Art access

Flowers — be they real or imitation — mark the launch of every new venture. But it was framed flowers that greeted visitors to Kayan Pandole’s recently opened Gallery at 210. Photographer Fram Petit’s exhibition "Macro 180” from November 20-30, 2006 drew many art aficionados to the art hive at Taj Building on D. N. Road in Bombay’s Fort area who were as interested in familiarizing themselves with the new venue as in reflecting on Petit’s works depicting the tenderness of the petals, the symmetry of the sea shells and the intricacies of nature.

The show was "very successful,” sums up Pandole, ecstatic that it elicited a positive feedback for both the Gallery and the photographer. "Photography is the new thing art collectors are looking at. It is now being viewed as an art form of value just as in the West. Earlier the feeling was, ‘What’s the big deal? It is just a photo,’” conveys Pandole, a restoration artist by profession. "With the starting prices for the modern art market in India being out of reach for many, there is a natural progression among people to look to other affordable mediums to decorate their walls…” reiterates Petit. "Nowadays I’m working on making people understand that this (photography) too is art…Parsis are known to be forward thinkers…” he adds, explaining how he keeps his editions small to ensure that there is an appreciation of value.

Photographer’s passion

"I am not a one-hand wonder out to make a quick buck,” insists Petit. "I spend a lot of time, effort and money as I am very particular about using the best products available at a given time…hoping it would last for 80-100 years.” Each of his photos is printed on archival material with ultra chrome ink. He issues a certificate of authenticity to the buyer specifying the materials used, the date, the original embossing and edition number specifying the quantum of each print in circulation. He is even particular about the frame and the mounting to ensure that no moisture or dampness mars the longevity of his art piece. "This is my passion; my work,” the professional photographer conveys his commitment.

Above: Jamshid Pandole From left: Kayan Pandole, Fram and Shirin Petit

"Constantly marveling at how things around us are so structured,” Petit says that as his little daughters Kyra and Zara picked up shells — the size of his finger nails — from a beach in Goa he was "amazed…the structure is the same, the opening of each is the same, only the color tones were different.” Fixing the focal length of the lens of his Canon camera to 180 (the exhibition was therefore titled "Macro 180”) which permitted him to go very close to the subject, Petit reveals that he does not "fool around much with a computer except for adjusting the light and the depth.” The hibiscus flowers in this series are equally fascinating and for a change he shows a canon ball with its myriad seeds giving a fire-cracker effect. A simple dried fern found in the jungles of Matheran assumes a different form and magnitude when seen through Petit’s lens. Ask him if he has any favorites and prompt comes the response, "I am the creator. I love them all. They are all my babies.”

Intimacy of a gallery

Gallery at 210 elicited interest on the first day itself from a couple of artists and a photographer but Pandole maintains, "I am not going to have shows back to back. Presently I only plan to promote work that I like…I like to have personal rapport with my clients. My idea was to have a small intimate space where people known to me come and sit down and see on a personal level. I’d like to be there when they come visiting (by appointment) and view the works. The Gallery for me has been a natural progression. Basically because of my restoration work [trained at Lorenzo de Medici in Italy to restore the works of old masters Pandole (née Marshall) is in demand by art collectors and art houses] I would get buyers and sellers coming to me all the time. I organized a couple of shows for a couple of younger artists at friends’ galleries so I decided to do it in a more organized fashion.” The approximately 650 sq ft space on the third floor of Taj Building was originally used by her father Shiamak "as a dumping ground.” He would always tell her to use the premises so finally with husband Jamshid’s support she ventured further.

It may not have the advantages of a walk-in gallery by a roadside corner but she never had something like that in mind, says Pandole. When she assigned the interiors of the place to Jehanara Poonawala her requirements were very basic. She wanted wooden flooring and a small pantry area in addition to the painting of walls but she was determined to retain the high ceilings, the structural pillars, the old windows, the natural light. The name of the Gallery too she wanted to be "very simple… nothing gimmicky,” she says so Gallery at 210 (being the plot number of the building on D. N. Road) seemed ideal. What is important to her is that it is a venue where artists and clients are happy and secure, without fear of being cheated. She has already received feedback about the "positive vibes of this place.” The leakage in the old building and the old-fashioned hours for the operation of a lift are areas that need improvement though, she realizes. Depending on a customer’s preference, the space is given to an artist for a week on rent or on an agreement to pay 33 percent of the sales to the Gallery.

The limited space was a constraint only at the time of the preview of the exhibition, points out Pandole. The brunch preview for Petit’s show was therefore scheduled at the well-known eatery Joss where she well recalls the difficulties of hanging up frames on screens and carting the frames back to their Gallery in time for the 10-day display. "But maximum sales were done at the preview,” she refers to the importance of inviting the nearly 300 guests on her mailing list.

Combination equation

During and before shows Pandole’s days become very hectic, she confesses, because she is then involved in the promotion of the event as well, printing invites and brochures…Normally she structures her weekdays such that until afternoons she is at her Tardeo studio immersed in her restoration work and schedules the Gallery appointments for the early evenings. "Restoration will always be my focus,” she envisages and even during the course of our interview she excused herself to impress on her client the need to keep a restored work free of fungus by using a feather duster occasionally, keeping the windows open for fresh air, providing the painting gentle sunlight. The care and nurturing she expected from her client was evident. Weekends are generally reserved for the family, especially her three-year-old daughter Tiana, unless some persistent customer wants to come visiting the Gallery when either she or Jamshid would attend to him/her. She admires how her husband "has now got into art with quite a passion although originally he could not differentiate the top end of the painting from the bottom. Now he’ll give you names and rattle off prices, and knows more than I do.” Working for HDFC Bank he in fact advises his clients to view art as an investment opportunity.

Different angles

Petit’s earlier exhibitions were "Zindagi – A Journey” at the Commonwealth Institute, London in 1994 and "Landscapes of Goa and Ladakh” two years ago at Red Blue Yellow in Bombay. When not shooting for his exhibitions whilst on holidays with the family (wife Shirin teaches at the German school and their little daughters are students at the J. B. Petit School) Petit is commissioned by reputed interior designers and architects, advertising agencies and magazines like Elle Décor, Better Interiors, Condé Nast Traveller although he jokes saying, "I am a highly unemployable person.” A graduate from the Norfolk Institute of Art and Design, Petit recalls, "When in London I was so poor I had to earn for myself by loading newspapers onto trucks from 6 p.m. every evening.”

Very fond of the outdoors with nature and animals being a passion with him, Petit declares, "I’m attuned to the world around me…As executive committee member of the Bai Sakerbai Petit Hospital (being a member of the baronet’s family he has happily assumed this responsibility) I work very hard there…approach my contacts for donations. I’d like to see it come up.”

Petit who describes his images as being "very graphic,” is already in discussion with Pandole about their next art exhibition. Tongue in cheek he states, "One man’s art can be another man’s rubbish.”

For enquiries regarding Gallery at 210 contact 9821092177 and for Fram Petit’s photos contact 23682971/23637992.