The coronavirus forced us 15,196.95km and a symmetrical 12hr time difference apart. Upon this separation, we discovered the perfection in our time and spatial distance - simultaneous sunrises and sunsets - revealing a connection through the common sky beneath which we exist. 

At this time of day, we are both looking at the sky simultaneously. 

At this time of day, the sky acts like a connector - sending the sun from one side of the world to the other. The phenomena of the sun setting and rising is something that has happened as will happen for as long as the earth continues to be. However, regardless of how repetitive this setting and rising action is, the dramatic displacement of light refracting along the atmosphere is unique in every instance. 

At this time of day, we photograph the sky, hoping to capture its breathtaking and unique luminescence safely in a digital memory - a means to capture this common sky beneath which we exist. The photographs serve as our act of correspondence but signify much more than that. They bring us together, taking us back and forth in time, like a pendulum traveling across the sky. 

The piece features animated compositions that capture colors produced by 9 sunrises or sunsets. The contained lifelike circular forms are intended to be microscopic slides of light, capturing the refraction across the atmosphere on that particular day. 

The artistic choice of collecting data from the vast and indescribable sky into a small slide is a means through which we quantify and challenge the concept of time. The fact that these 9 days that we have decided to collect are, in fact, quite a minuscule time frame in the grander scheme of life. The microscopic slides are a way to imitate minuscule units of life, which when all put together - create a significant living thing filled with experiences. 

Collaborator: https://www.artconnect.com/profile/manmeet-sodhi

Encapsulated Fusion

The daily chai drinking tradition intrigues me. I began collecting tea bags, as the stained skin of a used tea-bag, had something frail yet grotesque about it. 

I was moved when I delved deeper and learned about the Indian history of the teabag, its bloody colonial history - the opium wars, the East India Company, and mass enslavement. I decided to make a commentary on this history, to contradict and question the way that tea is marketed as calming and recreational to the exploitation that is endured during its manufacturing process. 

I decided to cut out unique tea-bag sized 'Kurtas' from my collected used tea bags: commenting on the way that tea-pickers were treated as silent dolls/puppets with very little voice and freedom. 

I created a tea bag that when used with hot water unfolds and inflates as a dress to convey this idea further. Moreover, amongst these hanging kurtas, I created one that is a book bound with the intention to communicate the contradictory history of tea. In this book, I reveal how human mistreatment and trafficking is prevalent to date.  

I envision this piece as an installation that covers the entire room. Viewers would be confronted by navigating this hanging maize while listening to the chaotic sounds of the past and the present of somber tea manufacturing and luxurious contrast of marketing and manufacturing.

Project webpage: https://www.behance.net/gallery/98089101/Rethinking-Tea

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