brownie points and an all expense paid coffee trip to Costas ! ( o cmon …. its not that repelling a thought !! )

Arrrrghh !! the next time i get a ‘detailed’ brief that says ‘the design has to be modern and include points as discussed ‘ – i am literally going to poke myself in the eye. I dont get it !!!

I just dont get how every design brief conveniently highlights Priority as HIGH and Quality as BEST every single time ! Moreover, why are those fields even filled when there is only one job in the studio !? I dont get it !!!

Why is there zer0 budget for every job ! I dont get it !!!

I DONT GET IT !! some kinda voodoo esotericism of the ad business here… i suppose ?
argh thooie !

Finally got all those pics off my phone onto the computer thanks to Derrick’s toothbleu!

Nothing more than random photographs that share the aesthetics of a 5yr olds scrap book but the reason why these are up here as a tribute to the numerous photos that are posted daily from this part of the world about … hmm… ‘nothing’ ..

Do feel free to leave comments in english that read in arabic .. and oh dont forget to use words that have a lot of numbers in them!

la 3yoonak habibee’s

In an ideal world,
Beauty is only skin deep
Love is blind
Beauty loves the beast unconditionally
.. and the last page always says ” happily ever after ”

In reality,
Beauty is the skin
Love chooses to see everything
The beast is lonely
.. and the last page always says “suck it in and deal with it”

the sooner we accomodate reality, the better ??

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License.

option click
2005
illustration for illustrationfriday conceptualized and designed by Amritraj Gupta

Amritraj Gupta

Amritraj Gupta

–>

Back with another Illustration Friday Post. This weeks word is Roots.

I had a hard time with this one because i was initially quite admant to stay away from depicting roots visually. I wanted to play with the idea of implying ‘roots’ with something unrelated. But things like the words ‘deep rooted relationships’, RituParno Ghosh’s film ‘Raincoat’, a few thoughts that Muse had shared and a dream that followed gave me this image.

I guess, i found the idea of destiny and relationships quite interesting. The idea that some relationships become so deep rooted that no matter how hard you try to run away from them, life and fate somehow brings them around again under different circumstances.

So this was a ‘must post’. I know this image has been doing the email rounds .. but i just cant help and laugh myself silly everytime i look at it.

Spaceman:“hey!! hows it going ?? i thought you moved to the planet on the other side of the galaxy”
Chaiwalla: ” Naahi Sahib ! I am still here … you come again .. i am still being here “

love it !

Staff creative-presentation in an hour ( at 8:30 )… and i still have no idea of what i’m going to present ! How typical of me. Anyway.. there are a few ads that i’ve really wanted to post up – the trouble has been finding a cohesive link between them to make them seem connected somehow.

This is what i put together, quite textbook and average …. but if you are mindnumbingly bored and thinking of playing a ’staring game’ with your pet pooch…. you are far better off reading this, cuz lets face it .. them mutts have truly mastered the art of motionless staring.

Im off… its 8:05 ( 25 minutes left )
company policy: Behold! thine shall sing the song of thou motherland, if cometh late .. eeeps!