“ArtWallah is an annual festival of South Asian arts. Held in early summer of each year, the four-day Los Angeles-based event presents artists from around the world, showcasing their expressions of the South Asian diasporic experience through film, literature, spoken word, music, dance, theater, and visual arts. The festival is made possible by the combined efforts of the Indo-American Cultural Center (IACC) and the South Asian Artists' Collective, the dedication of numerous volunteers, and the generosity of supporting donors and sponsors. ArtWallah's mission is to serve as a platform of expression and a channel of communication between South Asian artists and their communities.”

The dates are July 8th through 11th at the Barnsdall Gallery Theatre and Art Park in Hollywood, California. I have always wanted to submit my work but the deadlines have escaped me. This year was no different. While the organization is not accepting any more submissions, I'll try and do my best so that next year I won't be asleep at the wheel.

The New York Times reports that Vishakha N. Desai will take over as President of The Asia Society, “the first woman and the first Asian-American to head the organization.”

Ms. Desai's appointment continues this organization's evolution from an elite club of Foreign Service hands — devotees of Asian culture, most of them white and male — to a center with a broad cultural and educational purpose covering more than 30 countries, with offices in Washington, Houston, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Hong Kong, Manila, Shanghai and Melbourne, Australia.

May we expect to see more art exhibits from South Asia?

The New York Times today, via Agence France Presse reported this:

DHARMSALA, India, Feb. 11 — Indian police beat back a group of 80 Tibetans Wednesday as they started a monthlong march through India to commemorate the day in 1959 when Chinese troops broke up demonstrations in Lhasa set off by rumors about risks to the Dalai Lama.

The police failed to stop the march when it set off from Macleodganj, where the Dalai Lama lives, but beat back the group with sticks after they continued two miles to Dharmsala.

The march, which organizers said would restart Thursday, is due to culminate in New Delhi on March 10.

Beating back a peaceful march. Ironic ain't it in the land of Mahatma Gandhi?

Speaking of Tibet, yesterday I came across The Tibetan Photo Project.

All images are Copyright 2003, Joe Mickey and the Tibetan Photo Project and may not be published without permission.

Photographer and coordinator of the project, Joe Mickey writes:

I have been a photographer for over 30 years and I immediately began to package up point-and-shoot cameras and added the basics rules of good photography to my letters. From Jam Yang Norbu I learned that the camera was a new concept for Tibetans dedicated to rebuilding and preserving their culture.

The first roll of photos was processed in India and I received a set of prints. From the start, Jam Yang Norbu and his friends paid great attention to the basic lessons in photography and produced a series of well-lit but posed images.

On the receiving end, this was still, nothing less than a magic view into another world. More importantly, the view was not being provided by an outsider looking in through a lens and preconceived notions. I was being given the vantage point from the inside.

I immediately sent a small flood of cameras and film and in correspondence we discussed how photography could be used as a tool in their efforts to preserve Tibetan culture if he could record his friends living that culture on film. Again, the monks have paid very good attention and I have been given the gift of rare glimpses into the lives of some of the 2,500 monks of the Drepung Monastery.

What has been revealed in the photos and the letters is a dedicated group of men living and struggling and very often laughing through lives that have very few needs or desires. They work with complete dedication to preserve the best of Tibetan culture.

As the Image Editor of InTheFray.com, I have to tell you about a wonderful black & white photo essay that has just been published. Jennifer Warren, a photographer and Tara Plochocki, Program Coordinator and Assistant Professor for Emory University's Tibetan Studies Program in Dharamsala, India put together a photo essay shot by exiled Tibetans. The 9-10-3 project, as it is called give us a somewhat stark look at a people robbed of their land but not their identity.

From the introduction to the project:

“The stains and scars of the past are covered up by brightly colored prayer flags, and relegated to pieces of literature that the tourists pick up, skim, and shake their head in disbelief upon completion. There are a number of places where the memories ooze out in a somewhat unmarketable way, but for the most part, Dharamsala triumphantly celebrates the Tibetan culture while swaddling the dehumanizing memories in the folds of their robes and tucks of their chubas.”

Via Nick Denton

The art of of the written and spoken language. Strung together with letters to make words that eventually make sentences. Much like this post. But check this out:

“Acdrnig to a rscheearch at an Elingsh uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoetnt tihng is taht the frist and lsat ltteer is in the rghit pclae. The rset can be a toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae we do not raed ervey lteter by it slef but the wrod as a wlohe.”

Words are prescriptions to our minds. Our brains seem to very rapidly create images out of words. Are images, then, the ephemeral bonding agent between people? Language and communication through pictures and symbols have been with us for a very long time. From cave paintings to the canvasses at the Met, are images universally understood? Is there some biological explanation for all of this? Can we conclude that images are in fact a better way to communicate? {grin}

It's Sunday morning. I am on my second cuppa tea. I flip through the newspaper to the funnies. There is the usual fare – Garfield, Doonesbury, Peanuts. Deep down, I know something is missing. How often do you see a South Asian comic strip?

Mahoot Media is here to fill that great void I know we all feel. Badmash.org, Mahoot's venture in cartooning, is clearly unique. It is a no frills web site that will bring a chuckle to you and your friends. Check it out and sign up on that site to receive the strip in your mail box. Your Sunday's won't be the same. Chai anyone?