Preston Mela
24th June 2012, 11am 7pm
Avenham Park, Preston
The Preston Mela is a vibrant celebration of South Asian culture that annually sees Avenham Park filled with the sounds of modern and traditional Bhangra music, dance and entertainment from around the world. In 2012 GemArts worked in partnership with Preston City Council and Preston Mela to programme an exciting array of site specific performances, live art and workshops. The line up included
A live aerosol art performance by visual artist Sumit Sarkar; Family storytelling by Peter Chand; a live performance by one of Europes leading Indian brass bands, Bombay Baja; workshops by Indian visual artist, Raj Rani; a live presentation of Cubizm by Mohammed Aerosol Ali of SoulCityArts; and a football inspired dance performance by Srishti Nina Rajarani Dance Creations. See below for more information.
Sumit Sarkar, Visual Artist
Sumit Sarkar is a North West based visual artist, whose character based artwork takes the form of digital and canvas paintings, digital sculpture, and aerosol art. The content of his personal work ranges from the fantastical characters of Sumits KrikSix world, to his modern interpretation of Hindu Gods. For Preston Mela Sumit produced a live piece of aerosol art incorporating his own unique take on South Asian and street art culture!
Peter Chand, Family Storytelling
One of only a handful of full-time Indian Storytellers working in Britain today, Peter's performances have been described by others as: energetic, totally engaging, and always told with warmth and great relish. For Preston Mela Peter took the audience on a fantastic journey with some incredible folktales and magical stories from the great Indian epics!
[b]Bombay Baja[/b]
Based on traditional brass bands from the Indian sub-continent, Bombay Baja are one of Europes leading Indian brass bands, creating their own unique style by combining popular Indian melodies together with the powerful rhythms of the Dhol. Their lively performances throughout the day created a lively carnival atmosphere.
Raj Rani Indian Visual Art Workshops
Raj Rani is a North East based artist, originally from Amritsar in India. She specialises in large scale paintings and murals, and her work has been exhibited across the North of England as well as large scale permanent pieces displayed in the Golden Temple Amritsar in Punjab, India. For Preston Mela Raj invited partipants to create their own artwork with recycled materials inspired by Indian Tissue Art and artifacts from India.
SoulCityArts Mohammed Aerosol Ali
The Art of Mohammed Ali has been taken across the globe and described as challenging the oft-heard term clash of civilisations. with his fusion of street-art and Islamic script, along with his conscious messages. It was after his new-found passion and rediscovery of his faith in Islam that he began to fuse his graffiti-art with the grace and eloquence of sacred and Islamic script and patterns. He describes his work as, taking the best of both worlds. and bringing back to the forefront principles that are gradually fading away from our modern societies.
For Preston Mela Mohammed Ali presented Cubizm a unique style of aerosol art involving a spinning cube!
Srishti Nina Rajarani Dance Creations
In keeping with Prestons rich tradition of football, London based dance company, Srishti presented, Bend it
A collision between football and south Asian dance. The show was complete with penalty shoot-outs, slow motion replays and that heart stopping ultimate goal! Never has Bharatanatyam been so competitive!
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