ONE WALL RESIDENCY -II
THE MORE THE BETTER
Printed flyers on plywood
Plywood - 12ft X 8ft ( 144in x 96in ) approx.
Flyers - Variable Size
2023
B.E.A.D.S , Odisha
This work was part of the ongoing One Wall Residency project by Bhubaneswar Experimental Art and Design Studio (BEADS). It responds to the challenges of rapid urbanization, erosion of the periphery, the diminishing importance of community, and the seismic impact of human-driven climate change faced by the state ODISHA.
About the Installation
“REPRESENTATION” among many other aspects signifies social existence. It is a key through which an individual can empower a community. My involvement with this project itself is an act of representation. But the question is - “WHOSE”? As a person who belongs to the state but carries multiple identities, it has been conflicting to respond to the various substructures of the state. The main source of my influence has been the city's painted walls, markets, museums, and fairs. My engagement with the represented images and objects/artifacts became the under-toning of the work on the wall. A cultural fetishization; While appreciating the aesthetics, I was also commenting consciously on the thoughts that came with the objects—viewing them critically. Like how “objects of craftsmanship” takes birth, how it is circulated as a commodity, and how it is pedestalized as “objects of representation”.Representations of various social, political, economic, and non-linear stories interacting in the same space.
Moreover, the overwhelming and rapid growth of the city has somehow obstructed the way we respond to these representations. We are lost in the ambiguous space between reproduction and consumption. AT LEAST I AM. Because we are uninformed and don’t have the resources to understand the “Fluxes” of our surroundings.
The overlapping printed flyers, different in size and color, juxtapose on-site photographs of various localities with text. It is a quick response that shows the subordinating effects of mass production of cultural practices. Consequently, the work is to explore the nuances of an unkempt public wall in an inside space. It is an attempt to lurk around that ambiguous space and struggle with the question - Am I representing anyone or my identity is being assumed?
WE WERE THERE
WE ARE HERE
WE ARE IN THE FUTURE ?
Linoprints on wall
70 editions of 3 matrixes
16.5 in x 11.7 in each approx.
Projected video on curtain
2023
B.E.A.D.S , Odisha
This work is an amalgamation of various conflicts I had responding to the walls in the city. The imposed video and lino-cut prints are gestures to suggest those negotiations. It is rather an attempt to understand how I was perceiving various communities through the “representations” of their images.