Remembered abstraction

Ink jet print on archival paper. 26” x 36”.

Changing frames

Textured wall surfaces, dripping paint, colorful graffiti, rusting metal surfaces and abandoned objects fascinate me and draw me due to their visual quality. In the last few years I have been photographing such visual experiences wherever I found them, whether in my neighborhood, or elsewhere while travelling. While shooting these photographs I isolate certain parts of the visual in front of me to generate a different kind of visual experience. In this process of isolation the original image gets transformed and gains a new identity. As a result, in the final image, they start ‘looking’ like complete abstract images in their own right.

I am aware of the argument that such isolation may be detrimental and rob the image of its integrity, but come to think of it, every photograph is a partial recording of the scene that the photographer is witnessing and can never be a complete picture. While the experience is holistic, its narration can only happen in fragments.

Each photograph displayed here has many layers or rather is a merging of two sets of memories. The first is the memory of the particular moment of looking at the surface and its constituents. The second is the recollection from my collective memory of abstract works that I have accumulated or some of the principles of abstraction internalized by me while doing abstract paintings for several years. In some instances the overlay is fairly specific to the works of particular artists. Hence I have called this project ‘Remembered Abstractions’ as a way of denoting the complex play of memory that is operating in these images.

I have been involved in this project since 2006. Initially, I was shooting pictures of surfaces that interested me. But soon, I could achieve some clarity and arrived at a frame with which to look at the experience. It was this frame which helped to unify diverse experiences, be it in the vicinity or across the world.

One can find references to abstractionists of various periods and hues, Indian as well as foreign, but a majority falls into the reference points of abstractionists from the 1950s to 1970s. In a way it is also revisiting the period when abstraction was the main concern in my work from 1993 to 2000. It is as if my interest in 'abstraction', has continued and resurfaced in a different time and medium.

Arguably, such images and the experience are wedged between real and abstract, and hence hold an ambivalent position. For me, this is a very fascinating position.