A Photogenetic Line: Experimenter 2019
April 13, 2019 - July 15, 2019
Experimenter - Hindustan Road, Kolkata
A 100-foot long branching sequence of cutouts drawing from the photo archives of The Hindu, a 140-year old newspaper.
Cutouts here are a way of reframing existing photographs as new organisms, not to remove their background environments, nor to frame heroic figures, but to create a new boundary or border for the image. This border, interior or exterior, leads one to the next image.
The sequence evolves by following one or more of three basic rules :
a. People in the images grow older, or younger.
b. Things in the background come into the foreground, or vice versa.
c. Two photo captions refer to each other.
The line generated in this way, crosses many perceptual (shape), historical (time) and geographic (political) boundaries. Here, like in cinema, the cut is not a brick wall but an invitation: for increased traffic at any border.
A Photogenetic Line was produced for the Chennai Photo Biennale 2019, curated by Pushpamala N and supported by The Hindu.
