Like Fire, Expansible Over All Space, And Like The Air In Which We Breathe, Move

Prolonged Hours of Disguised Situations

(Mixed Media on Paper and Projection, 180 in X 80 in)

“I created the images from diverse sources such as advertisements, news photographs, dialogues overheard in the shopping mall, memories of life experiences and the imaginative response towards contemporary times. These elements have become the chemical process of my works.

The metaphors in the works mainly deal with the issues of denial of spaces. My works problematize the space of contemporary times which has been designed by the dominant systems which have merely focused on the denial of the right to live.

I started this work for the Biennale after doing a lot of study/drawings. A particular image haunted my imagination, a regular sight of a car shop which displayed a car coming out of a three storey building with half the car suspended from the building. This image evokes in me certain aspects of horror and death. And at the same time reminds me of the celebrating mood of car advertisements. I juxtaposed this with the butchered female dress tied together with birds that is attached to the building. The space in my work is overcrowded with tensions and incidents where the image has been continuously losing its space and roots to stand on. Just like in real life where the existence of objects, memories, conflicts stay together in our mental and physical spaces. The images are in constant motion to nowhere and destined to float indefinitely. They seem in a state of indefinite affairs. These aspects of denial of spaces to live in are the main focus of my work.

I am exhibiting one work with video and projection of dialogues on to the work. The languages of the piece will be the continuation of works which I exhibited in my March 2012 show, ‘Zero Tolerance’, in Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi. It mainly focuses on the space and time in which our life has become designed. The time related to the body as investment. And the systems imposed on the body to act in subordinate gestures. Women, people and power are the other concept of my works.”

Russian Museum

(2003-2005, Video, move-format, 7 mins)

The majority of works exhibited in the Russian Museum in Saint Petersburg are carefully put behind the glass. It is not a special kind of glass that prevents reflections but the one full of flexes and reflexes. This very glass can suddenly demonstrate us the unity between the image and its viewers. We can see how this glassy surface becomes a world of its own, which consists of a picture’s subject and the viewers that inhabit the reflection. They all form a single space for feelings. A strange connection between the fates of ordinary viewers and a comprehensive state of Russian genre painting starts to form. The viewers begin to belong to the paintings. They start to fall under their power and stand still under their impression, trying on its mood. We can hear the voice of a guide who describes the paintings, connecting them to contemporary consciousness, thus broadening the subjects for future philosophical generalizations. It even starts to seem that the voice describes not the pictures but their reflections, simultaneously producing new ones. In such a way museum paintings live their lives with new visitors and new heroes. Leaving the museum, we find some new places for our moods, thus acquiring new footings for our existence.

Untitled

(2012, Drawings.Black ink on white paper)

“I wanted to demonstrate the corruption and abuse of morals and social beliefs due to narrow-mindedness and self-beneficiary point of view. I try to illustrate my thoughts but some time I am doubtful of achieving a valid perception through my works.”

Backwards Ahead

(2012, 4 X 3 Channel HD Video, 9 mins)

Backwards Ahead is a Closed Circuit video arrangement for exhibition. The closed circuit loops of two video-streams are intercepted between 2 cameras and 2 projectors by 2 computers that capture and edit video footage algorithmically before playback. This creates an instant fiction of real occurrences shot by the two cameras. Viewers in the environment experience a temporal disorientation with their immediate presence and actions. They can be instigated to interact with the piece in order to solve the puzzle; to perform and watch to find out what’s happening.