Sreshta Rit Premnath / Below
Blue Horizon
Curated by Tiago de Abreu Pinto
January 10—February 15, 2019
Rodríguez Gallery
Wodna 13/4, 61-782
Wodna 13/4, 61-782
Poznań, Poland
Below Blue Horizon, Installation View, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
Bez Tytułu1, blacha, akryl, 73 X 103.5cm, © Koji Kamoji, 1996
Una Doble Vida, 2 Channel HD Video, 5’58”, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
Una Doble Vida (detail), 2 Channel HD Video, 5’58”, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
Una Doble Vida (detail), 2 Channel HD Video, 5’58”, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
Shadow in the Sky (detail), String, Ammonite Fossil, Catalog of Koji Kamoji and Rice Paper, 153 X 200cm, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
Shadow in the Sky (detail), String, Ammonite Fossil, Catalog of Koji Kamoji and Rice Paper
153 X 200cm, © Sreshta Rit Premnath, 2019
When Koji Kamoji says,
“I can concentrate better when I'm on my knees,” in response to a query about
his practice of painting in the kneeling position, I think he is also speaking
about the contingency of the ground on which he stands. He understands that he
is always on the verge of collapse, and it is this perpetual state of doubt and
ungrounding that focuses the mind. I would like to call this clarity of mind,
when the knees buckle, an ethics of uncertainty. The gaze of a practitioner
always trained below the sublime sky and towards a ground.
A famous
sequence transpires in the movie that the Kaczyński brothers starred in as
children. The two young blondes creep up to the setting moon and capture it as
it dips below the dark horizon. A fairytale that now seems an omen portending
the political darkness that has spread around the world. As isolationist
nationalism condemns immigrants to wait–for refuge, for work, for a visa, for
respite–feet in one land, eyes trained towards another. Beyond the horizon is
possibility and anticipation. Beyond the horizon is memory and longing. But
below the horizon is the here and now, where we place our feet in the moment of
eclipse, when the lights go out, and the vanishing point dips below the dark
horizon, not there but here.