SPACERESEARCHCENTRE INSTALLATION
Spaceresearchcentre/AKA Southern Lights, via the Transmutable Central Dharma Gateway Incorporating the 5 Known Elements at Orlando Museum of Art. 2019 Dimensions Variable,8 video projections,3 audio channels,5 monitors,and mixed media.
Opening Reception for Spaceresearchcentre May 31.2019 Orlando Museum of Art / Florida Prize 2019 Show . Runs thru 8.19.2019
Spaceresearchcentre/AKA Southern Lights, via the Transmutable Central Dharma Gateway Incorporating the 5 Known Elements is conceived as a non-terrestrial environment that transports the visitor to an alternate plane of thought, free from everyday stress and worries. Concepts for the environment coalesced from Indian Vedic knowledge, John Muir’s conservation ethics, Native American connections to the natural world, and contemporary thoughts in science relating to our understanding of the universe. Immersive video projections light up sculptural assemblages, paintings, and photo-based works evoking forms reminiscent of geometries, crystalline shapes, primordial plants, and outer space. In this work, analog and digitally constructed video footage of seeds, galaxies, flora, and fauna spill across the floor, ceiling, and walls, creating an immersive interconnected world. As viewers interact with the installation, they become active participants within the artwork, their own shadows moving, spinning, and existing. Kinetic images engage viewers to seriously consider how they relate to the natural world and encourage finding deeper connections to it.
Entering the gallery, visitors encounter a twilight scene in which a central structure is surrounded by five elemental pods hanging from space. Inspired by Indian Vedic tradition, the 5 elements represented are:
Participants are encouraged to explore the hanging pods and the works on the periphery before encountering the central structure. Inside are specimens and artifacts that Prabha has collected on many journeys and residencies. The structure has an opening at the top where birds may enter. Where a discoverer may take different forms, as in the transmutation from one species to another inspired by reincarnation. It is a place for dreams perhaps, where somehow one can shift or move their consciousness and find their own way to steward civilization and nature away from destruction.
Entering the gallery, visitors encounter a twilight scene in which a central structure is surrounded by five elemental pods hanging from space. Inspired by Indian Vedic tradition, the 5 elements represented are:
- Akasha is aether or an imperceptible infinite space. Sound is its main facet and Prabha also imagines it as Dark Matter, something that we now know comprises 85% of all matter in the Universe. An area that we may yet reach and ascend.
- Air is related to breath, thought, flight and intellect. It is movement and life giving. Prabha is fascinated by the migratory birds that visit Florida and wonders at their journeys. While that is happening, we as humans have raised CO2 levels above 400ppm (parts per million).
- Fire purifies and accepts sacrifice. Sight is touched by fire. We cremate our departed ones to purify the body, and the ashes are returned to the cosmos via water. We also witness colossal fires burning cities in relation to climate change.
- Water is connected to memories and Praha reflects on the many ways we preserve these digitally or as symbols of being locked away in time. Climate change has increased the rates of severe droughts as well as rising sea levels.
- Earth is physical and practical. Our natural world exists for itself. The human need to see nature as a resource to be exploited is unraveling our existence. The beauty and splendor of what we have on Earth is in peril.
Participants are encouraged to explore the hanging pods and the works on the periphery before encountering the central structure. Inside are specimens and artifacts that Prabha has collected on many journeys and residencies. The structure has an opening at the top where birds may enter. Where a discoverer may take different forms, as in the transmutation from one species to another inspired by reincarnation. It is a place for dreams perhaps, where somehow one can shift or move their consciousness and find their own way to steward civilization and nature away from destruction.
Discussed on the Orlando Weekly:
Excerpt:
JBY: Yes, and it takes you right into Sri Prabha's installation in the next gallery, perhaps the climax of the show.
"Spaceresearchcentre/AKA Southern Lights, via the Transmutable Central Dharma Gateway Incorporating the 5 Known Elements" is an immersive sound and light and color experience. Giant structures hanging from the ceiling represent the natural world, organized into the Vedic elements of earth, air, fire, water and ether. These pods hang from the ceiling, sort of kite-like, with more paintings on the walls, images projected over them, and little shrines of natural materials in all the corners. It's overwhelming and beautiful and stimulating.
RTR: I had the same reaction. However, you must read the wall text to get what he's really doing with the five elements and how to become more interconnected with nature and the earth.
Original link:
https://m.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/the-2019-florida-prize-in-contemporary-art-rejoices-in-the-chaotic-trashy-poignant-reverent-transcendent-interconnectedness-of-the-world/Content?oid=25422447
Excerpt:
JBY: Yes, and it takes you right into Sri Prabha's installation in the next gallery, perhaps the climax of the show.
"Spaceresearchcentre/AKA Southern Lights, via the Transmutable Central Dharma Gateway Incorporating the 5 Known Elements" is an immersive sound and light and color experience. Giant structures hanging from the ceiling represent the natural world, organized into the Vedic elements of earth, air, fire, water and ether. These pods hang from the ceiling, sort of kite-like, with more paintings on the walls, images projected over them, and little shrines of natural materials in all the corners. It's overwhelming and beautiful and stimulating.
RTR: I had the same reaction. However, you must read the wall text to get what he's really doing with the five elements and how to become more interconnected with nature and the earth.
Original link:
https://m.orlandoweekly.com/orlando/the-2019-florida-prize-in-contemporary-art-rejoices-in-the-chaotic-trashy-poignant-reverent-transcendent-interconnectedness-of-the-world/Content?oid=25422447
Opening Night Images.5.31.2019
