"Tachyon, is a hypothetical subatomic particle whose velocity always exceeds that of light. ... Just as an ordinary particle such as an electron can exist only at speeds less than that of light, so a tachyon could exist only at speeds above that of light, at which point its mass would be real and positive."
The video work / project that I have made is in reference to the particle, and it's a metaphor representing the sensation of either becoming that particle or harnessing its energy in some way and ultimately, it is a wish or a desire that is being manifested through this video, and through these images. The basic structure for the video is in a stream of consciousness narrative, which includes audio and visual excerpts from various sources, coming together to create a new form, liberated from previous contexts. Within this particular project the idea is that our interiority through the vehicle of consciousness or our consciousness itself, reveals what is posthuman within accessible human spheres of knowing.
I wanted to create a video project which is contemplative in nature, and through its narrative, reflects upon existence as we know it. I would locate this project within the realm of poesis or art as poesis: reflecting upon human pluralities, questions, crises and our continuous state of child-like wonder, our existence on this planet and in the universe... Throwing light at our psychic access to non-ocular dimensions also known as the Matrixial Gaze ( Ettinger, Bracha)
* My explorations have existed within the realm of the personal and I have previously worked on the failed utopia of Communism within my practice among other things such as consciousness, memory and Time. Currently I am reflecting upon Decoloniality, and thinking about our collective as well as our individual ‘Being-in-the-world’. I am thinking about ideologies, movements, structures, in order to understand in some way, our cosmos and to align with the technological future that is shaping up the planet and that we are all a part of. We share truths, even across cultures and generations. I don’t know if there truly is a universality but this form of creation using editing via montage/pastiche reveals to me a way out of not only post-colonial constraints but also out of an inability to truly de-link from it (my own involvement with and my consumption of European cinema, literature, art etc.) For Walter D. Mignolo, there are multiple epistemologies in the world, a phenomenon that he describes as pluri-versalism. Since Knowledge depends on the body that articulates that knowledge-this dependency on location and body (designated by Mignolo as Geopolitics of Knowledge and Body politics of Knowledge) is perceived as an obstacle or a limitation for Individuals from the global south. (I am constrained by my specificity) Universality does not apply to me, because there is already a filter or a lens available. There are boxes and definitions, already present to situate what is created in the world. And so, I try to fracture that lens by making my videos in the way that I do. By obscuring myself, and through a reductive process, aspiring to eventually only exist as consciousness.
This form of creation has become my attempt at evolving an alternative narrative, an alterity within imagination (and Being) using decolonial tools such as epistemic disobedience and to reject binaries (as prescribed by Mignolo) to express visually, aurally, textually how all the information from the world has arranged itself within my own consciousness, despite my South East Asian context, and in spite of it. For me my practice is a form of developing a decolonial consciousness. The digressive practice of using second-hand material for me is a very thin veneer of anarchy geared towards this - the telos of which is to achieve (even a minute level of) de-linking from the colonial matrix of power, through various reinterpretations. The project of Posthumanism in this sense becomes important because it opens up the discussion and the imagination of possible futures that are rescued and reordered from the ruins of defunct/ obsolete hierarchies of old world orders.
Divya Singh - born 4 Feb, 1995 - is a visual artist, from New Delhi, India. Her practice is primarily rooted in painting and explores themes such as isolation, experience, memory and mortality – emanating largely from a poetic engagement with Time. Mediums such as photography, writing, cinema and painting are at the center of her language as a practitioner and have featured as important categories of both work and interest. These varied elements come together within the work and can be seen most distinctly in the artist books made by her, as well as found imagery which accompanies the paintings and other media during exhibitions. She is currently working with instant film/polaroid, paintings, video and text.
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