Awardee Update: Tahireh Lal
Tahireh Lal is a 2016 Fine Art Awardee. She is an Indian contemporary artist. Her work deals with ideas of movement and stasis that stem from her mobile existence. She uses local contexts and materials to explore notions of time and home. Her ideas find expression in the form of video, installation and sculpture.
In this week’s post she shares a sneak peek about her exhibition, ‘Phototrope’, on view from 2nd to 10th July 2022 at Karnataka Chitrakala Parishath.
This body of work thinks of humans as beings of light in a universe held in place by darkness. Phototrope refers to the quality of plants to grow towards light as they seek photonic nourishment. Drawing from observations of light in natural and built environments, the works question ideas of human agency and interdependence from a feminist viewpoint.
Lal lives between Bangalore, Guwahati and rural Assam. This body of work contemplates the ways in which these juxtapositions compel new ways to exist, think, create and discover. In a hyper-awareness of the built environment, it accentuates human limitation. For the visual language of these works, Lal takes inspiration from navigations between these diverse spaces, both emotional as well as physical. In the pitch darkness of night-time journeys through wildlife corridors, the road is illuminated by headlights alone. The extent of the tarmac is revealed by the retroreflectors that dot the roadsides. Even within ourselves, we depend upon these pointers in darkness to lead us into unknowable futures. On the village dirt tracks, a solitary set of headlights, allows the moon, stars and fireflies to come out of hiding. Their night-time bioluminescence, in contrast to human finitude, indicates nature’s unceasing activity.
Star light…
Acrylic and LED lightboard on Teak, 10”by 78”, Installation View
Lal’s approach to materials and their usage is minimal and considered. In her practice she works with the inherent performativity of materials and amplifies them to generate artwork. The contexts in which she does this pose questions, inviting contemplation and meditation. For example in a previous installation titled “Sandcastles In The Air” sand is animated with magnets in real time, inviting a viewer to consider what it means to be mobile, upwardly mobile, to build, rebuild and have things break with no moment’s notice. Her disciplined approach to the graphic outcome is underscored with elements of joy, fun, wonder and curiosity. For this body of work she plays with retro-reflective stickers, wood, words, lenses, shadows, and wavelengths of light. This play is interfaced with the order of nature; the use of light sensitive materials probes the idea of ‘Phototrope’.
Some works in this series:
In The Twinkle Of Your Eye
Detail, Retroreflective Stickers on Somerset Velvet Black Archival Paper, 22” by 30”.
In The Twinkle Of Your Eye is a map of the visible stars in the night sky rendered in retroreflective stickers. Through the process of crafting and studying the various components of the piece - the map, the stickers, the codification, the mistakes along the way - the role of human agency becomes increasingly apparent. Humans didn’t put the stars in the sky, or did we? The map is of human making. We have noted only that which we can see. A pair of binoculars aiding the human eye makes many more stars visible. We are part of the natural systems we try to denote, discover and understand. We are limited and propelled by the capabilities of our evolving knowledge systems, technologies and bodies.
Moonlight is a series of the moon-phases. These are digital prints on retroreflective material. Our closest neighbour, the largest, brightest object in the night sky is a beautiful, lifeless, reflector of sunlight - all the brighter for the five manmade retroreflectors placed on her surface. Intimately associated with Earth’s life giving is the moon’s lack of life. Yet, the moon is part of Earth’s life- giving system, and moving outward, the sun, our source of energy, the gaseous giants, the heliosphere are all part of our life-giving system. The sun itself while moving through space is held in place by forces of the Milky Way galaxy. From atoms to the universe, this is a scaling pattern. Where does one life giving system begin and another end? A chaos filled and fuelled intricate cosmic dance has somehow resulted in human sentience.
Moonlight
Installation Sample View, All 8 sections, Digital UV Print on Retroreflective Vinyl on Somerset Velvet Black Archival Paper, Each section 22” by 30”, Total Area 30” by 14.6 ft
Phototrope, the eponymous light board, is one of three text works in this series. Dendrochronology is the study of annual tree rings which indicate the lifespans of the trees and the conditions which they have survived to get there. The grain in wood documents the passage of time and the effect of light. The word ‘phototrope’ deconstructs to tropes of light. What does it mean to be a trope of light? Think ‘enlightenment’, ‘luminary’ and ‘radiant. As the world continues to struggle with aftermath of this pandemic and the wreckage of grief left in its wake, grief that is part of the human condition, light comes to mean more than roshni or helios. It is where we hope our loved ones have gone, where we will one day join them, where those we leave behind will join us. Light becomes a coordinate-less place of hope and eternity.
Sundial
Stone 36” diameter, Metal base 24” diameter 36” height, Planter, Plant
In the contemplation of light, darkness is ever present; embedded in vivifying forces, coexist those that extinguish life. As we meander through these cycles in one lifetime the weight of our cumulative efforts as a civilization become increasingly enmeshed with our individual and daily acts of survival. With the reality of fatal viruses, bio and nuclear war looming large, ours is a world dealing with the ravages of grief and uncertainty. The knowledge our species has of the natural order within which we live, and act is far from complete. There is much that we do not yet know, and this requires us to address the ecological crisis with caution, urgency and gregariousness.
From long drives through Assam, watching the shadows of trees and meditating on the loss of loved ones, this body of work deeply appreciates the world which allows us to think, create, discover, live and love.
Cover Image: Phototrope, Acrylic and LED lightboard on Teak, 6.5” by 15”.
All Images are Courtesy the Artist.
