{"id":9872,"date":"2015-10-04T09:11:00","date_gmt":"2015-10-04T09:11:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/?p=9872"},"modified":"2025-01-16T11:11:18","modified_gmt":"2025-01-16T11:11:18","slug":"luminous-will","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/works.raqsmediacollective.net\/index.php\/2015\/10\/04\/luminous-will\/9872","title":{"rendered":"Luminous Will"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\n

Luminous Will
Solo Exhibition
School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2015)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

Does history repeat itself, or simply rehearse its moves in anticipation? Can we read chronicles in terms of deferrals and d\u00e9j\u00e0-vu rather than in terms of climaxes and closures?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Luminous Will<\/em> refers to an eponymous work by Raqs Media Collective, where the hands of the clock index words become phrases. The question of what is or can be a \u2018Luminous Will\u2019\u2014an illuminated, iridescent desire for life itself\u2014is central to the constellation of works that constitute the exhibition. The artists will transform the galleries into a habitat for thoughtfulness, affect, and the elaboration of a playful sense of plenitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n

Lost in Search of Time<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Steel, Matt Automotive Paint, Text, Electrics<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

While retrieving the time gained in searching for all that is lost and found one can admit to a condition that one suspects that one shares with most people in the world today, of being lost, in search of time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iterations shown at: The Whitworth, The University of Manchester, Manchester (2017)<\/strong><\/em> |K21, Museum for 21st Century Art, D\u00fcsseldorf (2018)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/a><\/figure>\n<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\n

Re-Run<\/strong><\/em><\/span><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looped video
Duration, 7’48”<\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

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 anticipation of an imminent collapse of the value of money in the lead up to the take-over of Shanghai by the People\u2019s Liberation Army. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Every bank-run is propelled on the currents of a self-fulfilling prophecy: As people lose confidence in the value of money, they begin withdrawing money from banks which leads to a collapse of a bank\u2019s worth; panic spreads between banks. And so, cause becomes effect becomes cause. The anticipation of the future produces conditions in the present that lead to the anticipated future. Time folds in on itself like a snake biting its own tail.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In revisiting and re-staging Cartier Bresson\u2019s photograph in Shanghai, Raqs\u00a0meet the conditions of the self-fulfilling\u00a0prophecy invoked by the event captured in the original image. Cartier-Bresson\u2019s decisive moment breaks its banks and seeks the custody of other hands. Mid-wived by other eyes and cameras, the image reincarnates as its own breathing and vivid clone, close to where we are today. The memory of one moment of crisis is transposed onto the reading of another. Time folds in on itself, again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Iterations shown at: Chronus Art Center, Shanghai (2013) |National Gallery of Modern Art, New Delhi (2014) | K21, Museum of 21st Century Art, D\u00fcsseldorf (2018)<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n
<\/div>\n\n\n\n
\n