DON’T try.
Hand-made collages PORTFOLIO 2023 SHAHNAWAZ Siddiqui
Love.
What is Love?
What is it about?
Is it about gifts, chocolates and flowers?
Is it about feelings, emotions and connection?
Or is it about pleasure, touch and entangled bodies breathing the same air?
What is Love really?
Have you measured it?
Can you measure it?
How much love is too much love?
But…
Do you really want to measure love?
Why can’t you love “fully”?
Why can’t you love without any barriers?
DON’T love with a thought in your mind.
DON’T love because somebody will feel bad.
DON’T love because you are “supposed” to love.
And why only “love”?
Why only this emotion?
Why can’t we feel every human emotion fully?
Sadness, Anger, Humour, Wonder, Courage, Calmness, Fear, Disgust.
Why can’t we be “Human”?
Just Human.
Again…
Why restrict this “fullness” only to love and other emotions?
Why can’t we live our lives “fully”?
“Just Live.”
The way YOU like it.
The way YOU want it.
Apply for the job you have been wanting to, Make art if you want to, Start your own company if you want to, Get married if you want to.
YOU do YOU.
DON’T get influenced by the world around.
DON’T try to fit in.
DON’T try to live your life.//
“
D ON’T try . ” - Inspired by the very favourite Charles Bukowski
Feb 2023
- Siddheshwari Ambekar Curator -
Exhibition
CONTENT
About Curriculum Vitae
Personal Statement Works
Past Exhibitions
Other Sketches
Photography
Ongoing Projects
December 26, 1985
SHAHNAWAZ Siddiqui
I am a self taught artist and photographer based in Bombay.
Having no familial or academic background in the arts never bothered me and I have been working mainly on intuition.
The photography bug hit me in 2012 and there was no looking back after that. The streets are my muse as they always have something new to offer.
My experiments with paper started in 2016. Eventually these experiments started taking the shape of collages. My collages are primarily made out of newspapers, magazines and any kind of paper that catches my fancy.
In addition to that, sketching is one more medium that I use for self-expression.
I have also worked in the fields of customer service, operations, sales, administration and management - spread across the sectors of banking and architecture and design. Currently, I work as an independent consultant in the above mentioned areas of expertise.
My work depicts themes of self discovery, chaos, epiphany, sensuality and unraveling.
About
Curriculum Vitae
Personal Information
Address
Malad (W), Mumbai - 400064
Languages
English, Hindi and Gujarati
Links to profiles
LinkedIn - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shahnawaz-siddiqui-83369742/ Instagram - https://www.instagram.com/d.o.n.t_try/
- https://www.instagram.com/shahnawaz_s_siddiqui/
- https://www.instagram.com/billboardwazi/
Phone +91-99258 31663 Email shahnawaz020@gmail.com
Education
June 2006 - April 2009
Bachelor of Commerce (B. Com)
H. L. College of Commerce - Gujarat University
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
February 2010 – March 2010
Post Graduate Diploma in Banking Operations
NIIT Institute of Finance Banking and Insurance
Ahmedabad, Gujarat
Professional Experiencce
April 2023 – Present
Independent Consultant
Bombay, Maharashtra, India
August 2014 – March 2023
Office Manager and Executive Assistant
Blocher Partners India
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
May 2012 – July 2014
Sales Manager - Private Banking
Deutsche Bank AG
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
March 2011 – April 2012
Customer Service Executive
HSBC Ltd
Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India
March 2010 – March 2011
Customer Service Officer
ICICI Bank Ltd
Kosamba, Gujarat, India
From the moment we are born we are given an identity, imposed with beliefs and ideologies and pressurised with societal norms that we never asked for.
We are given a name, a belief and religion, an education, a way of life and the likes.
Personal Statement
From the moment we are born we are given an identity, imposed with beliefs and ideologies and pressurised with societal norms that we never asked for.
We are given a name, a belief and religion, an education, a way of life and the likes.
Some of us live the rest of our lives, to quote Charles Bukowski, ‘clubbed into dank submission’, believing that all that was imposed was the right path. Some of us are fortunate enough to break free and find the truth for ourselves. However, this path is not easy. It involves the loss of loved ones, friends, opportunities, comforts, security and anything that holds us from this truth.
My work stems from this revolt against what was imposed upon us and the waste of productive years being what we are not. It tends to explore how we all need to find our individual way of thinking by breaking away from all that is taught or given to us.
