Constant Motion | 2018
Time-Based Media
Glass Shelves, Glass Beakers, Silver Nitrate Solution, Copper wire, 2 channel video, Internet
Size: Variable
The work addresses the paradox - the crisis of population growth and the scarcity of resources in India. The work is comprised of an installation of chemical reactions (Cu(s) + 2AgNO3(aq) -------> Cu(NO3)2(aq) + 2Ag(s)) , 2 channel video projection (one on the installation and another displayed on TV screen) and a live interface of a website displaying the current population growth and decline of the world and different nations. The chemical reaction becomes the metaphor, where the precious silver is perceived as human beings and the poisonous copper nitrate as the environment in which we as human beings are sustaining. Growth is the central element of this work.
Glass containers on glass shelves containing copper wire dipped in the solution of silver nitrate, with silver displacing the copper and the growth of ephemeral silver crystals can be seen inside the containers on which the video is projected. These on-going reactions are at different points in time, as they were started on different days and at a different time. The work is understood as a captured moment from the on-going, the present and the passing in the process of movement, change, growth, decay, death, birth, and evolution.
The 2D animation is an extension of my drawings "Random Order", which is perceived as an absurd intervention between the real, virtual and created which rolls in-between the macroscopic and microscopic, layers of growth and the idea of zooming in and zooming out, keeping the viewer afar from the actual concern. The animation of these drawings is where the surreal drawings start to obtain meaning leading to magical realism. When the video is projected on the glass containers containing the on-going chemical reaction, there is the revelation of forms which come into existence with the interplay of light and shadow.
This small screen hanging in the corner with a live update on world population demographics (http://www.worldometers.info/world-population/), where the viewer can interact and see the statistics of population growth and decline of different countries and regions. I indicate an entry point and an exit point where the viewer too, participates in the story-making, furthering the narrative by using the means of the internet.
The project took place in:
Khoj International Artists' Association, New Delhi
Supported by,
Khoj International Artists' Association, New Delhi
and
Inlaks Shivdasani Foundation, India
http://www.inlaksfoundation.org/
Constant Motion by Manjot Kaur on Youtube