Infinite Artiste is a space created by Ragini Bhajanka, to mentor humans to craft their way of life through infinite exploration and an artistic upbringing. Her experience spans over two and a half decades as a leading dancer, teacher and choreographer.
Dance or movement is just one of the several tools Ragini uses to expand the minds of her students. But, the real portal is in the process that unfolds over the years.
At its heart, the process relies on unlearning and shedding the conditioning that society has imprinted on humans. Ragini believes that by de-programming, we have the hope to reach the depths of our being and unlock the infinite possibilities. This very shift is what it means to be an infinite artist.
An artist is usually defined as a person who creates art, using conscious skill and creative imagination. From this alone, we can say that art is what comes from our ability to imagine, an intrinsic human faculty.
Psychoanalysts have discovered that imagination begins in infancy. It forms the basis of how we relate to the world. At first, the child is born and if circumstances prevail, s/he gets to experience a oneness with the mother figure. Eventually, as the infant grows, the mother resumes her regular lifestyle and in her absence—the infant begins to imagine the presence of the mother to soothe herself/himself.
This ‘inner’ representation of people/objects that we house—is the basis of imagination. Which eventually unfolds into children’s play. They begin to enact and replicate what they internally understand of the world. Sometimes, they also draw it. This urge to recreate all we see and experience goes back to the beginning of human civilisation.
Historians have found many cave paintings—where cavemen tried to draw the animals they saw in their daily lives. To survive, exploration was key for early civilisation and in the process, they created art and science. The artist and the scientist, both share the quest for exploration & discovery of the unknown. To find and to create, can often be the same thing.
But, everything is different now. We have forgotten where we came from. The world tends to erode the essence of art and sees it only as a commodity for consumption, and humans as machines. But, humans are not machines and art is a constant reminder of that. Art should not exist on the fringes as a hobby or a long-lost passion dismissed by the ideas of practicality, conformity and sustainability. Art is synonymous with slowness. Art activates our parasympathetic nervous system i.e. it slows down our heart rate, it brings us closer to our breath. All of these are experiences that return us to us.
Art, thus, is a medium of self-expression. We are made up of so many parts, not all of which have the space to find expression or can find expression in any other way besides art.
We often hear and perhaps find art “speaking” to us. Moments where a particular artwork seems to reach into the very depths of our being to stir something or touch something—a moment of being seen, and understood, often wordlessly. It is a feeling that washes over us, that makes us feel unmistakably alive. Art is then, a medium, a mirror and an outlet of and for our humanness.
This is precisely why Infinite Artiste came to be, a revolution to reclaim the art within us. A space where one can practice being an explorer, a creator and a dreamer, all at once, redefining what it means to be alive and human.
Come join the process of returning to who we were and were always supposed to be: Infinite Artistes. Where, a lifelong association with a mentor and an artistic community, is ever present.
Ragini Bhajanka 