Anjali Deshmukh |
Painting |
Digital |
Experiments |
Writing |
Statement and Info |
Tell Me The Story of a Lifetime. Installation. 70"x85". 2012. Lila, or the cosmic game, is as much about the physical environment as it is about our perception of it. Tell Me the Story of a Lifetime is the foil to Out of Bounds. On the wall is a magnetized square, gridded with neodymium magnets. Across the grid are written 289 unique events or human experiences. The events are categorized by ‘type’ in a counter clockwise spiral pattern from the innermost center squares out to the top left edge. In the center are the existential experiences, followed by experiences of the mind. Then come physiological, active and passive experiences of the body and the social experiences. There are about 200 red magnetic paper forms scattered across the board—game pieces. Each piece on the game board is stamped with a number that corresponds to one of 930 emotions referenced in the frames to the right of the board. These emotions are grouped into families, from the most dark and negative of emotions to the most positive of emotions. Each red game piece, assigned a number, references an emotion. In the game’s theory, the players are attempting to construct the ideal life out of the events on the board. Players have a limited number of emotions, and fate— randomness, the spinning of the wheel — forces them to move towards a certain event. In one iteration of the game, I apply post-rational formalism by asking the audience—players— to select two numbers, representing an event and an emotion. They do not know what pairing they have selected. Their lottery numbers, the matching of each players’ event and emotion, become the seed of individual works of fiction that I am responsible for writing narratives around. Thus, the installation becomes a kind of engine or generator that powers patterns (fiction) radiating out. |