There has always
been an act of transformation either in my sculptures or my films, since I
first started appreciating the work I make. Recalling my undergraduate degree
on painting and drawing, I initially endeavoured to accomplish this process on
canvas; but it didn’t work really.
Following my
transfer to the world of material and making as well as storytelling with
moving image, I have discovered that I can literally trigger a replacement in
the state and condition of matter and situations. Unreliable though
indispensible kinetics, ceaseless water, and ephemeral organic constituents of
my sculptures have since been the real performers of my symbiotic art life.
On the other
hand, my films had a slightly different path, despite the use of all above
mentioned within those videos. With Being
an Ear Guest to a Gossip, transformation took the form of alchemical
transmutation; and with 69 metaphysics became the main methodology in
rediscovering the substance of wind, which is harvested from an egg, after
complicated cycle of actions.
 |
| C G Jung, Psychology and Alchemy |
Maintaining a
metaphysical pattern, Beyond is Before -as
the name implies- plays with time structures, shuffling the orthodox chronology
of the linear perception of time. At this very moment, I would like to mention
the Yupno people of Papua New Guinea; who bear a wonderful spatial
understanding of time, as opposed to our boring western way of accepting time
as a straight line running through our body: No doubt we would indicate past as
behind, and future extending in front of us. According to Anil Ananthaswamy’s beautiful
article in New Scientist, time for Yupno people flows uphill and is not even
linear! Rafael Nunez of the University of California, and his team discovered
that the tribespeople at this particular part of the world use gestures
designating past as downhill, in the direction of the mouth of the local river;
and the future, towards the river’s source, which lies uphill from Gua, the
village of Yupno people. This topographic conception of time is believed to be
history related; rooting from how ancestors of Yupno arrived to the land by sea
and climbed up the high mountain to settle; thus lowlands would represent past,
and time flows uphill. In an indoor situation, Nunez realised that the Yupno
always point towards the doorway when talking about the past, and away from the
door to indicate the future no matter what the orientation of the house is!
This situation proves that time doesn’t have to process in a linear platform,
flowing from past to future; which is predominantly a western illusion.
 |
| New Scientist, 2 June 2012 |
‘Beyond is
Before’ is a work in progress, experimenting with the idea of ‘regression’,
going backwards in time every single moment we think we are entering the
future. In this entropic, post-apocalyptic world, matter transforms into its
raw material once placed in a chest acting as a one-way time machine. In this
alternative world, religion evolved into a futuristic form of folk-religion
where Islamic beliefs and worshipping hybridised with the technological and
industrial remnants of 21st century. No water, nor oil in this
future, so alternatives are proposed.
I think this is
enough giving away, before leaving snowy Glasgow for the magical deserts of
Dubai. 90 minutes left to leave
Glasgow for our flight…
Very
exciting!!!!!
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