JOIN USArt explores the cooperation of senses and it is this that is being used in music festivals, concerts and parties in the City. ‘The music was ace, but what about the decor?’ is a question that is often heard after a music event. One can judge the success or failure of a gig or party most prominently by its cover — the overall set up or decoration of the venue.
The visual synesthesia has a major role to play in attracting the crowds — be it through visuals that flip on the projectors or more popularly, through colourful decorations. This, in particular, attracts as much crowd as the artiste or DJ might, as pictures of the decked-up venue are posted on social media hours before the event, persuading music and party lovers to come and experience the colourful ambience. After all, where is the party vibe at an event, if not in the pompous decoration?
The City is catching up in these terms, where fine art is taking centre stage. Abhishek Gidwani, a music enthusiast, combined his love for music with fine art and started
decorating party venues (he looked forward to attending) as a hobby.
Present at the venue hours before the actual music gig begins, he installed string art and lycra fabric and strove to give the venue a colourful makeover with UV lights, brightening the whole set up. String art arranged in trippy forms, colourful and innovatively shaped lycra hanging from the top, adorning the venue...Abhishek’s desire for decking up a party and music event soon became the need of the hour for organisers. The idea of visual music was welcomed with fervour by music and party afficionados and there poured in requests from event organisers for installing innovative decor, as they considered them to be an integral crowd-pulling strategy.
This is how Abhishek got involved with his first decor company ‘Beat Mantra’, which over the years, has evolved and shaped into the ‘Original Decor Company’.
“It was in Goa that I first experienced the visual delight at music parties. The Russians and Germans in Goa set up great decor for parties and I adapted this idea to the parties that happen in the City. Learning the basics from them, my hobby developed into a profession,” says Abhishek.
Skilled at making abstract cutouts of lycra fabrics that are painted with UV paints, he inculcates wooden works, stone art and string art in the decors he creates and lights them up with LED and UV lights that give a perfectly dim yet trippy set up for night events.
Decors with UV lights are also sought-after at corporate events and other arenas, as Abhishek says, “We have done the decor for Play Arena as well. And the Sanctum club has been given a makeover with LED walls set up and colourful embellishments.”
Gurudath Kamath, a DJ and the owner of ‘Sangachadwam Decos and Events’, installs these popular set ups at the parties he plays at. “As a DJ, it is satisfying to give music lovers a complete audio-visual experience. The decors add a positive vibe to music parties and they give music a visual picture in the listeners’ minds,” he explains. Apart from the parties he plays at, his company does the decor for corporate events and clubs too.
“We had set up the entire decor at the Bangalore Club for the New Year’s party last year. From the entrance to the dance floor, we used abstractly cut, bright lycra fabrics that looked naturally colourful during the day and were lit with UV lights at night.”
The decors installed as per the client’s requirements (usually syncing with the kind of music that is played) are creating a buzz at most of the parties, where ‘art decorates the space and music decorates
the time’.