One good thing that contextual advertising do to you is to feed you with fodder, you have shown interest in at some point of time. Though the success of this strategy cannot be undermined but it comfortably manages to eliminate diversity from your interest bucket. Everywhere you tend to see like, read about the same kind of stuff, may be because the search, browsing etc.. Are so slick these days that you tend to lose your appetite to discover new things that falls beyond your current interest funnels. Recently I have had such an experience while visiting an art gallery. The occasion was an art exhibition by a friend, after postponing the visit till the last day of the event I finally chose to go at the closing time of the gallery, so as to avoid any communication with all the art connoisseurs there. Not because I have anything against them but because I am still quite ignorant about their area of operations. My Facebook newsfeed also fails to offer any help for the same.
So anyways I did go and visited the gallery. Though the gallery was as quiet and stranded as I wanted it to be, the silence haunted me. It was just 7 in the evening and there was no one to hide from except the caretaker who was also the owner of the gallery, a short old man. It was quite disturbing considering the hoopla and huge fan following we see these days for all the music, dance events happening around. I blamed it on the weird timing I chose to visit the exhibition. So it was a two story building and after the casual exchange of greetings with the owner I started browsing through the lovely paintings around. Just when I got done looking at the paintings at the ground floor I realized the exhibition is at the first floor and all this while I was just staring at some leftover stuff. So anyways I gathered myself again and climbed up to the first floor. The owner was diligently following me and I every part of my creative mind pleaded for some space in this otherwise silent gallery. It was an exhibition by three artists. I finally managed to spot my friend’s name on one of the canvas and believe me I was so happy to see it, atleast there is something I know about. The good thing about abstract art is it gives you enough space to create an imagery of your choice but sometimes you miss the molds which are so implicit in your otherwise outlined life, which can help you streamline the thought process or atleast save you from the one. So coming back to the exhibition, for first few paintings I did try to think about the possible motivation/ideation the artist must have gone through while drawing it but trust me it gets all the more unnerving when there is someone right behind you expecting to hear some feedback. After the tenth painting my interest changed from the concept to just the color combination the artist had used. After appreciating the synchronization of different colors and themes the artist had played with my focus shifted to the possible monetary value of this piece of art. Mind you I was just done with the 20th one now. I broke the silence between me and the owner by asking if people are buying paintings. After 2o minutes of our meeting and curiously examining so many paintings I broke my silence with this question and I didn’t know who to blame, I am sure neither did he. Just when I was done with the first floor and was preparing for a safe exit the owner asked me if I would like to see his paintings as well. I was so exhausted with the probable visualization of the featured paintings in my living room, dining area, work place etc.. I had no energy left to survey more of them but the sheer excitement in the owner’s eyes to showcase his work left me with no other choice. So now I climbed the second floor and was taken aback by huge canvases all painted with bright, dull and gleaming colors. I could see human figures, portraits sketched all over and I was so happy to finally see recognizable figures and patterns just to realize the last bulb was switched on suddenly and there again I saw huge abstract paintings. I was so worried about the huge expectation mismatch that I decided to give each painting 20 seconds of my life. I stood there counted 20 19 18 17….and so on, ofcourse I wanted the owner to believe I understand all of it. Suddenly in midst of all this I managed to recognize one pattern in one of the huge abstract painting and thrilled over my discovery I checked.
Here goes the dialogue
“Me: This painting is amazing, is it Lord Ganesha?
Owner: ummmmmm, hmmmmmmm, ya you could say that as well!!”
Really and I thought I cracked the puzzle. But nevertheless I really enjoyed the paintings and hope to see more of it. One of the painitng I liked a lot!
