Gopala
Medium: Textile
Famous story of Brahma watching the maya of Krishna in deep fascination, as Krishna changed from cow to gopi to Krishna and then into multiple forms of cows, gopis and Krishnas is known to many. The lesson is that we must fill ourselves with the milk of the divine cows. Brahma understood that the essence was knowledge, truth and unlimited bliss. The metaphors whorl within their multiple forms giving us an ineffable reality of Krishna consciousness.
Symbolic aspect associated to story for my artist being is much deeper …. Cows fill us with a sense of calm, a soothing tranquil fervor as we drink of the power of bhakti and its many manifestations. It is cosmic fire that produces cows, they feed on grass and their milk is supposed to feed our consciousness. The cow that feeds on grass and produces milk is the embodiment of origin, refinement, immortality and migration of consciousness.
Artist : J Hariyani
Medium : Textile
Size : 40” x 36”
Textile Interpretation : Platypus Design Studio
Images of artist and team in Textile Studio
Note By Artist: J Hariyani
I see our ecosphere as big interconnected web. Things unfold as we pass thru passage of time. Being an Architect and Urban Planner; I have fun working with infinite dimensions.
Often Architects try to connect art with architecture, architecture with music so and so forth and we hear quotes such as….
"Architecture is art, nothing else" ….
“Architecture is the greatest of the arts” …
“Architecture at its best becomes works of art that we can move through and live in” …
To me it is about life. It is about interaction of “jivas” and “natural & built forms”. These interactions create built environment and built experiences. It is about how built environment can make a difference for the progress in individual’s life and for the society at large. The more you practice this phenomenon it grows on you and becomes your nature. At the core what matters is Values you believe in and how it guides “Design” & “Design Process”. It takes you to journey of discovering something, learning something new. It brings joy of thinking, sketching, communicating, making, creating and recreating.
Practicing across the globe and working with many cultures, new materials and new technologies implanted multi-disciplinary approach in me. It has influenced me and how I design and create … be it Architecture or Art. It is impossible for one to be an expert in all aspects. One cannot master every material or every technology and that is where collaboration and collaborative creation comes to play. This is what we do day in and day out while practicing Architecture or Urban scale projects. While travelling and designing projects often I have ideas that are not directly applied on given project, but it sure provides me new avenue to explore them further as fun side projects that leads to my journey as an Artist as well. It takes me to different expeditions … sometimes it is journey of digital sketching using new app and tab, other times it takes me on tour of designing textiles or leads to creating ceramic art and titanium art and so and so forth.
Last year while visiting Nathdwara and Haridwar with family I ran into few art books on miniature paintings. The paintings that excited me most were on life of Lord Krishna and various forms of landscaped environments. Similarly, while on banks of Ganges; an evening Aarti and energy of lights energized me. These left impressions in me that lead to an idea of making digital paintings on Lord Krishna, urban vs rural landscapes and art on energy of Aarti and more. I started experimentation on new app on tablet which resulted in unique style. The creation of about 20+ digital paintings were a consequence of journey to Nathdwara, Haridwar followed by journey of app + tablet. Later interaction with Artist Prakash Vani and his Team of Platypus Lab textile weavers inspired me to work with them to transform my digital arts and canvases into textile and other mediums.