Done and Dusted’ and ‘Erase’, two artworks at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale, have invited the curiosity of several visitors at Fort Kochi’s Aspinwall House.
Justin Ponmany’s ‘Done and Dusted’ is a two-channel video installation showcased in a dark interior of a hall.
The 5:11-minute picturisation has an old man as the protagonist, contorting his face into different expressions as he comes up with various noises typical of an average human being at his age. The artist says his installation seeks to ask the ultimate philosophical question: “Who am I?”
A set of stairs made of gunny-bags leads a visitor to Srinivasa Prasad’s ‘Erase’, a suspended installation made of a network of bamboo poles and sheaves.
Infrequent and intriguing sounds come out of the tunnel-like structure when visitors throw their voice to a receptacle. The belief is that it can help the person leave behind all negativity. Prasad, 38, hailing from Sagara in Karnataka, says the ephemeral nature of these acts is suggestive of the reassurances offered by rituals despite the impermanence of the experience.
Amusingly for the visitor, a little away from Aspinwall House, there is a biennale installation that requires stairs to even take a peek of it. For, Lucknow-born and Delhi-based Anita Dube’s light-and-shade installation is on the attic of the old-time godown called the Pepper House.
Up there, the mixed-media and sound installation has actually a board inviting the visitor to “climb the ladder and experience” the sight above it.
