A study on making multiples of an image by tracing. Each drawing is different from the other. Certain basic criteria are imposed on the process, such as materials: Black ink, blue transfer paper and watercolor paper.

The process reveals natural limits for the number of ways one thing can be duplicated, given the imposed criteria. The process begins with an image from memory – which is deferred from the original subject of choice as such. Every tracing made out of this deferred image then, is further removed; differing in meaning and constitution. Both form and process of formation are evident.

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The process of replicating an image from a photograph furthers my exploration of images as metaphors, symbols or signs. The act of tracing from a photograph exaggerates the idea of substitution or a “supplement” and a continuous transformation and adaptation in its ‘meaning’. The particular image of an old grotto from the grounds of Strathmore, seems misplaced in a transformed function of Strathmore as a music, arts and education center. This de-contextualized object (grotto) is deconstructed by processes of tracing (supplementation), displacement (the dualities of outside and inside) and re-contextualization (the installation being site-specific) in an effort to identify paradoxes that exist in everyday life, that otherwise go easily unnoticed.

A quick first exploration of the grounds at Strathmore. The mansion has gone through a number of transformations, not just physically but in its functions as well. This is very interesting to me in how I think about the residency here – the adaptation and transformation, the additions and subtractions – to explore the nature of intervention and alteration.

Some of the ideas being considered either separately or to be combined:

• Intervention, alteration and memory
• Logic of signs and the impossibility of consistent meaning
• Topology and homeomorphic formations

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Faster than fairies, faster than witches,
Bridges and houses, hedges and ditches;
And charging along like troops in a battle
All through the meadows the horses and cattle:
All of the sights of the hill and the plain
Fly as thick as driving rain;
And ever again, in the wink of an eye,
Painted stations whistle by.
Here is a child who clambers and scrambles,
All by himself and gathering brambles;
Here is a tramp who stands and gazes;
And here is the green for stringing the daisies!
Here is a cart runaway in the road
Lumping along with man and load;
And here is a mill, and there is a river:
Each a glimpse and gone forever!

Robert Louis Stevenson

Born and raised in India, one gets used to having routines, traditions and events that happen regardless of how many things one has to get accomplished in a day. It gives a sense of belonging, a sense of continuity and stability. It also aids in slowing down time, in my experience.

Contrary to this, living in the U.S., it is interesting to think about the overload of information available and the speed at which we experience information through a multitude of media at present. Will this  increasing speed in information-flow cause for a ‘slowing down’ of how we experience time eventually? After all, an increase in speed through space (even cyber space) does cause for a decrease in speed through time.

“In one line, nothing gets together, nothing scatters” – Kazuaki Tanahashi, known for his one-stroke paintings / calligraphy

Kazuaki Tanahashi – Dot