This body of work at Colomboscope 2024 was co-commissioned by Colomboscope and Ishara Art Foundation, with the support of Project 88.
Three videos together in one TV set; Two Black pigment Drawings on tarpaulins; Two acrylic paintings on tarpaulins; Two colored pigment banners; Five screenprint black and white posters; 11 Zines published by JINN; A Book titled “Weaving Labyrinth” published by Navarun; and 10 diaries (mixed media).
8th edition of Colomboscope 'Way of the Forest' in January 2024 at J.D.A. Perera Gallery curated by Hit Man Gurung, Sheelasha Rajbhandari, Sarkar Protick with artistic director Natasha Ginwala.
One definition of “time” in the Merriam-Webster Dictionary is “an appointed, fixed, or customary moment or hour for something to happen, begin, or end.” Time, as we perceive it, is unidirectional and multidimensional — but somehow also circular — flow of occurrences. With a seemingly immutable past, time acts as a conscious experience to cognize the changing landscape of material reality. This elusive/impalpable presence of time can be understood as sequential sloshing of fluid in an enclosed jalopy with lateral motion. Sloshing here refers scientifically to the standing wave formed on the surface of a liquid that is induced by horizontal oscillation in a partially filled container. Socially, this is manifested in how we experience time when we aim to critically engage with the effects of the extant and immediate junctures of the social fabric. This sloshing behavior creates an internal inertia of motion within time where a multiplicity of events fades and brightens. It calls into question the idea of singularity’s dominance over plurality. It promulgates complexity in an equivocal manner. The idea of inclusive, egalitarian, and renascent India had been torn apart by majoritarianism. The social fabric of our country lies in tatters. We live where time is sloshing. Our economy is apportioned to cronies. All our institutions have become partisan. The voices of the independent are stifled with impunity. Freedom of expression has been replaced by auguries of genocide. State brutality is today's reality. To analyze — to change what we need — is to be in a continuous preparation for action. As an art practitioner, my attempt is to prepare for artistic action: Action by any means necessary. Action that should be temporal — and therefore mobile. That action may not be solid or concrete, but it becomes a proposition. To make the proposition there is an urgency of collective endeavor. This thrives on participation of individuals who clamor against the capitalist mode of production. The absence of the collective imagination — the absence of creative action that is needed against the fascist bulldozer — must be exposed. Politics of land and labor relations are the key focus here. Concentrating on my own geography — localized landscapes carrying bare life. Life emotes empirical relationships. The land doesn’t belong to us, rather we belong to the land. Both land and people are finite — bare lives in constant expropriation and infinite accumulation. Historically, the collusion of state and capital has achieved accumulation not only through slaughter but also through clinical and methodical administration. Bare lives and their bearers pursue the struggle to fortify each other in the sloshing of time. Sensing these vibrations of sloshing, I try to compile them and draw on different surfaces. Multiple forms of expression deliver different kinds of dissemination. Three separate time-based media works — on the Deucha Pachami movement against a proposed coal mine; on manipulation of the mass media and artists; on land acquisition; and on majoritarianism — imitate a sense of preparation. Journals, diaries, and zines unfold as an inventory of quotidian memory. Images of mordant landscapes and land guards, moving images, zines, and posters, in juxtaposition, appear as propositions within the sloshing of time.
Labani Jangi, Subhankar Sengupta, Sudip Chakraborty, Malay Tiwari, Merve Espina, Pinak Banik, Birbhum Jomi Jibon Jeebika o Prakriti Bachao Mahasabha, panjeri artists’ union, Vidhi Todi and other members of Colomboscope team.
Ruvin de Silva, Sarkar Protick, Sanjaya Mendis, and Tanmay Das
all, @anupam_art