your reality is a matter of habit your
reality is you’re safe mundane
serviceable everyday world seen through
the lens of your eyes now close those
lenses trust me close your eyes for just
10 seconds and let me offer you an
alternative and here is what I propose
what if through my art I offered you
ways to me remake your world by offering
you different lenses of perception
visualize these lenses now open your
eyes
let me take you on a journey through an
artwork just one artwork and I pick it
because it moves through different times
and spaces we will go deep within our
bodies and we will fly to the moon and
through this I will offer the world that
you think you know in six at least six
distinctly different ways the work I
have picked is called the astrolabe it
was part of my installation at the Kochi
Biennale the previous one and it is
composed of six panels and it is the
work from which these details are being
shown to you so how did I begin well
sometimes looking back to history offers
insights to a way forward so my
inspiration began with a fascination for
this astronomical instrument called the
astrolabe which was used by European
sailors to find a way to the east the
history of the astrolabe is about 2,000
years old and you could call it a sort
of mechanical computer used to plot
problems about time and the position of
the Sun and the planets in the sky so I
took this astrolabe which was typically
about six inches –eye and I blew it up
I enlarged it to several hundreds of
times
sighs I intervened in it and I moved and
changed things so that now it hovered
between the real and the abstract or
should I say the seemingly abstract
because nothing in the astrolabe or the
astrolabe is actually abstract it is
your world your real world seen through
different lenses macro and micro it is
your world seen through the lens of
giant satellites and telescopes which
are scouring the universe it is your
world seen through the lens of scanning
tunneling electron microscopes that are
looking deep within your own bodies it
is the world seen deeper still through
giant particle colliders that hurl
particles at each other watch the
collision and study the debris for
knowledge and clues about our place in
the universe because collisions produce
knowledge and this is true even when
different cultures ideas people collide
and why does this happen it’s because we
are world makers and world travelers my
work the astrolabe draws clues from
ancient maps and from stories of
travelers who travel the world between
the fifteenth in the seventeenth century
which is sometimes called the Age of
Discovery it was a time when geography
shaped history it was a time when
intrepid travelers like vasco da gama
came to indian shows chasing dreams of
great wealth and lands to exploit but
they also brought with them new thoughts
new products new skills the resultant
kill you know coalition was blood-soaked
and terrible which is evoked by this
detail of mind from the astrolabe which
shows a giant blood clot within our
bodies it is surrounded by hooks which
actually belong to the astrolabe but
which suddenly looked very menacing
what I’m trying to say is that these
collisions not just changed both parties
of seafarers and land dwellers but it
send out ripples that change the very
knowledge of the world just as the
knowledge of my artwork changes with
your encounter with it for example there
are people who have looked at this very
detail of the blood clot and seen within
it lattices Nets fishes bringing to mind
the great Qin Avila or the famous
Chinese fishing nets of Kochi which in
turn evoke encounters with other
cultures and civilizations they have
seen the familiar in unfamiliar things
when you embrace the familiar in the
unfamiliar or vice versa
new forms of thinking are generated what
do I mean by this after all you can
argue that there are no boundaries to
limit your imagination but really isn’t
that a problem if you can imagine just
about anything what do you imagine where
do you begin my art tries to help by
offering a scaffolding on which to build
the world to make the world of your
imagination and let it fly far and it is
in these spaces between the real and the
unreal that the human imagination lives
can it go too far not really because
there’s always something familiar that
will draw you back in to the world of
the imagination and the world of my
artwork and I truly believe that the
sign of human intelligence is not
knowledge but imagination and I do
acknowledge that Einstein said it a long
time ago as well so the further away
from my artwork your normalcy is the
more your imagination is activated and
the greater your insights
so activate the world of your
imagination and watch watch the world of
your perception change take this old
Portuguese coin that I have placed at
the center of my artwork
am I saying that money rules the world
not at all it is after all a very tiny
coin in a very large artwork so while I
acknowledge its driving power in the
world
I undercut its power by making it very
tiny indeed power now that’s a loaded
word I believe there is real power in
simplicity and a deep link between
powerful simplicity and thoughtful
complexity I believe a large part of the
power of my artworks derives from the
fact that it is drawn entirely with a
simple pencil and in this context I have
a lovely story to narrate a bright young
girl from Kerala called me out of the
blue and said she was doing her tenth
standard thesis on my artwork which she
had seen at the Kochi Biennale she said
how the artwork was a favorite with all
her friends which is proven by the fact
that the greatest number of selfies were
taken in front of it I was of course
deeply flattered this is the kind of
feedback we artists like to get but I
was also intrigued so when she came to
interview me I asked her what was it
about my artwork that had captured their
collective consciousness and her answer
was a revelation for me she said it was
because the entire art work was done
with a pencil that had captured hers and
her classmates imagination because all
of them had held the pencil the humble
tool of a pencil at some point of time
in their lives whether it was to learn
to write or draw a doodle or scribble
however they also felt that I had pushed
what a pencil can do to a point that was
way beyond what they had imagined and in
this way I captured their imagination my
work constantly plays with the real and
the abstract between the simple and the
complex and embedded in this complex
journey of the astrolabe is a very
simple
that I took to Kochi where I walked its
streets and found a street named after
the family to which I belong where I
listen to travelers tales about
seafarers who came on the sea waters and
landed on the sea shows you see this was
a very necessary if we are to make words
we have to locate ourselves both
philosophically and physically so let us
pause for a moment to locate where we
are right now in this place in this time
let me draw your attention to a very
faint sound that started a little while
ago
it is the soundtrack that was played at
the fluidity of horizons which is where
my artwork the astrolabe was shown
visitors to the installation if they
spent time and paid attention listened
to this they heard the same sound track
of the lapping of waters the swish of
the waves
perhaps the tinkle of money later
perhaps the buzz of traders voices all
of which located them back in the world
of the art world and we can pause a
small moment to listen to the sound but
let me now start flipping the lenses a
little more and locate ourselves in a
different way right now so right now
here you are listening to me speak but
right now at the very same time deep
within your body’s cells are dividing
and multiplying deeper still is the
quantum buzz particles forming and
disappearing outside we’re all on a
planet that is spinning dizzily and
hurtling through space at dizzying
speeds and we’re not aware of any of
this unless we change our lenses and
change our focus which brings me to the
very last panel of my artwork the
astrolabe where we are now explorers on
the moon we are watching our beautiful
planet the earth rise from the position
of being on the surface of the Moon so
consider consider where we’ve come we
started with a tiny instrument six
inches high when we will land based
looking up at the stars in the moon in
the sky and now here we are on the
surface of the Moon appending
perspectives thinking about our role in
space are placing the moon the Stars the
world beyond you see how you have
traveled you see how you have traveled
with me to experience and enjoy an
encounter the astrolabe and flipped your
lenses of perception
so that here finally the world stands
revealed the world of my astrolabe and
the world of your imagination
thank you [Applause]