Teddy Universe, Sun Shadow and Islander

The collaborative creations of Bengaluru-based artists Aparna Rao and Søren Pors are the result of long periods of experimentation and deliberation, leading to installations and sculptures where underlying technical complexities are masked by sinister humour and an assembly-line aesthetic. In the five interconnected projects they are exhibiting, playfulness and an appeal to the viewers’ empathy exist alongside a keen sense of the uncanny.

Handheld (2012-14) consists of two delicately crafted wooden hands holding up a sheet of paper that shakes intermittently as if the arms of the invisible person holding it up are shivering from the anxiety of trying to keep still. Sun Shadow (2009-11) might at first escape a viewer’s attention. What appears on the floor like leftover installation material or a blackened outline of the Sun is one of Pors & Rao’s creatures. It springs to life intermittently and after attempting to ‘rise’ in several convulsive movements, collapses back on the floor as if exhausted by the effort.

Pors & Rao in Teddy Universe (2009-11) use faux fur embedded with fibre-optic lamps to make a teddy bear. When hung in a dimly lit room, the installation shimmers like an encapsulated view of the cosmos: An entity with no perceivable edge which is here contained within the unintimidating form of a familiar toy. Islander (2013-14) resembles a horizon as viewed through the porthole of a ship. As the installation rocks back and forth, the Sun within this horizonal view also rolls from one side to the other, as if it is unable to escape the confines of the window through which it is viewed.