Sign up for the Performance here.
The performance by Rashmi Sathe unfolds as a sequence of enacted mundane gestures, encompassing linguistic reference of white, questioning its understanding and sometimes defying this understanding, folding paper, placing objects, drinking water, scanning QR codes for generating sounds, pounding salt and then placing all of these carefully in envelopes. Each gesture is associated with white through a vernacular logic.
Sugar, salt, clean, soap, brush, scrub, iron, mom making frosting, colonial, elite, whitewash, silence, what is beauty?
Literacy, gestures, hands, palms, sacred, white paper, black ink, blank, thoughts, intervals, technology, soundscapes, Artificial intelligence, translation, grandmother’s alter, camphor, incense stick, white smoke, glass, yogurt, flattened rice, roasted peanuts precious, fresh acetone, sizzling ghee, green chilies, hot, not cool, sandalwood, why? Complete belief, open palms, pristine sheets, edit in no particular order – can be more or a lot less.
Rashmi Sathe’s research asks: What will art and design practice and pedagogy be beyond our visual concept of an image? It explores inclusive, multisensory approaches to art and design, using sensory translations by incorporating vernacular memory practices along with sound, language, taste and touch. Her practice ultimately questions the possibilities of what might happen if we move away from the notion that vision should remain the primary mode through which art and design are perceived and created.
The performance is part of the exhibition Knowledge Beyond.