I met Mitalee Joshi for the first time at Pune Biennale in January 2017 and was not just entranced by the installation she was setting up, but inspired too. Since then I have been following Studio 7’s work, and over the last weekend was fortunate to be able to attend a workshop with them. I’ve always wanted to learn mosaic-making and was thrilled to have this opportunity. The workshop was well conducted in a lovely environment with all material provided – and chai and thoughtful snacky meals served too. With the notes circulated after the workshop, I found it an excellent overview and am happy to have taken home the basics of the craft and can’t wait to start using what I learnt.
The theme of this mosaic workshop was ‘Balinese mask’, and we were provided with boards cut into the shape of a Balinese mask on which to fill in our mosaics. However, I could not resist using a theme not necessarily native to Bali, something that continuously informs my work: “who I really am and who you see me as” or “the real me” or “in case you haven’t noticed my artistic temperament, take a closer look, please”. I won’t say I’m happy with my work, which looks like a school craft project, but I’m so very happy to have learnt the basics of mosaic.
