Practice is the daily ‘work’ (as verb) of art. It represents the sum of all the moves – practical, conceptual, affective, cognitive, philosophical, analytical and aesthetic – that occupies/de-occupies the state of our triangulation at any given point of time. Being contingent, this practice is a shape-shifting thing, prone to surprise itself as much it surprises others. Like a mycelial inhabitation, indeterminate and unbounded, it expands.
.MOV.ESSAYS | .MP4.PLUS | DEVICES | GATHERINGS | INTERFERENCES | INTERRUPTIONS | LEXICA | LOOPS | UNLEDGERED
1980 in Parallax Exhibition at Jencks Foundation at The Cosmic House, United Kingdom (2023) Raqs finds correspondence with Charles Jencks’ work as designer, critic, historian, concrete poet and artist, and with his Post-Modernist manifesto and former home turned Grade I listed museum, The Cosmic House. The concept of parallax describes the changing perception of objects […]
soDA magazine 19, Zurich (2002); Casebook (2014, AGYU Canada), Raqs presented the concept of “Event-shaped Hole” which translated into the essay The Event-shaped Hole and the Photographic Image in The Nordic Journal of Aesthetics, 2021 Casebook (2014, AGYU Canada) A photograph is an image of an event-shaped-hole, and as witnesses to such perforations we could […]
Intimate Intimidation Readymade canopy, radiation hazard sign inscribed as a pattern in salt on the floor (240 x 240 cm) The Laughter of Tears, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2021) Every willful misstep, every greedy grab, is an intimate intimidation to our own longer future. How do we stay together, in care of each other, when the fold of […]
The Coarse Fabric of Being Human 22 hand-tufted carpets 61 × 76 cm each The Laughter of Tears, Kunstverein Braunschweig, Germany (2021) The only actually shared sensation is the present continuous tense. It reconstitutes, everyday, the coarse fabric of being human, rearranging the atoms of collective experience. Fleeting epiphanies crowd, asking – like auguries – […]
A Gathering of Birds Audio loop with 3 Speakers Duration: 32:41 In the sonic range of the flight-path of a gathering of birds, we momentarily transmit to each other. We surpass contours of containment, and need no translation to be contagious.
Unledgered Installation Portals, Stories, and Other Journeys curated by Michelle Wong Tai Kwun Contemporary, JC Contemporary, Hong Kong (2021) The exhibition was based on Asia Art Archive’s research since 2014 into the personal archive of the late Hong Kong–based artist Ha Bik Chuen (1925–2009) In 2016, when Raqs Media Collective first visited Ha’s studio in […]
The Course of Love Sculpture using faceted Lenticular panels, with Found Boat Setouchi Triennale | Honjima (2019) Setouchi Triennale | Honjima wataru funa-bito / the boatman lost the rudder. kaji-wo tae / the boat is now adrift yukue mo shiranu / not knowing where it goes. koi no michi kana / is this the course […]
Toxicity in Equal Measure Layered sheets with perforations on felt, leather, rubber, copper, steel, cardboard, fabric and acrylic, with gold impressions. 22 frames, 1 ft. X 1 ft. each Project 88 | Mumbai (2018) A singular array of surfaces in materials that range from leather to metal celebrate the essential instability of all substances. Nothing […]
Re-Run | 2013 Video loop ‘Extra Time’ at Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (2013) | ‘Untimely Calendar’ at NGMA, New Delhi (2014) | ‘Raqs Media Collective’ at K21, Dusseldorf (2018) Henri Cartier-Bresson took a photograph of a bank run in Shanghai in December 1948: A crowd of people desperate to get their money out of a bank in […]
Alive, with Cerussite and Peppered Moth 3D printed PLA plastic, cast polyester resin, plywood and video projections Architectural Collaborators: Palak Jhunjhunwala and Stratis Georgiu Exhibition History: Whitworth, Manchester (2017) Mathaf, Doha (2018) Palais de Tokyo, Paris (2020) This architectural installation speaks to the evolution of materials and living forms across alternative time epochs. The 3D printed structure represents crystal […]
