Nature Morte Modern Art Gallery, New Delhi [04/2006]
Artist's Statement: Chennai, March 28, 2006
Rajesh Mehta: Nature Morte Exhibition, New Delhi: "IMAGINATIONAL MAPS"
The search and research for finding instruments and tools that would aid in expressing my artistic vision has been my intensive and extensive preoccupation as a musician and composer for over 15 years. The series of "imaginational maps" presented in this exhibition are the resulting imprints - a notational system that encompasses a wide range of influences on my artistic work from mathematics, architecture, and technology to choreography and the visual arts and the three primary musical streams that have affected my musical voice: experimental improvised music, the language of contemporary compositions, and the deep inspiration of the rich microtonal ornamentations and rhythmic innovations found and yet-to-be discovered in Carnatic music. Certainly, my training as an M.I.T. engineer has helped me in inventing hybrid musical instruments and hybrid visual forms.
All of this is now leading towards the realization of my longstanding dream which is the establishment of ORKA-M: International Institute of Innovative Music based in India - an international platform for creative musical production, research and educational activities with a specific focus on intercultural and interdisciplinary collaborations.
