Vidya Chagan

II o Clock [new(s]ense)

These newspapers are rolled and installed above, around and within a sculpture titled 'II o Clock", which is where the work has its conceptual roots. The sonic aspects are activated by links and a live performance of one of the pages. 

As humans, artists, and creatives we give life and put to rest a lot of things over time & the medium that I currently feel is most an ode to this paradox, is a newspaper. News, through a newspaper, is often storytelling's killjoy, sell-out of a sibling but nevertheless it's working class twin. This is of course not exactly a family rule (there are as many stories as there are relationships to news) and the forms it takes are undoubtedly rich in content even if they are often less refined or comparably “poor in taste”.

When I started to grapple with the notion of asymptotic convergences, the format of a newspaper seemed to present a way in which different people may be "thinking along similar lines for different and parallel reasons" as Kodwo Eshun expressed. I also highly suspect that though this format may hum in tune with the theme-it also sets itself up for a spectacular failure of its utilitarian functions. 

Thankfully, like a stray toilet paper mapping a grand journey, art allows a platform where even failure is something we can follow and roll with.