OBO Project Exhibition

Project Our Bodies (Our) Opinions, lovingly called OBO, presents an art exhibition that aims to break issues that most people would call 'taboo' and look uncomfortable about. It isn't much, just a six-month journey that has worked towards creating a forum where youngsters discuss issues that they can't elsewhere. Workshops have been held where body perception, identity and sexuality have been discussed in ways that are amenable to youngsters today, which is a better way of saying that the average teenager's patience threshold was taken into account and humoured. Art was obviously the best way to go about it, and that is what happened. The results are not groundbreaking in anyway, they're subtly shocking in a nice way. From self-portraits with a twist to almost-out-of-body experiences, the OBO art experience yielded some results that screamed out for an exhibition to happen. Not only did the participants break barriers and stigmas and mindsets and boldly go where no project participants have gone before, they left behind a bunch of work that embodies what Project OBO is truly about - to understand one's body by isolating every stereotype associated with it.
The Project OBO art exhibition aims to provide a vibrant, fun look at social issues. There shall be no awareness pamphlets. There shall be no theorizing. There shall, however, be kids with paintbrushes and opinions. They shall attempt to map Issues of Concern with the help of photography, art and craft, aided by a generous dose of enthusiasm. Additionally, visitors to the exhibition shall be able to be a part of the OBO experience by getting to make their own artwork. It isn't about understanding or cognizance or a karmic connection, not really. The Project OBO art exhibition is about, for once, living through your body. About treating it as art. And, at the sake of sounding cheesy, creating art by it, for it, and of it. Further convictions (or lack of them) regarding the coolness of the enterprise shall be discussed on the spot. Hoping to see you there to share the energy.
Project OBO is supported by Rotary Club, Inner City, Calcutta and the Lattoo Fellowship, Sri Ratan Tata Trust, New Delhi

No Strings Attached: Mandolin and Guitar

And evening of bluegrass music with Diptanshu Roy on the mandolin and Sujoy Chakraborty on the guitar. 

'No Strings Attached' is not about individuals, or sky-high egos, or of pompous virtuosity. It is about improvisation and taking the music forward. It is about like-minded people getting together to exchange musical ideas and engage in musical conversation. They have a line-up that is fluid and many friends who share their lives and have been a part of their musical upbringing will no doubt join in the groove at a later date.

Soham Gupta: 3 Essays

Seagull Open House featured three photo essays by Calcutta-based social documentary photographer, Soham Gupta.

Lakoa Wingflow: Photographs and Graphic Art by Devika Arora

From the Artist's Statement:

Go down the rabbit hole and look through the looking glass; then look again!
Vibrant and abstract, this collection aims to be a visual fiesta for anyone who loves inner space and outer contact. From auto rickshaws to spiders on glass; lazy beach dogs to old roman monuments, these photographs try to expand the colour spectrum, one pixel at a time.

One Cup Music

Predominantly Carnatic classical roots, where the main compositions are derived from classical ‘krithis’ and South Indian folk. However the mixed influences come from North Indian percussion rhythms, and western guitar chord progressions. The result is a truly unique blend! The band members were:

Gouriprasad Nanda—Percussions

Srikanth Sugavanam—Violin

Baijayanta Roy—Guitar

'Crimson' and 'Azure': Two short films on sexuality by Rohit Kumar Dasgupta

Rohit Kumar Dasgupta studies English Literature at Jadavpur University, and dabbles in various art forms, from poetry to filmmaking. He has a wide range of interests, but what occupies most of his free expression—academic as well as artistic—is the issue of queerness and sexuality. His two films, ‘Crimson’ and ‘Azure’, are short fictional narratives that deal with the sexual identity and its complexities among contemporary urban youth. While ‘Crimson’ is the story of a young woman unable to come to terms with her beloved’s ambiguous sexual choice, ‘Azure’ narrates the story of two young men chancing upon love. The films rely heavily on music and poetry, as these form their stylistic backbone. Rohit’s films have been screened in various LGBT film festivals in India and Europe. The screening of the two films on this particular evening was followed by a scintillating discussion moderated by queer activist Sumita. It not only touched upon the details of filmmaking, but raised various voices on burning issues—from the decriminalization of homosexuality in India to the definition of queerness itself.

Open Mike: A Evening of Poetry

The second Seagull Open House was dedicated to poetry. It was an Open Mike session. Poets, from amateurs to semi-professionals, called in to register their names, and on the evening of 8 August 2009, the mike was theirs, one at a time. The participants included Kalyan Gupta, Arthur Cardozo, Rohit Kumar Dasgupta, Vaibhav Saria and Payel Banerjee. Inam Hussain Mallick read his poems to the accompaniment of a dexterously strummed guitar to round off the evening.