Experiences & Experiments
The exhibit was compiled as a series of experiments to understand the complex implications of white; as an entity, beyond its assumed neutral-ness in colour. Ironically, this fact served as a open canvas for us to explore the intended ideas.
The sensitisation process began from the outside (of the gallery space) itself — where posters compiled different meanings of white; a mural, visible at certain angles of light, delved into the multiple forms of white; a spectrum of the different shades of white, showcased through different intensities of light — all adding to the idea that white can be at once, one and many — a constant pretext to all the exhibits
Experiment 1 — decaying gratification
White adopts its various forms - from warm and vivid liveliness to cold and clinical moroseness - often over the passage of time or based on its surroundings. Three flowers were framed and left as is. Over the course of 3 weeks, they were photographed everyday at 6 pm to create a timeline of how each flower decomposed and reveal unique and evident (across many forms) ageing processes.
The reactions were individual and based on its water composition and textural nature of each flower. The wax - like white anthurium decomposed first followed by a progressive soiling of the paper like bougainvillea. The `wispy gypsophila appeared to loose colour at first but look on a web of white fungus as the weeks progressed. An intriguing approach to showcase this was generate these images as a negative image where dark spots appeared white and vice versa, commenting on the multiplicity of white existing in life and decomposition alike.
EXPERIMENT 2 — White Textures
The exhibit was divided into a series of experiments that could be undertake to understand WHITE as a complex entity, beyond simply implying a colour.
White can be represented as a spectrum of visual images and corresponding textures. Certain sensations evoke specific mental vocabularies that are often relegated to memories rather than the words itself. This wall is a compilation of the words, the nostalgia and familiarising of easy and uneasy textures.
Experiment 3 — Prism Kaleidoscope
“Forget yesterday and sorrow, fly with me to my ever living world of tomorrow,
And dwell with me in my nest, my fiery nest, of kaleidoscopic vision and beauty
A real world, a rare world of being
ALIVE”
A visual exploration of breaking WHITE into its individual components, to investigate and let loose its wild profusion. #SafeTripping
Experiment 4 — Vivid compilations
Tanmay Chowdhury x The Space At 9/2
A compilation of footages from Tanmay's travels to the Kumbh Mela and exploratory trips in Calcutta. As the viewer moves from one scene to the other, they are made aware of the constant movement between predominantly ‘white spaces’ to one where white appears as a secondary visual element - more as a negative space - between physical objects. This is made obvious by positioning of colour points in the colour graph picked up from the artists video editing software. The X - Y axis space represents pixels that move towards white on the top of the graph and black towards the bottom of this space. It is interesting to note how each object in the frames occupy their points relative to their apparent colour.
experiment 5 — mapping choreographies between multiplicities
In the video & space installation ‘Transient Multiplicity’ the gallery space itself becomes the landscape to document movements between WHITES’ extremes, i.e. spectrum -- white light; neutral -- all-encompassing; everything -- nothing., where the passage of people leaves traces and echoes as trajectories. These trajectories function as metaphors to movements between the axes/dualities.
Mapping these observable choreographies highlights choices made by people in public spaces and makes comparable an individual (white) vs a group’s (black) movements. The projection on the wall showcases said choreographies which are then collated and translated onto the floor of the exhibition space. Viewers are invited to follow a prescribed choreography or compare with their own as an addition to their experience today.
experiments 6 - 8
Invited experiments
The exhibit also hosted multi - disciplinary artists presenting their interpretation of white, through a media of their practice. This featured:
White — ALIVE by ISHA PIMPALKHARE, whose sensory textiles were an apt representation of white as a living, breathing entity
White Textures by SARA AWWAD
Basking Moonlight by PREETANJALI PASARI, worked with the idea of the textures of the moon and white flowers that bloom under the silvern white moonlight; to incorporate them as a multi sensory (smell, texture and imagination) journey through taste.