31 Days, 2020
Video with Calligraphy, Pixels, Sound
Duration: 17:45 mins
The Laughter of Tears, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2021); The Pandemic Circle at Stamps Gallery, Penny W. Stamps School of Art & Design, Expo Chicago – online (2020) and CC: World, Haus der Kulturen der Welt- online, Berlin (2020)
A conversation in images, missives to selves and world, mood swings in lockdown and a share in the planet’s lucid dreams during a global pandemic. Gleaned from a month’s worth of the habit, within Raqs, of a regular chatter, the daily back and forth of things seen, heard, read and sensed between three people across decades. From the dawn of new feelings to the obstinate sediment of images that don’t let themselves be unseen. Disappearing ephemera, history in the making, the scene that unfolds in the corner of the eye – everything, and nothing. Real, imagined, and everywhere in between. Notes of pictures that whisper, speak in tongues, and sometimes leap, from hibernation to upheaval.
To: me
Cc: All
A chicken farm bites the edge of a forest.
A factory worker buys duck soup.
A nurse falls asleep after three continuous shifts.
An elephant gets lost in a village.
A pregnant migrant feels feverish.
One gram of an un-living thing multiplies across thousands of bodies.
-(from the text of the handwritten film, “31 Days”, 2020)
(email us on studio@raqsmediacollective.net to request access)