Uyirmei in Tamil alphabet, is a combination of the vowel (uyir) — the soul — and consonant (mei) — the body. The Tamil language draws heavily from deep, personal understandings of nature, and is reflective of the interwoven life of individuals in their natural landscapes. This interweaving is not unique to the Tamil way of living, but is prevalent and visible in lifestyles and daily practices of native cultures across the world. It is visible in Native American folklore, songs of the Santhals, art and storytelling of Indian tribes, and more.
The approach to my work lies in this body-soul, interior-exterior connection as a way of perceiving the natural world. With language, nature and creative activities at the center, one uses experience and expression parallely to unfold the aliveness in nature across multiple stages of exploration.
Detailed descriptions of each level are published as part of my Srishti Capstone thesis, and the document is available on request.
The framework draws from the embodied practices of being within nature, native to Indian tradition and culture. These practices are visible in folklore, music, art and dance practices prevalent in traditional practice, and are a core to how nature is viewed and talked about. The approach layers the philosophies of Jiddu Krishnamurti, Devi Prasad and Rabindranath Tagore over a visceral understanding of embodiment via photographic practice and writing. The research leading up to this approach spanned two years.
This series captures the passage of time in my mind’s eye, as I sit with small beings with the natural environment around me. It uses techniques of camera movement and long-exposure photography to trace moments of dissolution and hypersensitivity, across six different subjects (two displayed here).
My first interaction with a natural being (e.g. lichen) is observational and scientific. The more time I spend with it, the more it turns aesthetic and expansive. I begin to observe folds, interaction with its surroundings, and its engage-ments as shaped by other beings around it. The longer I spent, the more the parts turned into a fluid whole, holding its parts in an ever-moving bubble where things became clearer than they were as separate elements.
My technique of going from absolutes to abstraction finds resonance in the works of Impressionists and Post-impressionists like JMW Turner and Paul Cezanne, particularly in their use of stroke, volume and harmony to depict intensities of the world.
A collection of four writings inspired by photographs (2 displayed here) practising the idea of ‘being with’ a transient moment, and stretching the experience through photography and sensory writing.