Saturday, February 4, 2012

Fascinating ‘From the Town’s End...’ grabs The Skoda Award

The winning exhibition was that of artist Navin Thomas’s ‘From the Town’s End...’, previously showcased at GallerySKE, Bangalore late last year. It's essentially a continuation of his interest in the afterlife of salvaged electronic junk with a possible audio capacity creating work that incorporates found objects as varied as old PCO telephones, former army loudspeakers, a customized hatbox and a PA horn from a mosque to a Chinese toy.
The series examines how small species react to household electronic appliances and the effects of living in close proximity with seemingly domestic magnetic fields. His interest primarily lies in the travels and after-life of electronic gadgets and salvaged electronic junk.

He notes in an accompanying statement to his new series: “A couple of things, which I have been preoccupied with over the last few years… beta-testing on the possible after life of salvaged electronic junk, mostly discarded transistors and smaller objects, with a possible audio capacity… anther past time is observing, how your pets and smaller species react to magnetic fields. For instance, is it possible that your electronic doorbell makes regular contributions to the evolution of a newer acoustic ecology?"

His approach to this phenomenon is simply one out of curiosity about the private life of discarded electronic appliances; and what is this show, about? Electro-acoustic ecology and magnetic climate… Electro-acoustic ecology is mostly the relationship between individuals and communities living within a sonic magnetic environment, which include the physical responses or behavioral characteristics of life within it.

He elaborates: “At any given time, you are listening to some ‘form’ of radio, other than the traditional analog Transistor, Cellphones and other hi end equipment use advanced types of radio signals… The spatial radius and temporality of the radio phonic field brings in an intimacy of experience. More importantly radio is a triangulated set of relationships between the listener, the player and its spatial environment…”

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