MOVED.

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City Memories

An experiment in reconstructing memory. Combining personal objects with projections of Mumbai city at night. Set up in one corner of my bedroom using the space as it was, without moving anything. This is process documentation and not the final work.

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Update 3rd May: Inspired by the collaborative work “Tobari no Akari” by Taro Morimoto, Yi Lu and me, I’ve reworked the image by looking at constructing a memory within a memory. The above video is projected on the same objects again in an attempt to reconstruct the previous composition and playing with specular representation of shadows and memory. 

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Group Critique

During the group critique I spoke about projecting the filmed cityscape outdoors, and the importance of capturing the essence of the city. Leigh Clarke reacted with a wide range of comments about the work. His main point was that the sound was more powerful than the time-lapse video since it allowed the audience to imagine a larger, more ambiguous space.

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Modern Drawings

Drawings of life in the city, and abstract dream cities. From the exhibition Picasso to Julie Mehretu, modern drawings from the British Museum collection [7th Oct 2010 to 25th April 2011].

People in a Cafe, 1917 by George Grosz. [Image Source]

Spain

This was a four day group project focussed on creating work based on our course inputs on artifice, site and place. During our presentation we spoke about our week long “trip” to spain, showing photographs, postcards and souvenirs from our travels. We also recounted interesting anecdotes about the journey. In the evening we organized an event around the “Spain” trip, exhibiting prints of our tourist photographs, postcards and a video of our journey to the airport. We also sold “Spanish” food, beer and candy to recover the cost of printing and attract a wider audience.

At the Loarre Castle, in Huesca, Spain

Shooting in Mumbai

My first time shooting without a crew. My second time doing a proper film shoot, ever.

Recording ambient sounds from the 25th floor in Thane:

Framing:

Museum Visit

A trip to London ended up at the British museum. Most of the work I found inspiring were from the Africa rooms:

Man’s Cloth. Recycled metal foil bottle-neck wrappers, copper wire. By El Anatsui, Ghana, 1998-2001. Image 1 Source. Detail photograph taken at the British Museum April 2011.

Throne of weapons, by Kester, Maputo, Mozambique, 2001. Made of decommissioned weapons from the Mozambican civil war in 1992. Exhibited at Room 25 Africa at the British Museum (April 2011).

Tree of Life Made by Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté. Maputo, Mozambique, 2004. Photo © 2005 Christian Aid / David Rose.

Part of the sculpture Tree of Life Made by Kester, Hilario Nhatugueja, Fiel dos Santos and Adelino Serafim Maté. Maputo, Mozambique, 2004. Photo by Aditi Kulkarni at the British Museum Room 25: Africa.

Dark Stuff

I stumbled on the work Dark Stuff (2008) while looking at random postcards being sold at the British Museum in London. Tim Noble and Sue Webster had created an impressive image inspired by Egyptian mummies, and it motivated me to look for more of their work. Then I found Sunset in Manhattan (2003).

Dark Stuff, 2008 by Tim Noble and Sue Webster
189 mummified animals (67 field mice, 5 adult rats, 42 juvenile rats, 44 garden shrews, 1 fox, 1 squirrel, 1 weasel, 13 carrion crows, 7 jackdaws, 1 blackbird, 1 sparrow, 1 robin, 1 toad, 1 gecko, 3 garden snail shells), glue, metal stands, light projector
[Visit Image Source]

Sunset over Manhattan, 2003
Cigarette packets, tin cans shot by air gun pellets, wooden bench, light projector
110 x 31 x 75 cm (431/3 x 121/4 x 291/2 in)
[Visit Image Source]

Here the use of rubbish combined with light and shadow creates a city that is recognizable as Manhattan, and at the same time makes an important comment about the place itself.

Genius Loci

In phase one I succeeded in defining my area of study, learning about projecting video, building installations, and the limitations involved. Phase two is about capturing a “feeling” of Mumbai. But what is this feeling, this intangible “sense of place,” and how can I create a space that communicates it effectively.

The city is a multi-layered, complex and rich experience. No one has identical perceptions of something that is so much in flux, so huge in scale. At the same time there is an underlying recognition of its flavour, a distinctive personality that can be called its Genius Loci. In trying to pinpoint this atmosphere of Mumbai, something which is intrinsic in my memories of the city, and which all Mumbaikars are familiar with, I questioned my original plan of building a 360 panorama in a closed studio space.

An outdoor location is one of the ways I plan to solve this riddle. Although it is technically difficult to build an installation outside a controlled studio set-up, I am of the opinion that the right place can physically represent the city, and communicate a lot more than well-edited video or sound ever could.

Projecting on Textures

Stumbling on the photograph below inspired me to explore projections on outdoor urban surfaces such as cement. The massive pillars give shape and personality to the projected paintings, changing their meaning.

“An extraordinary exhibition held in former bauxite mines in Provence. The hollow caves and pillars are used to project images, constantly changing and overlapping each other.” Photo and description by dorsetlass @ flickr.