Asmita Sarkar

Spatial Interventions

With a background in psychology and fine art, Asmita is currently researching the intersection of painting, phenomenology and new media. In this project she wants to explore the boundary between familiar bodies and expressions, and the uncertain and unfamiliar, the “unheimlich”, to use Freud’s phrase. “The unfamiliar is uncomfortable but it leads to creativity”, Asmita says. So she does not intend to look at the boundary between the apparent and the uncanny as points of conflict, but rather “borderlines of possibilities”. Asmita plans to create a number of temporary “interventionist structures” that are “speculative and optimistic”, and with these structures as “gateways”, expand the understanding of perceptual nature by building visual and aural narratives “aimed at resolving tension between the known and the unknown”.

https://asmitasarkar.wordpress.com/

Last week of the residency

I continue my site-specific paintings, but now these consist of more swift marks, catching the traces of my moving body in an unfamiliar terrain. I put rapid and fluid brush marks on textures and forms that are interesting and deserved to be looked at with care. I photo-document my brush marks and then the more slow and rigorous painterly works starts in my computer with the help of photo-shop. I enhance some colours, down play the others, make digital brush strokes. And voila: picture of an invented reality

This spot was interesting because the angular stone tiles make a good contrast with the rusty barb-wires. I decide to play on the contrasting textures and picked up brunches of pale pink, delicate flowers blooming nearby. I arranged them on the tiles and on the wire, in a similar way one would decorate an idol. I finished my ritual by pouring paint and rubbing some golden dust on the paint. Afternoon breeze carries some flowers away, I put some more and then took photos.
Digital part of the painting process starts. I give the pale pink flowers a more vibrant reddish hue. I also enhance to gold speckles on the paint. People put gold ornaments in their idols and use gold leaf in their ritual patterns. Byzantine icons are one of the most prominent examples.

My moon-lit water falls reaches its completion. I arranged in such a way, while putting a lot of gold and silver layers, it does look like moon-light is glistening on it. There could be wood nymphs and fairies. It’s a moon-lit water falls in a dark attic, in the middle of the day. Of-course it is eerie and uncanny lying in the borderline between domestic and wild, mundane and extra-ordinary.

Day 11
slow progress continues

light installation in progress and detail from purple waterfalls

Day 8-10
A slow progression towards installing a soft sculpture in the attic— To my urban eye the space looks magical and I want to create a waterfalls made of light in the attic.

Some floating thoughts: (why did I not think of this before!!) The word sublime literally come from the Latin Root “limen” that turns into the adjective liminal- “of a threshold” in other word Border-line.

 

Day -1-3

Looking for sites to put up ephemeral, painterly and  sculptural installations.

possible sites

the sensuous texture that is going to inspire my work.

Textures

Day 4

A very productive day utilizing all the materials- woods (with mossy barks, dark gray glistening stone slabs, and acrylic paints)

Day 5 and 6

Doing site specific paintings on the unique stone and mud structures of the region and the village, the challenge was to keep the layers of of paint and the tint of colours subtle enough to blend in the environment but distinct enough to make an visual impact that creates the sensation of the Uncanny. It was a struggle

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These are work in progress called ”Stone has eye”