The TOTO Awards, 2012: Results

2012-01-13T09:09:00.000-08:00

Toto Funds the Arts (TFA) announcedits eighth annual awards for young writers, photographers and musicians at afunction held at Alliance Francaise de Bangalore, on Thursday, 12 January 2012. Poet, columnist andentrepreneur Jaithirth (Jerry) Rao wasthe Chief Guest.

MUSIC (one award, Rs 50,000) (no. ofapplications: 35)

The three jurors were: poet, novelist andmusician Jeet Thayil;ethnomusicologist and Western classical violinist, Chloe L. Coventry; and SamarGrewal, music editor, writer and composer for theatre productions and shortfilms. Arjun Ravi, well-known musician, music journalist andfounder-editor of Indiecision and co-founder of India's biggest music discovery platform NH7.in, and his NH7 team created thelong-list.

Long-list

Eight applicants were long-listed:

Dualist Inquiry (Sahej Bakshi, New Delhi), Goddess Gagged (Krishna Jhaveri,Mumbai), Dhruv Visvanath (individualmusician, New Delhi), Adam and the FishEyed Poets (Kishore Krishna, Chennai), NoushLike Sploosh (Anoushka Anand, Mumbai), Scribe(Mumbai), Peter Cat Recording Co.(New Delhi),

The Shakey Rays (Chennai)

Shortlist

Four applicants were short-listed:

Adam and the Fish EyedPoets

Peter Cat RecordingCo.

Noush Like Sploosh

Dualist Inquiry

The awardwent to Peter Cat Recording Co. fromNew Delhi.

General Comments:

Arjun Ravi: “Having followed and being associated withTFA in the past, I must say that in my opinion, the jury this year has thetoughest job of any jury in TFA history. The long-list candidates we've pickedare incredibly talented artists with fantastic potential to become thiscountry's next big indie stars.”

Jurors: “With bands like Peter Cat Recording Company around,instances one finds oneself thoughtlessly lamenting the many platitudes of the'Indian band sound' will surely come rarer. As most of the eight entrieslong-listed this year showed us, sound, whatever it may have been, is in for anoverhaul in the coming years. Let these guys show the way.”

About Peter Cat,the jurors said:

“How to bell this cat called Peter? This petulantenfant blowing raspberries at us. This languid diva, weary and bored. Thisfrenzied punk. This alchemist of noise.

“A number of questions came up while considering thisband for this award. The sound: Has it been done before? Aren't they justriding a wave? The lyrics: What are they really talking about? The band itself:Are they big pretenders? Are they even in tune! The answers, which came easy tosome of us on the jury and slowly to others, like one of their whimsicaldirges, made the questions fade away.

“It is our humble and considered opinion that PeterCat Recording Company is one of the most important young bands working out ofIndia today. Their tunes hum really well, they are beguilingly simple and withan instinctive grip on songcraft, they keep the emphasis, like most good music,fixed firmly on melody and lyric despite the devices inherent to their oeuvre.They are proof that when it comes to breaking new ground, grit and convictionare as important as skill. Having scrutinized this year's entries many timesover with help from the folks at NH7, we can safely say that this is quite evidentlyeasier said than done.

“The jury hopes, with this award, to encourage PeterCat to also take their music to other places. If we may nudge a bit: past thelazy cabaret, waltzing up the road towards the kind of vitality and elusive artthat runs through songs like 'I've Got Roses', 'Don't Rape My Baby' and theundeniable live rendition of 'Love Demons', siren, harmonium and all.

CREATIVE WRITING INKANNADA (one award, Rs 25,000) (no. of applications: 89)

The three jurors were: Vivek Shanbhag (fiction writerand editor of Deshakaala), M. S.Ashadevi (critic and teacher of Kannada literature) and critic, short-storywriter and novelist K. Satyanarayana.

There was no long list. There were three applicants on the short list.

Short List

Sushrutha Dodderi (Bangalore), Kavya P. Kadame (Hubli), Dr Kanaada Raaghava (Bangalore)

Theaward went to Kavya Kadame for herpoetry.

