Description

Two channel video. Installed as projections on a wall and object. Room open on three sides 13’ x 10’ x 40’, (variable). Water dye black, 5’ deep (variable). 13 minute loop with sound.

The sculptural shape in water can be read as a mountain/ mound/rock (painted fibreglass). Projection at the back is 13 ft wide x 10 ft high (size variable). These are the exact dimensions of the room/enclosure built on the pool. The pool water was dyed black to get a good reflection.

The back projection shows a traffic junction in old Delhi from dawn to afternoon. People going about their chores. Eventually the traffic gets extremely jammed and busy with tongas (horse carriages), Pedal rickshaws, pushcarts, buffalo-carts, trucks, buses, etc., and even a ‘caravan’ of elephants. At key moments the traffic gets speeded up and even begins to rush furiously backwards. The entire traffic from time to time is submerged under a sea of water.

The man who is dressed in a cloak of burlap-sacking (not unlike Indian labourers on building sites) looks like a monk who is carrying a sack over his shoulder. As we hear the constant traffic sound combined with various sounds of stock-market reports, medical advice, commentaries, television advertisements etc. the man goes through various emotional states and transformations. At one time a burning book passes through his body (instantly we see a swarm of burning books shooting over the traffic). He lurches forward and fades into the rock behind him. A cave mouth appears in his place. In it we see a ‘beetle struggling on his back’, a ‘vulture circling the sky’, a ‘man balancing on a fallen tree in a forest’ and finally ‘children playing on sand dunes’. We hear their laughter and the man re-emerges. He shrugs and roars like a lion and changes into ‘gold’. The mountain/mound changes into gold as he fades into it. The sea behind changes into gold as well as we hear strains of a Sufi song.