Be it Facebook that you are so hooked on to, the Ipod that you can’t seem to do without, or your digital camera, everything seems to be moving around things stored on a chip.
Twenty-four-year-old Shaxeb Shaikh has shattered art into pixels
Be it Facebook that you are so hooked on to, the Ipod that you can’t seem to do without, or your digital camera, everything seems to be moving around things stored on a chip. And when life is going so decidedly digital, can art be far behind?
For Shaxeb Shaikh, 24, art started moving in the digital direction the moment he used his computer to alter photographs. That’s when he realised that he had found the perfect canvas, one that was versatile and friendly, a far cry from the original white canvas that his father still uses. Surreal in thought, Shaxeb then used the medium to draw and paint, spending up to six months on some art works. The software: Adobe Photoshop.
Shaxeb’s computer enables him to change colours and shapes at the click of a mouse. “I create something and then alter and re-alter it to extend the painting’s shelf-life,” he says, admitting that it is easier to work with a computer because it allows an artist to improve creations inexpensively, without creating a painter’s mess. His work is an amalgamation of his various interests, including photography, technology, literature and music.
Shaxeb’s latest effort is Dispersed Diaries, a coffeetable book of poetry and visuals that interprets poetry into art and art into music. The themes are surreal and include infinity, consciousness and psychological interpretations of obscure feelings.
Asked to describe one of his creations, Shaxeb says. “It is a bot that can interact with the viewer. If rotated 180 degrees from its pivot, it becomes a vase with a futuristic stand. It is an amalgamation of the traditional and the modern in art, which, when combined, produce intelligent and aesthetic results.” His works may not have featured in city galleries, but Shaxeb has taken his art to Ohio and Dubai.
Though his art has been received well, Shaxeb hasn’t been as lucky as the Razas and the MF Hussains. The greenbacks aren’t exactly flowing his way. “It is a common misconception that art needs to be sold so that the artist is reimbursed. My stimulation to continue comes from the need to create positive beauty. All my work is pleasing to the viewer’s eye,” he says.
m_irani@dnaindia.net
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