Jurors generalremarks:

““This year's entries came from variousparts of Karnataka with diversity of themes and sharp articulation.Contrary to the common belief that the short story form in Kannada isrichly vibrant and highly experimental in nature, poetry gained dominancein these entries. Even those writings that qualified for the final round weremostly from the genre of poetry—they displayed skill and maturity.

It'sa rare opportunity to read the writings of youngsters, and the Toto Awardprovides a sneak preview of new writings in Kannada.”

Remarks on KavyaKadame

About Kavya’s poetry, the jurors said: ““themost fundamental marker of genuine poetry is the love of language. If languagemakes for the body of the text, it also becomes the voice. If novelty can betermed transformed perception, it is inevitable that language becomes itspartner. The poems in this anthology draw the reader’s attention for these veryreasons. The manner in which the poems cobble together ideas and forgeunanticipated dimensions, determines that ‘search’ forms their core concern.The most commonly noticed ‘hurry’ to grab everything and to thereon wallow inthe illusion of success is absent in these poems. The youthfulness and spontaneity of the poemsdo not take away from it the dignity of emotions. The collection, therefore,heralds the arrival of a true poet.“

CREATIVE WRITINGIN ENGLISH (two awards, Rs 25,000 each) (no. of applications: 178)

Supported byRobert Bosch Engineering and Business Solutions’ Art Grant

The three jurors were: poet, short story writer,novelist and Books Editor of The Caravan,Anjum Hasan; poet and editor of Almost Island, Vivek Narayanan; and poet SridalaSwami.

Long List

There were 29 applicants on the long-list. They were:

AditiRao, Sharanya Manivannan, , SamhitaArni, Joshua Muyiwa, Sriya Narayanan,Amita Basu, Kaushik Viswanath, RohanChhetri, Trisha Bora, Nandan Rosario,Pali Tripathi, Meghna Srinivas, Sushumna Patel, Manasi Subramaniam, Deeptesh Sen, Anushka Jasraj, Rishiraj Verma,Tashan Mehta, Pervin Chhapkhanawala, Adithya Pillai, Kamayani Sharma, VarshaSeshan, Tanvi Srivastava, Madhura Birdi, Praveena Shivram, Shalim M Hussain,Chanakya Vyas, Prashant Prakash, Ramneek Singh

Shortlist

Five applicants made it to the shortlist. They were:

Rohan Chhetri (New Delhi), Sriya Narayanan (Chennai), Ramneek Singh (Bangalore), Kaushik Viswanath (Chennai), Joshua Muyiwa (Bangalore)

Awardees

The awards went to Ramneek Singh and JoshuaMuyiwa. Ramneek received the award for his play TheCage of Sparrows, while Joshua won his for his 9-part poem ThePhotographer and the Poet.

Jurors generalremarks:

“We did nottry to evaluate the entries based on any single set of criteria orprescriptions; rather, we were interested in the pieces that were able todefine their own rules, be distinctive, original and confident in their visionof the world and of literature. In this sense, we must also have beeninfluenced by some entrants' ability to choose the best, and only the best, oftheir own work to send.

We considered four plays, ofwhich one has won the TFA prize. Another was promising, but we thought it wassomewhat derivative. Many of the stories allowed a random series of thoughtsand observations to masquerade as short stories; more often than not, storieswith potential were ruined by trite or abrupt endings. The poetry entries werepromising and in another year might have fared better.”

Ramneek Singh: “The Cage of Sparrows shows huge performativepotential. The scenes are well-paced and the characters memorable. It was nothard to hear the Punjabi and the Hindi inflections behind the words of thedialogue. There’s a strong sense of place – of rural Punjab – and the recenthistory of the people. This is a sophisticated script, very absorbing as apiece of writing, but also clearly meant to be watched.”

“With stagecraft more frequently taking onthe techniques of cinema, it was not surprising that the judges thought thisread more like a film script than a play; this is not a bad thing and perhapseven indicates a new direction in writing for the theatre that answers a demandfor something beyond the proscenium stage.”

