Skip to main content

infiltrated?

What are the important questions in my art?




At the centre of my practice is the kavadi ( a burden that is carried during Thaipusam and could involve piercing the skin, tongue or cheeks with vel skewers).
Kavadi to me is the ultimate prosthesis to modify our rhythm, our gestures and our movements

What has modification of movement got to do with my work?
I firmly believe that all our gestures and rhythms are influenced by our acts of worship.
These rituals of worship has gradually eroded away the freedom of our movement. Liturgical inculturation moves both ways.

Another way of putting this is to think about how we are always trying to become one with god. In preparation for our death we restrict our physical self.  We fetter our movements and try to align ourselves with god. There is an assumption here that the rhythm of the universe is different from yours and a realignment is a prerequisite to a godly existence.
All of our movements suddenly become suspect. They have been infiltrated. How can we relook at all that we do with fresh eyes? Is it even possible?

There is this idea in martial arts, dance  and certain occult studies that link the material with the immaterial. This energy/rhythm or prana in Sanskrit, is developed through breathing and coordinated movement of the body.  Could this be a better basis to our gestures, rhythms and movements?

I believe that to rediscover  freedom in our movements, our gestures and rhythms we need to start challenging the way our bodies gesticulates and the way we move. To reshape, we need to traumatise our bodies, to renew the link between the body and the spirit, the material and the immaterial.

What can we learn from these observations?
How do we align ourselves with god? Why and how do we seek death?
How does worship and martial arts and dance compare? What can we learn about our movements from these disciplines?

What will be a general statement about my work?

Popular posts from this blog

The turban trap

There is quite a bit of traffic on the road. And as usual there is no place anywhere to park. Large letters in Roman and Gurmukhi script in the front of a slightly rundown white building tells me I have arrived.   Apart from a few cars  the place is quite empty.  Gurudwara Guru Nanak Darbar of Ballsbridge is a large standalone building in a quiet gentrified surburb of Dublin. The usual pungent yellow and navy  marks its gates and its facade, superimposed with the sikh emblem. A triangular  flag is being tugged hard by the sudden gushes of autumnal wind. I make my way into the temple through its large wooden doors having first removed my shoes.  I have come to talk to the gurudwara priests about the sikh turban. My journey with the turban has spanned 5 years and is an integral part of my art practice. The turban and the south Indian kavadi makes up the part of my research on god-prosthesis. My starting point is the ubiquitous believe that normal...

Irish artist Mary Duffy

I recently started working the Irish artist and actress Mary Duffy. Together we hope to query the priority given to the hand as the highest tool of human gestures in worship. If you watched the  2006 movie 'Fur' with Nicole Kidman  playing the American photographer Diane Arbus and Robert Downey,Jr. playing her mentor, you will encounter Althea portrayed wonderfully by Mary Duffy.

Digital archives and activism

Its the crack of dawn on a wet Irish Sunday. A grey pall hangs over a Dublin driven to mourning.  All is quiet. Alina and I silently look over our plans for the day over mugs of hot tea. The studio lights are on and the set is ready for the day's shoot. For the umpteenth time, I observe Alina working with the movement of thought through her body. In her silent contemplation, with the slightest shiver in her shoulders, she is redefining her anatomy, freeing her limbs, negotiating gravity and committing to memory. I marvel at the way she gets movement, with barely a glance at the research material I have prepared for her. We are working on a what I call the 'hosanna' gestures today. I have identified some 90 of them. We will get through them quickly. I have spent the last 3 years on a long term research project to archive gestures, movements and rhythms of worship to understand their impact on our everyday lives.  I wanted to know how our movements are limited by centuri...