There is still a hollow feeling everytime i try to explain my subject to someone.
I know what the box is.
I know why i have chosen it as a metaphor.
I have defined it as a form and a character and i have pitched it against another, man.
I have defined that there is a relationship between these two characters and it is not always of equal (?)
What is my context though. It was really hard for me to understand that word. I thought i had defined it earlier. Context. Under what Context do i speak? I have a background, i have content but What is the platform upon which i firmly stand, the platform that would define how i would say it?
I had used the word cynical earlier, but what do these words truly mean. We use them but do we fully understand them?
So once again, what is the context that would define how i say the things i say.
eg: i speak of love but how do i speak of it? with hatred? and how would that tone of voice define how i treat my images? Does personal experience define how i see my subject?
What do i feel about the relationship between box and man? I say it disturbs me.
What about it disturbs me? What is the current nature of their relationship that i have a problem with.
Where would i position myself when i speak of the box? Am i inside the box? Am i standing on top of the box? Am i standing to its left? Playing with placement? Inner space of the box and the outer space of the box. How are the two different?
So what do i want the viewer to take away from the exhibit? What is their relationship to the box like? Or what would they like their relationship to the box to be? To be in a state of consciously being able to make that choice.
That aside, a lot of people are comfortable being consumed by the 'box', what do i say to them? And what do i say to those who accept that they have been consumed. Then what? What is in it for them?
Sometimes the box is victim and at times it is man. However this brings me back to questioning, is the box conscious at all?
The box is not conscious. We make it conscious. We pretend that it is conscious and we as humans like doing that. We say facebook is bad for you.
People blame computers and technology. People blame institutions. People label other people, bracket them.
On the other hand, the box can be viewed as nothing more than a reference point / guidelines / the rules of the game. Norms and laws to make life easier and there is always the bunch who tries to break them. The adverse outcomes of progress? the academic and the ones who say "to hell with all that". Inner space and outer space?
So what is my context? My platform as an artist speaking about this subject.
The box is crippling us. rephrase. You are being crippled by the box. Rephrase. You are crippling yourself.
You went from being a 4 legged animal to a 2 legged animal to fend for yourself. You were a hunter and thats how you evolved.
With the introduction of the box, you have regressed, thereby minimizing your survival instinct. Put yourself first? Break out of those comfort zones. Break out of those boxes.
However corny, I am standing on a platform where i see a more fulfilled life. A sense of adventure. You are fee. Also to consciously choose how you place yourself in relation to the box. You have the power to get creative and there in attain a certain spiritual side that one may have lost not knowingly...
This becomes my context. Would i now look at my subject through the eyes of a cynic?
The context is followed by my background.
Synopsis. Simply put.
Man has made the box.
The box works for man.
Man has made the box with the intention to stack store duplicate multiply draw etc.
Box is man's symbol for a simpler more efficient life.
Somewhere along the line, man ordering the box to do what he wanted has slowly become the box ordering man to do what it wants.
The box is now man's burden and man, the beast of that burden.
SET YOUR BRIEF!
Specifics.
I was talking to Bharath and Ramya about my project and a few areas of blank space were highlighted. Something that would help link the form and everything i've read and written about the box.
We were speaking of structure and that being something i lacked currently. Even context. An added texture that i could supply to my idea.
Context. Specifics.
Is it a time that i am speaking about? Is it an event that i am illustrating by constructing these metaphors.
My current narrative / images are very generic and applicable right from the french revolution to the bhopal gas tragedy. So how can i give it more focus and leave it amorphous to great extent.
Coming back to something i had thought of some time ago. Familiar and the unfamiliar. Go with it.
Also all this while i kept looking at it as me not seeing myself in it / not having a personal side to it. I felt the whole idea becoming to generic.
But actually the whole thing right now was more personal over anything else. The box and all its attributes and characteristics is something only i have observed and appropriated. It was my personal interpretation to everything around me. What was missing was what makes this idea universal. Context.
No comments:
Post a Comment