27 November,2022 12:30 PM IST | Mumbai | Heena Khandelwal
Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee
Craving for a sense of belonging is natural when you move your base from one city to another. For Breach Candy-born and raised Janavi Mahimtura Folmsbee, 35, who did her schooling in Mumbai before going to School of the Art Institute of Chicago for graduation, it is the sea that helps her feel connected to home. Folmsbee eventually moved to Houston for good about a decade ago. Her childhood memories and diving experiences - she has completed 234 dives in the last 11 years - and her art come together in her latest project, The Aquarius Art Tunnel.
"It is a 240-feet art installation inside a tunnel of the same length at the Houston Bush Intercontinental Airport," says Folmsbee, who turned a dull grey hallway into an immersive underwater-like experience. Endorsed by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Sanctuary in Galveston, the project Aquarius is named after the constellation Aquarius, the water bearer. The final mural features a vibrant underwater life where one can see a wide range of fish, sharks and lobsters. There are also various kinds of corals and worms breathing life into this aquarium-like art installation.
"Growing up, I was always drawn to the water, whether it was sitting on my balcony overlooking the sea or going to Girgaum Chowpatty. Water always brought me peace, and my memories of it bring nostalgia and serve as an inspiration," says Folmsbee. She first experienced underwater life about 11 years ago, when her mother offered her a trip anywhere in the world as a graduation present. "I chose Lakshadweep and when I went for my first diving, I felt as if I was invited to a world of pure magical beauty, I could hear my breathing, I wanted to recreate my experience and bring it to people," she says, adding that it is through diving that she learnt about ocean activism, and found her niche as a marine conservation artist.
Speaking about this giant art installation, a project for which she was handpicked from among 347 artists, she says, the intense process started with creating "very small, yet large" miniatures. "For six months, I was consumed. I created and executed everything that one can see. For the side walls, we couldn't paint a mural on it directly because of time constraints and also because, and I had to guarantee a significant shelf life. So, I created eight oil paintings [four per wall] 9 x 60 inches, mimicking underwater life, which were then scanned and digitised to fit a 240 feet x 9 feet tunnel. These paintings had to be very elaborate, and were done in a period of just three months. They were then printed using a pigment grade print and then sealed with chlorotech, a form of coating," shares Folmsbee, adding, "while one might think of it as wallpaper, it is a mural cloth, a nonwoven fabric that has been treated with seven to eight layers of primer making it essentially like a painting held up by fibres."
A multidisciplinary artist, she also designed the carpet, the lentricular installation in the ceiling, the lighting and a meditative soundscape that one can experience in this tunnel. "For sound designing, we worked with a sound engineer [composer Andrew Karnavas] and we used bubble sounds from my actual dives to make the experience more immersive," she adds. While she finished the artwork in six months, Flomsbee spent just as much time getting permits. "Since it was an airport, everything had to pass fire-safety guidelines."
In her artworks, one could see a significant use of eye-popping blue, green, yellow, pink and orange. The inspiration for the colours, she says, comes from her Indian-ness. "All these colours that I use are very maximalist, which is super Bollywood, and it comes from who I am and where I grew up," she adds.
Life is coming to a full circle, feels Folmsbee. The tunnel, which sees thousands of passengers on a daily basis, is also where she would traverse every time she would take a flight to go home to Mumbai. "My parents will be here as they pass through this terminal."
