No Parallels
Medium: Two channel video with sound
Duration: 6 minutes
Year: 2010
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‘No parallels’ is a video installation.
The installation has two projections running parallel to each other. The projection on the left side features archival images of Mahatma Gandhi which include images of his personal moments,him surrounded by people, leading political movements and also the lonely moments of meditation and silence. These images have been constructed as flip cards and appear one after the other. The final image that appears on the screen is a hundred rupee note with the image of Gandhi.
The projection on the right side has images of Mao Zedong. This too displays selected archival images of important moments in Mao’s life. There is an attempt to trace similar kind of images from the life of both leaders. For example, the long march of Mao is shown parallel to the salt march of Gandhi. The final image on the right side of the projection has a hundred Yuan Chinese currency with the image of Mao.
It is an attempt to understand the psyche of two nations through their historical narratives. These two personalities have contributed their best to create the modern India and modern China. In terms of historical time, personal values, political philosophy and the impact on the people of their country M.K. Gandhi and Mao Zedong stand in two different poles. These historical icons, when placed next to each other certainly create a serious discourse on the project of nation building and its impact on contemporary psyche.
Panic City
Medium: Single channel video with sound
Duration: 3 minutes
Year: 2007
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The main themes in ‘Panic City’, addresses the construction fever, social hierarchies and the cleaning process the government was then involved in, due to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi. It is an animation constructed from photographic stills and the old Delhi shot from the minaret of Jama Masjid (one of the Asia's largest mosque built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan). The western classical music is used in the video in-order to show the role of a 'conductor'. The conductor takes the stand as an outsider and controls the event from a higher pedestal. In the same manner the forces of globalization conduct the waves of change into the urban arenas of India, which churns the existing local system into jeopardy. Most of the area you see in the video was once part of the target for the cleaning drive.
Let it be…
Medium: Single channel video with sound
Duration: 3 minutes
Year: 2012
The main themes in ‘Panic City’, addresses the construction fever, social hierarchies and the cleaning process the government was then involved in, due to the upcoming Commonwealth Games in Delhi. It is an animation constructed from photographic stills and the old Delhi shot from the minaret of Jama Masjid (one of the Asia's largest mosque built by the Mughal Emperor Shah Jahan). The western classical music is used in the video in-order to show the role of a 'conductor'. The conductor takes the stand as an outsider and controls the event from a higher pedestal. In the same manner the forces of globalization conduct the waves of change into the urban arenas of India, which churns the existing local system into jeopardy. Most of the area you see in the video was once part of the target for the cleaning drive.
Let it be…
Medium: Single channel video with sound
Duration: 3 minutes
Year: 2012
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In this video work, Let it be…, a constant resistance is being sabotaged by a persistent intention. Floating position of finding numerous territories as opposed to a solid ground, on which the resistance takes place, is the mood of the time in which we live.
Disclaimer
Video duration: 9 min 30 sec.
Single channel with sound
Year: 2018
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In this video work, Let it be…, a constant resistance is being sabotaged by a persistent intention. Floating position of finding numerous territories as opposed to a solid ground, on which the resistance takes place, is the mood of the time in which we live.
Disclaimer
Video duration: 9 min 30 sec.
Single channel with sound
Year: 2018
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The video work titled Disclaimer continues Scaria’s critique of capitalism and its enchanting narrative of development. We see the hands of magician moving the bowls, not swiftly but very slowly, unravelling a series of objects and finally revealing images of dead bodies of citizens murdered in the recent past. This video acts as a strong commentary on the nexus of capitalism and communalism which draws its inspiration from an imagined past and sells the dream of a better future. In the contemporary Global and Indian context, one cannot ignore the rise of right-wing populist regimes, religious fundamentalism and its close ties with capitalism. The right is not only destroying the idea of a welfare state and the various democratic institutions but it is also destroying every space of emancipation. On the one hand the problems of inequality and exclusion continue to thrive while they polarise the society using a conservative nationalist language of sovereignty, security, and purity. This ideology also seeks its legitimacy by presenting the narrative of development or progress in a distant future. This model of economic development deeply embedded in the political mythology of the right has no space for the marginalised. According to the right they are the “parasites” which need to be cleansed for the betterment of the collective future. Therefore, dreaming collective’s desires can only be fulfilled through encounter killings, displacements, genocides and other such violations of rights.
Extract from the essay Man in the End Times written by Premjish Aachari
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