KASHKOL

During a recent cultural research trip to New Delhi, India, Kazmi documented the inventions and contraptions that allow the handicapped and homeless people of city to walk, move or navigate for themselves. Kazmi was taken with the heroics, resourcefulness and creativity of these amazing people in their plight for self-reliance. Through a series of large photographs, each device is observed and photographed as a singular object, and set in the studio as if props for a family portrait, these inventions for mobility have a sentimental, yet isolated sculptural presence. Through separation from its owner/creator, the photographs provide the viewer a close examination and to imagine their utility. In addition, Kazmi continues her theme about the questions of one’s condition and “how they surface through exposure to perceptual and situational irregularities.” This personal understanding is an outcome of a work that creates room for the association of ideas and for the possibility of alternative interpretations. In the video, Kazmi is in conversation with the owner’s of these strangely beautiful apparatus. One sees only the talking head of her collaborators as they tell their story through a very animated and emotional dialogue. This approach continues on the subject of communication and what she hopes: “has the ability to generate an esthetic of socially shared meaning through open-ended and complex interactions among people.”

By Dana Turkovic