In, Between the Pages

Sumakshi Singh’s interactive installations play with perspective to create ‘illusions’ that allow viewers to inhabit and alter her imagery through their movements. In, Between the Pages (2014) is an installation with references to the history of Kerala, both as a protagonist in the maritime voyages of the 14-17 centuries, and as a vibrant centre where early astronomer-mathematicians were fiercely pursuing the problems of locating themselves and the Earth within the cosmos.

Close to the entry to the gallery is a table where audiences get their first glimpse of the illusion: The projected view of two manuscript pages where the various elements —birds, whirling planets and viewers such as themselves— are in motion. Turning away from it, they enter a 70 feet-long maze made of hanging paper scrolls that align from one angle to form the elusive manuscript page. These scrolls feature paintings, delicate collages and projected animations that bring to life a range of narratives: The cosmology of Surya Siddhanta, a Sanskrit treatise on astronomy dated to as far back as 4 CE; illustrations from the Hortus Malabaricus, a 17th century Dutch East India Company-initiated compendium on Kerala’s flora; and the mythology surrounding Vasco da Gama’s arrival in Calicut, poetically represented here by a star map of the sky as it appeared on the night he disembarked.

At the other end of the gallery, a second projection ties together these fragments of history through yet another aligned view of the illusion where viewers find themselves reflected back as a part of the image, transformed into one of the characters in the pastiche manuscript.

According to Singh, she has always considered voyages in the external world to be reflections of the inner journeys through which we seek to locate ourselves in “space, time, cultural history our own stories”.