Spiritual FIAT:

Being born in a city that celebrates shopping, Dubai born Indian artist Raj needed a break. “My exposure to Art and Design had always been from a commercial angle”, explains Raj,” so the Omkara project was a way for me to break away express myself.”

We nodded with sympathy and decided to be polite:

Sensory: So Raj, what’s the Omkara’s journey?
Raj: The Omkara was an attempt to produce an ‘improvised installation art piece’ that attained meaning and personality as time progressed. On a very philosophical level, it is very much like life where one grows up to becomes who he is because of both foreseen and unforeseen circumstances imposed upon him.

Sensory: Yes but it’s a car..
Raj: The word Omkara actually comes from the Holy Hindu bible BHAGWAD GITA and means – ’ the vehicle to cross the ocean of life ’ Crossing this ocean is the journey one must undertake in a lifetime and henceforth encounter the three basic elements of mortality – creation, preservation and destruction.

Sensory: So the car is the metaphor and it would go through the three basic elements of mortality?
Raj: Exactly.

Sensory: On your website, you’ve said that Omkara is far from over and that you had planned on driving it from the United Arab Emirates to India. Is that part of the destruction and preservation phase? And how’s it coming along?
Raj: It’s not coming along at all… I’ve been very caught up trying to earn money for bread at the moment…. but the Omkara will be revived someday and it will set off on another journey soon. A journey not so extravagant maybe – but possibly unique enough to lower a few windows and invite a few honks!

Sensory: How’s the reaction been so far?
Raj: 60% awe, 25% scepticism, 10% ridicule, 4.5% vindication and 0.5% publicity. While some made fun of the entire project and thought that I was perhaps ‘trying too hard’ to make a point, many others were fascinated by the very scale and process undertaken to complete the project and the mythological concept embedded within. However, it was exceptionally hard to find a media outlet/gallery to exhibit the piece in this country as ‘the Omkara’ was considered a piece too controversial for an islamic country.


Sensory: Didn’t anyone mention that the car reminded them of those Indian art cabs on steroids?
Raj: Heh.. No, no one except for you..I guess they would have if I had alloy wheels, carbon fire roofing, Monster truck wheels and big ass exhausts.
Sensory: So what’s the car doing these days given that you’ve temporarily sold yourself to the big man?
Raj: Well… On the eve of 2004, a couple of them drunk labourers tried to do a little exploring around the shipyard.. And voila they found a painted car (much to their amazement) and realized that the most obvious thing to do when one finds a multicoloured painted car is to get on top of it and dance like a madman of course!! – the roof caved in ;(

Sensory: Ouch.
Raj: Yeah, the car sits solitary. Tires flat, wrapped in grey, dusty and rusting – perhaps hibernating / transiting a subconscious stage before the beginning of yet another life. Another Journey.

Source: sensoryimpact