To breathe. Open this window…  

All good windows open inside. And we get to know a bit of us, experiencing  through their passage.

I saw this work of Ruby Chishti on a New York gallery website. She catches your attention amongst the many things on the web, but that is not all. As you focus your mind on her work, you can sense how depth always comes in layers. Layers we transcend through every art experience.

This wearable sculpture uncovered many coverings -- of the body and mind.

Looking at the formidable structures, fortified against vagaries of time, I have often wondered, is it possible to keep the winds of change at bay? Is it possible not to be swayed by changes taking place all around and within? Yet, like the metal-like texture of this sculpture, we try our best to prevent change. To fortify ourselves.   

Pollens in my lungs

People born with delicate constitution, affected by the tiniest pollen in air whose bodies go through the suffering and misery of change with every cycle of change of weather, as though their bodies are part of the eco-system, know what it is like to be ‘sensitive’ to weather. To undergo change with every changing season, like a tree. The microcosms in their body, the tiny cells register these changes. They suffer for their openness to the vagaries of weather. All sensitivities are a result of openness and receptiveness. Some carry it in the body, some in the mind. Great art is like that pollen, it grows on others. Art lovers often received such pollens, and they have grown like trees within.

Shut yourself and you are safe and secure in your perceived permanence. I often wonder looking at well- sculpted, six app bodies, fortified against the winds of ill health and change, how does it feel never even to sneeze when springs sets in or autumn blows away dead leaves. Having such bodies is fine, but to have fortified indoctrinated minds that never allow any wind to blow through! To remain framed in the safe corridors of cultural traditions. To secure minds without their in-built windows to bring in fresh influence!  

A Chinese saying goes like this, if you open the windows, flies may also come in. But to keep flies away, you also shut away fresh air.

The other sculpture of Chishti has these water taps. This work fascinates me even further. It reminds me of the first anthology of Rumi I’d read.

Though I read Rumi in English, I knew it had come through long, circuitous passages to become comprehensible to me, like water- simple refreshing, quenching my thirst.

We need windows because we need fresh air. Else, like stale air we begin to suffocate with our stale beings.