Utsushimi (2017 – ongoing) Double Image / Token / Emanation Materialized Architectural Drawing in Illuminated Wireframe Site specific installation at Suzu City, Oku-Noto Triennale, Japan
Asankh/ Countless | 2014 Digital Print on ACP, acrylic (6 x 4 ft.) | Untimely Calendar, solo show at NGMA (2014) The material infinitude that makes up the real world, Raqs argues, is a swirling, entangled mass of vital, corporeal wills to live and exist actualized as forms of matter and sentience. Infinity has room […]
Six photographic prints 2 x 2 ft. each Exhibited at Untimely Calendar, NGMA, New Delhi (2014) Reading the censored letters of soldiers from the Indian sub-continent writing home in the First World War becomes a way to make a picture of the world. In this work, a selection of their letters also become a way […]
Text, Illumination and Surface Modification of an Abandoned House 24 Jor Bagh, Delhi (2013) The House of Everything and Nothing is an exploration of the infinity of worlds that Raqs Media Collective inhabit. In 2013, Raqs asked a software programmer to come up with an algorithm that could help render the pattern generated data harvested […]
Time Capsule from 2011 (TO BE OPENED IN 2061) Aluminum box with contents (39 x 29 x 32 cm) 6th Momentum Biennial, Moss, Norway (2011)
How to get from here to there Photographs mounted on acrylic glass, neon | Series of 6, each 64 x 94 x 10 cm Surjection, Art Gallery of York University, Toronto (2011) Seven photographic prints trace the journey of an illuminated vehicle across a liminal landscape. Neon letters, gesturing towards a terse but optimistic instruction, annotate each […]
More Salt In Your Tears Site-specific installation in the Baltic Sea with stainless steel, steel cable, wood, concrete anchors Contemporary Art Archipelago, Turku, Finland (2011) More Salt In Your Tears is a text sculpture composed of three dimensional stainless steel letter-forms anchored on to a shallow section of seabed of the Baltic Sea near Turku, Finland. […]
A Dying Man Sings Of That Which Felled Him Installation with rebar, furniture, closed circuit video Sub-contingent, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006). Bombaysers de Lille, Maison Folie Moulins, Lille (2006-07) “A dying man sings of that which felled him” presents its viewer with a silent song of a thousand words, a bier of iron […]
3 Caveats On A Barewall | 3 Caveats To Be Worn Casually Installation of bilingual wall texts and wrist band inscriptions Sub-contingent, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rebaudengo, Turin (2006) “3 Caveats…” are a set of inscriptions designed to be read on a bare wall, or worn as wristbands, that ask questions about viewership, curation, exhibition and […]
Preface to a Ghost Story, 2005, is a series of black-and-white vignettes that tell the tale of an ‘unknown citizen’ who has leaped to his death, leaving behind a make-do archive for a gathering of shadows.
A Measure of Anacoustic Reason | 2005Installation with 1 projection, 4 screens, 4 dialogues, 4 lecterns, 4 benches with embedded speakers, lightbox | Exhibited at India Contemporary, Venice Biennale (2005), Thermocline of Art, Zentrum fur Kunst und Medientechnologie, Karlsruhe (2007), There has been a change of plan, Nature Morte, New Delhi (2006) A Measure of […]
Location: 28° 28′ N, 77° 15′ ETime Zone: – | – | UTC/GMT +5.30 HoursAirports: 1Inhabitants: 10,009,200 (Delhi), 16, 713,200 (Including Agglomeration) 24 x CD Players, Headphones and 24 x 5 Minute Audio Loops/MP3 | F.0037.0000 A sound work about moving into, and circulating within the city of Delhi – a magnet as well as a […]
Coordinates of Everyday Life
3 videos, 1 floor vinyl, 10,000 stickers for city walls
Co-ordinates 28.8N 77.15E. Installation using video screens, sound, print, and stickers
Documenta 11, Kassel, Germany (2002); CityOne conference, Sarai/CSDS Delhi (2003); The Roomade Office for Contemporary Art, Brussels (2003); Image Asia, Copenhagen (2003); Adaptations, curated by Craig Buckley, at Apex Art gallery in New York (2004); Fredrecianum, Kassel (2004); Digital Discourse, Malta (2005 – 2006).
