Visiting the Rites of Spring
Marker pens on transparency sheets, gateway sheets and cellophane tape
Variable sizes stuck on windows at CAMAC, Marnay sur- Seine, 2013
The project that I planned for my residency at CAMAC centered around the idea of questioning the impact of architectural spaces on the everyday routines of people. Windows and doors become crucial elements that bring in daylight and connect us to the outside. The scenic beauty of CAMAC, situated on the banks of the Seine has had me transfixed to the views from its windows. The onset of spring also made me more sensitive to the changing landscape everyday.
Painting and drawing are my primary mediums and so I began my residency with two watercolours, while simultaneously working on drawings for the windows where my work and its physical context could integrate into one another. During the process of executing these drawings, I would often sit at the window and trace images of tree branches and other elements on the transparent sheets. The slightest shift in position or angle would change the trace. This change in optical perspective didn’t seem very different from human perception of experiences, where our views of a place, a situation or of people are but mere attempts at tracing an understanding of reality. Rarely do they match or coincide.
Not all of the works at the windows are traced from the views that are visible. However, it is upto each viewer to chance upon areas where the work may synchronise with the outside; and the rest is left as an imaginative narrative. That is what I believe magical places do- they live on through multiple stories of many minds.
Malavika Rajnarayan
Malavika Rajnarayan 