POSITIONING ‘RANDOMNESS’

If a work as a whole is perceived and understood through ‘recollection’, images stored in the memory, then the first reading/viewing of it is only the beginning. The process of re-reading/reviewing is essential to grasp as much as possible and to entice the viewer into creating a chain of recollections. Something that the person next to you and I think of as random recollections is not as haphazard as it seems. The very concept of a ‘collection’ (however vague the image or idea) follows the selection and elimination process – it is then about the degree of ‘randomness’.

A re-arrangement of these recollections connects it with things elsewhere bringing it into a perspective where this hero less tale of productions is not as purposeless as it seems. The bits of pottery, textile, tools or other artifacts that are excavated, highlight the artistic style of the period concerned. These artifacts and associated literature garner much debate and scholarly attention as objects of the past, ascribing authenticity to a cyclical process of progression and regression of cultural and material production. This assemblage of art objects within the college premises could be construed as an archive of illegitimate and disregarded objects that are to be glanced in situ. Unlike the archaeological remains, here the past and its authenticity is of no consequence rather it is the visual appeal along with memories of associated ideas/images. A personification of Visuality would have her fingers in every pie. It tends to proceed beyond the conventional and gathers concepts and elements from a wide range of subjects to assist in theorizing, and nothing that is ‘known’ is out of bounds of theory.

The focus is on objects that are not entirely entrenched into the mainstream excitement and fascination of the market, where the monetary value is never completely out of mind but for this project it has been temporarily kept out of sight. The collections of objects concerned are specific to the campus of the College of Fine Arts, Bangalore.

The accepted logical resting place of objects created in an art academy is an art gallery or a museum. Apart from a few trial and error works most of the artists keep in mind the gallery space, the frame and/or the pedestal – keeping the issue of Installations and new media works under wraps for the moment. However, in such concentrated profusion of creativity (as in an art institute), certain artifacts and objects are positioned into an uncertain existence where the ‘actual’ purpose becomes obscure - the ‘actual’ purpose, also being the logical one, is its display in a legitimate space and further open for appropriate negotiations. The multitude of such objects further reduces its ‘unique’ status. The combined spectacle of such sculptures and certain remnants of sculptures-that-were, are on permanent display around the year within the campus premises. The individual identity of these objects is somewhere misguided and a cognitive image of it (could also be a collective image) is retained as a flexible substitute. The physical realities of these objects are testimony to the frozen thoughts that refuse to adapt any further.

It is all in the mind.

It is the appropriation of the idea that governs the journey of the object until another path has been visualized for it. Repositioning of random images triggers momentary variations in cerebral activities and subsequently the order of the ideas and visuals within the larger assembly of the picture gets re-organized. This story of visual and narrative alteration is at the core of lowbrow entertainment. Don’t get bamboozled by randomness, the various designs of images and ideas born by ‘chance’ are guided by many forces. The ‘elemental role of chance’ adds excitement to an ongoing routine of activities. It serves as a comic relief in a seemingly stiff environment of institutional norms. After all, ‘comics’ is a big and calculated business.

These fragmented visions of a past demonstrates the idea of simulacra where random bits of related audio-visual materials are presented in a distinct order, prodding the audience to see into an organized space of re-collections of my memory. At the first glance itself, the purpose of my work has already been conveyed. There is now a random collection of images and ideas. The participation of the viewers involves the breaking up of the intended construct, wherein each fragment prompts a whole new set of experiences.