As a self-taught artist and photographer, I believe that I have lesser “baggage” to carry and work majorly on intuition. During my school days I remember making scrapbooks with cuttings from newspapers and magazines, which only I knew about. Unaware of the possibilities at the time, I destroyed the scrapbooks only to be remembered when I made my first collage in 2016 – what is meant to be…
Works
Selective Original Hand-made Collages
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - I see red!
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 23 x 26 inches
1 Not as per actual dimension
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Madness
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 22 x 25 inches
2
as per actual dimension
Not
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Black!
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 11 x 14 inches
3
as per actual dimension
Not
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by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Society
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 23.75 x 26.75 inches
4
as per actual dimension
Not
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Untitled
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 8.27 x 11.69 inches
5 Not as per actual dimension
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Page 187
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 10 x 13 inches
6 Not as per actual dimension
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Retro
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 23 x 24.50 inches
7 Not as per actual dimension
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Uff!
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 16.50 x 20.75 inches
8
as per actual dimension
Not
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by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Intimacy
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 15.75 x 22.75 inches
9
as per actual dimension
Not
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Ignorance is...
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 18.50 x 21 inches
10 Not as per actual dimension
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Insanity
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 23 x 26 inches
as per actual dimension 11
Not
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Volatility
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 13.50 x 16.50 inches
Not as per actual dimension 12
DON’T try
TITLE - Identity III
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 15 x 17.75 inches
as per actual dimension 13
. by Shahnawaz Siddiqui Not
DON’T try.
by Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Dervish
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 7.75 x 9.75 inches
Not as per actual dimension 14
Shahnawaz Siddiqui
TITLE - Refill
MEDIUM - Hand-made Collage
SIZE - 7.75 x 9.75 inches
as per actual dimension 15
DON’T try. by
Not
Past Exhibitions
2014
January
5 photographs
Shoot at Sight
Group photography exhibition
Galarie Crescent, Bangalore, India
2018 May
2 collages
Open Gallery
Group art exhibition
Hutheesing Centre, Ahmedabad, India
2018 November
2 collages
Freedom is in the Air Group art exhibition
Museum of Goa, Goa, India
2018 December
2 collages
Goa Affordable Art Fest
Group art exhibition
Museum of Goa, Goa, India
2019
August
1 collage
Don’t Tell Mommy - Erotic Art Show
Group art exhibition
Athens, Georgia, USA
2019
December 3 collages
Goa Affordable Art Fest
Group art exhibition
Museum of Goa, Goa, India
2020
February 7 collages
Abhivyakti City Arts Project Group art exhibition
Knowledge Consortium of Gujarat, Ahmedabad , India
2021
December 20 collages
Blend Group art exhibition
LxS Open House, Ahmedabad, India
Last Exhibition
DON’T try.
An
Curated
Ambekar 07. February ---- 18. March 2023 KMC*, Fort - Mumbai
immersive exhibition of hand-made collages
by Siddheshwari
The most recent exhibition was held at KMC*, a restaurant housed in the heritage building of Kitab Mahal situated at Fort, Mumbai.
This was my first solo show running for over a month, which included a response collection activity, two workshops, walkthroughs and sale of merchandise.
Snippets from the workshops
During b oth the workshops the participants were taken through my journey as a self taught artist via a curated presentation.
The idea was to try and get the participants to be ‘free’ and then go ahead and make their work of art.
Sketches
Most of my sketches represent a state of mind.
The hand follows what the mind feels.
Photography
Photography to me is about simplicity.
About what we fail to see every day, about what our life is made of, about the world that surrounds us.
Most people call this the banal or mundane but i believe that’s where the beauty lies.
Street Photography
Ongoing Projects
#billboard wazi
#billboard wazi
Billboards are an element of capitalism that are ubiquitous to the towns and cities we inhabit. Most of these billboards are left without maintenance until the next advertisement is put up.
This state of lack of maintenance along with the nature of billboards interests me and this documentation is my attempt at recording the same.
A unique hashtag that was created by combining the words billboard and “wazi” - a pseudonym by which my ex-boss/dear friend used to address me - came to become the title of this project.
Decay
Decay
As the name suggests, this project is a documentation of decaying walls and surfaces which are found throughout towns and cities. Its interesting because we fail to appreciate beauty in all its forms.
These decaying walls and surfaces are also like collages which are found in the everyday.
Shahnawaz Siddiqui +91-99258 31663 shahnawaz020@gmail.com DON’T try.
