KOCHI:
“Is that what I really look like?” the visitor is bound to ask at the video installation titled ‘Dream Stop’ at Durbar Hall, a venue of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale (KMB) 2016. The work by Gary Hill, the pioneer of m
ultimedia art, takes the visitor through multiple strolling versions of themselves.
The video installations at the 108-day international art spectacle are attracting crowds for the amazing new dimension it adds to art. Out of the 97 works at the Biennale, there are 39 video installations.
Hill’s work uses 32 spy cams, concealed in a large circular aluminium frame suspended from the ceiling, to splinter gallery visitors into 32 overlapping images of themselves. Walk around its centrepiece and, on various quadrants of the gallery walls, you’ll see yourself in various angles in various sizes: upside down, right-side up, magnified, miniaturised, melting together, sliding apart. The one thing you won’t get is a straightforward shot of yourself.
“I am excited in juxtaposing aesthetics with conceptual art in the video installation,” says Hill.
Artist Kabir Mohanty features a four-hour long video titled ‘Song for an Asian land’ at Aspinwall.
“Video installations are becoming a parallel form of art. The presence of such art forms will highlight the diversity of this Biennale,” said KMB ‘16 curator Sudarshan Shetty.
Artist Mikhail Karikis has come up with a 10-minute long video clip documenting the life of 10 to 13-year-old boys from the militarised industrial marshland in southeast England. The artist shot the video after spending almost a year with the children.
“Apart from being different from the other art forms, these video installations have the unique capability to shed light on the unseen and unknown things,” said eminent filmmaker Adoor Gopalakrishnan, during his visit to KMB.
Artist and environmentalist Ravi Agarwal in his work ‘Sangam Dialogue’ uses multimedia to expose the continued colonisation of nature and pose questions about ecology and society.
The playful, theatrical video installation by Taiwanese artist Wu Tien-Chan titled ‘Farewell, Spring and Autumn Pavilions’ is even attracting children.
“Art becomes more accessible and transparent when an intelligent artist uses video as a medium. Video installations improve the art consciousness of the visitor,” said noted film director Shaji N Karun during his visit.
