NISREEN MOOCHHALA: LIFE AROUND US...BOXED

NISREEN 'ZOFIN: MOOCHHALA, is an extraordinary artist celebrating the ordinary of life around us in 3D art.

Born 1935 into a Dawoodi Bohra family, she spent her childhood growing up in Surat, even experiencing purdah - attending an Urdu medium Dawoodi Bohra school.

In senior secondary school her Parsi principal recognized her talent for art, suggesting she join the J.J School of Art after graduation.
She first joined St Xavier's Mumbai where her Gujarati speaking upbringing made her uncomfortable amongst English speakers, so she soon dropped out.
Nisreen Moochhala has had an interesting journey in art. She completed her Diploma in Painting from the Sir J J School of Arts, Bombay (now Mumbai) in 1957.
Such was her confidence in her own competence and abilities that she insisted on and secured (after a test) direct admission into the second year of the diploma course. She also completed her postgraduate study in Mural Decoration at the J J School.
Fondly recalling her association with the institution, Moochhala feels that her academic drill helped in honing up her skills in portraiture, still life, anatomy studies, design and composition.
Following her marriage in 1958, she moved to Calcutta (now Kolkata) in 1959 to embrace the rigours and routine of domesticity and raising children, disassociating herself from art for nearly a decade.
Her artistic flame was, however, kept kindled thanks to the goading of her seniors from the J J School who were also in Calcutta. They included Toofan Rafai, Jeram Patel, Manu Parekh, and Madhvi Parekh, who became big names later.
Moochhala recalls that there have been different phases in her, including one where she just made pencil drawings. “I have worked with different mediums and genres, each having its special flavour and significance.
Some of my works are very small in size, as small as a visiting card or a postcard. But that does not reduce its significance or visual content.”
One incident she distinctly remembers is a visit to her maid’s house in Calcutta.“It was so tiny in size but still accommodated several people, their earthly belongings besides their dreams and desires.”
Her 3D Art celebrating things ordinary presents everyday objects, events and incidents, which are captured with a sense of playfulness, understanding and a touch of humour. Playing children, elders relaxing on park benches, exercising young men, dogs on a leash, whining cats, flying kites, hanging clothes, wayside shops, doors and indoors of middle-class homes… they all resonate in colourful images held together in tight compositions.
“I look at my surroundings. I observe things and happenings around me. They provide a real source of inspiration for my work. But I do not just reproduce them. I interpret them and give life by tunnelling into their hidden stories and adding my own memories, life experiences, and even fancies. So my work is a combination of reality and fantasy in equal measure.”
Nisreen Moochhala acknowledges that gaps in her artistic journey did affect her art but does not rue the past.
In fact, she says that her solo exhibition in 2006 at Tao Gallery in Mumbai gave a much-needed impetus to work with renewed vigour. Since then she has exhibited in several shows in different cities and venues.
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