Working with sign language

In worship, posture, movement and gesture are important elements along with words, rituals and music. But what is gesture? Unfortunately we often, use the term gesture more or less synonymously to movement, action or motion. Gestures are supplements to language. If we want to read meaning, we look at gestures. A more nuanced way of thinking of gestures is that it brings order to attitude of movements of the body. This attitudes of movements carry a certain semiotic significance that are important to all our communication, with god or otherwise.

Our gestures promote the involvement of body, mind and spirit in the act of worship.I am interested to discover how this happens. Here's where sign language comes in. How does sign language compare to gesture? How does it compare to spoken language? Sign language is gestural. It is like speech as in it has a gestural component.Where does the sign stop and the gesture begin? Is sign language a complex systems of gestures developed over centuries? How can it help my inquiry into gestures of worship?

Secretly I believe that our gestures,rhythms and movements have been quietly infiltrated by various coded sets of movements through our unceasing prostration and worship to countless, invisible, indulgent gods over thousands of years, ever since we first conceived the idea of a higher being. What better way to investigate my claims then to use a beautiful and elaborate visual language system that might have developed over hundreds maybe thousand of years using gestures alone in their natural form without the spoken word.

In this series of works, I use handshape poetry through gestures, signs and dance to try to fathom the wonder that is 'kavadi', a hallowed prosthesis that lie at the center of my practice. We use the form, structure and sensitivity of handshapes associated with words like portable altar, pierced, self sacrifice, burden, trance and faith to strive towards an essence.

I strive towards an essence through rhythmic patterns of te following phrases and words.

portable altar/temple
burden ceremony
walking speared temple
pierced temple burden
sacrifice ceremony wow
pierce altar trance
faith burden pierce trance

wow
ceremony
sacrifice
tongue
skin
cheek
trance
sleepwalking
jesus
pierce
wound
sew
spear
altar
portable
faith
serve

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...

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