“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us...”

(Opening lines of the novel “A tale of two cities” by Charles Dickens).

Just for a moment let us forget the fact that Dickens’ novel was set in Paris and London around the time of the French Revolution. Let us also for a moment forget the whole plot and concentrate on the opening lines. Don’t these words paint a picture that seems somewhat familiar? Does it mirror our own times in some ways? I think it does and Dickens is to be credited for having written something that transcends the impositions of time and geographical realities. What I like most about these lines is that he looks upon those turbulent times with equanimity. The good and the evil, hope and despair, wisdom and foolishness is acknowledged in equal measure. There seems to be no bias towards either. He surely was an optimist.  I mistakenly believed that I was an optimist too, but upon much self-introspection, it is now plain and clear to me that I am not. Why else would I thrive on the foibles of others? Why do I always focus on the negatives of society? Why do I find the shenanigans of ordinary people, as well as, politicians, artists, actors, musicians, doctors, clerks, et al – so amusing? I once considered that I should see a shrink and seek answers, but then I decided to accept myself for what I am and live with it. This perhaps is the turning point in my life – when I found “enlightenment” sans a Bodhi tree!

These are dangerously funny times and I find a vicarious pleasure by confronting it.

Thus, I decided to employ my wryness and cynicism to produce artworks and impact the world in never-ever-tried-before dimensions. That is when the idea of lampooning present day society was born and I started my series called “Suckerdom”.  I did quite a few drawings and followed it up with a few thangkas. The first drawing in that series actually set the tone for what was to come.  This series dealt with the foibles of a consumerist world and hence “Suckerdom”.  For this I had to find an idiom and the tubular forms of my early-career terra cotta sculptures reappeared after many years. Characters had to be established and the Leonardo-Vitruvius ideal had to be re-interpreted to suit my needs.

Prologue

Later on I focused on the machinations of the “art world” and decided to get on the internet, as no gallery would want to show work that actually lampooned them. That was when I first started ”Hollow Times” as an internet based newspaper in February 2008 and managed to do a second issue in March. It was too much work for one person. I kept on postponing the third issue and then finally forgot to renew the domain name. That was that.

One thing led to another and I started writing “Sundarban Diaries” my first blog early this year. It was based on a project and so spanned the duration of it. Then I started “Telephone Diaries” which is still continuing. But, this blog is all about looking back, while such a lot of “dangerously funny” things are happening all around me and I am unable to fit them into the context of this blog. So, I have decided to exhume “Hollow Times” as a blog. The first few posts will feature stuff from the two early issues and then contemporary events will follow.

 LAUNCHED TODAY! click on <http://hollow-times.blogspot.in/>