Joshua Muyiwa: ThePhotographer and The Poetsequence is a fearless and ambitious piece of work. It is allusive, certainly;elusive a lot of the time, but always deeply felt, the intelligence of the poetshining through every poem. There’s a carefully choreographed progression of arelationship between two people and between the history of photography and thegaze of the poet. Not only does the poet refrain from making these ekphrasesmerely a series of descriptions of images, s/he also manages to sustain adifficult set of questions and propositions through nine poems. There is something of Roland Barthes and AnneCarson in these poems.

‘By virtue of our choices we becomephotographers or poets’, the poet says in the last poem, with the merest hintof mischief: as these poems show, it is possible to claim the photographthrough the poem and be either and both at once.

PHOTOGRAPHY (twoawards of Rs 25,000 each) (no. of applications: 89)

in association withTASVEER

The three jurors were filmmaker Sumantro Ghosal, Nathaniel Gaskell, who worked for various photography galleries inthe UK and Australia before joining Tasveer in 2010, and Abhishek Poddar, the inspiration behind Tasveer, which is dedicatedto promoting contemporary photography.

Long-List

Therewere 18 applicants on the long-list. They were:

ShilpaGavane, Kannagi Khanna, Sagar Shiriskar, Adil Hasan, Chandan Gomes, TushaBhatia, Yogesh Chiplunkar, Indu Antony, Tanmoy Nayak, Ankit Goyal, Imran Ahmed,Kanika Sharma, Nishant Ratnakar, Ujjwal Agarwal, Siddharth S. Dharamjit, ArvindCaulagi, Ishaan Dixit, Saloni Agarwal

Shortlist

Four applicants made it to the short-list. They were:

Kannagi Khanna (Ahmedabad), Adil Hasan (Gurgaon), Indu Antony (Bangalore), Ankit Goyal (Dehradun)

Awardees

Theawards were won by Adil Hasan(Gurgaon) and Indu Antony(Bangalore).

Jurors’ general remarks:

Commentingon the entries for the awards, the jury said, “The selection process for theToto photography award has been an inspirational, tough and hugely enjoyableprocess. This year’s entries have been distinctive for their intelligent and thoughtfulapproach to the medium. We were happy to see that many applicants looked beyondthe surface of the photograph, and used their cameras to explore and reflect ona wide range of interesting issues and events prevalent in the country today.Contemporary photography in India is going from strength to strength, and we'reproud to be a part of these awards which gives promising emerging artistsrecognition as they begin their careers.”

Adil Hasan: “Oftena good idea remains just that; the lack of craft (or, too much of it) is animpediment to translating the idea into effective photographs. For me, this iswhere the TV series emphatically succeeds over several of the other entries. Thepictures challenge you both as idea and as inventive expressions of it. That iswhy the series demands more than a cursory viewing. And, in my opinion, the topprize.”

“The TVseries is a pertinent body of work which examines the intrusive
role of the television in the modern world. In these photographs the
television becomes a sinister and all-pervasive device which
infiltrates and transforms our perception and experience of urban and
domestic spaces.”

Indu Antony: “'The BrokenStrings' is a series of exceptional quality and it moves us in a way that onlyphotography can. The camera's gaze is one of respectful sympathy, instillingthe subjects with a thoughtful dignity, whilst touching us with the desperatenature of their situation. A subject such as this demands a sensitive approachand it is a rare thing to see this accomplished so well.”

"TheBroken Strings" is powerful and moving. While I was riveted by the series asa set of extraordinary ‘depictions’, I found it unsettling to detach myselfenough to appraise the ‘aesthetics’ of the work. By forcing an engagement thatis both compelling and uncomfortable, "The Broken Strings" gets myvote as the second winner.”

TFA will invite applications for the 2013awards in July-August 2013.

Eight Annual TOTO Awards

2011-12-19T16:31:00.000-08:00

Toto Funds the Arts

The TOTO Awards, 2012: Results

Eight Annual TOTO Awards