subliminal \ subliminar
Blanca, Spain \ Blanca, Espana
2023
Curator: Elena Azzedin
Partners in Charge/ Lead: Sarvesh Singh
Associated with: AADK Espana
Location: Blanca, Murcia, Spain
Type: installation, design, sculpture, deconstruction, light, sound, multi-sensory, place-making, haptics, landscape, site specific, re-animation
Tags: body, territory, spatiality, forensic reconstruction, hyper-contextual investigation and response
What makes a house a home?
This project is not based on any particular object but the space between various entities. This in-betweenness is also referred to as Liminal Spaces, which are typically stripped of context - found everywhere, they are portals to the no-where. One rampant example can be the atrium of a shopping mall, located anywhere in the world - glamorous, even seductive albeit run-of-the-mill.
This contrasts starkly with the type of place which is deeply connected to its environment, grounded, inward looking, sometimes even lacking authorship but invoking a relentless imagery/memory of how life would have unfolded in it - of how construction was layered in by the people who built it, gradually over decades, perhaps even over generations.
The tension between these two wildly juxtaposing ideas sheds light on another paradox - on one hand, we have the subjective memory of a place, maybe a pleasant time in our childhood, perhaps even nostalgia - a sense of safety, leisure and play. On the other end, is the objective experience of the nowness, being present in the moment, maybe self aware. The truth is that we continuously experience life in terms of our previous experiences, colouring so much of it with inherent biases, constantly projecting, justifying and warping reality to fit our individual worldviews. Starting with one’s own headspace, how does one ever hope to transcend this dilemma?
Circling back to the age-old story of Casa Jazmin, built by one or more faceless persons who, quite possibly, worked as farmers in the orange and lemon orchards, somewhere in the Ricote Valley. The idea is to deconstruct this humble relationship with the landscape, both for Casa Jazmín and its occupant/s.
My interpretation of liminality can be engaged in three distinct phases: the first is that of Separation, conducted within Espacio 05 of the Centro Negra. In this we deconstruct and distinguish the visual image of Casa Jazmin from its tactile experience, through one interactive painting. We do so by animating the framed projection, with a touch-based input device.A LiDAR scan of Casa Jazmin floats enframed in digital space, mirroring the physical sculpture shaped by memory embedded in the distortion of its steel mesh. This sculptural piece is as much about the tentacles/pathways on it, as it is about the spaces in-between them. We can look at it up-close, but from afar, it becomes something else. Doubling as a kind of metaphorical lens, the sculpture nudges us to see through to the digital memory of the house, projected on that singular wall shared between the Centro and the Casa. It ponders upon a series of questions - how did Casa Jazmin begin to materialise here? What roads and pathways were its building materials mobilised through? Which modes of awareness does Casa Jazmin still spark?
Armed with this curiosity, we move out into the second phase, Transition or the dark staircase by the open door. This is the moment of suspense, where the imagination runs wild in its uncertainty - creating all kinds of scenarios, paradoxes, bubbling over with potential.
The third and final phase is that of Reintegration, as we explore Casa Jazmin, first hand, and stumble upon the juncture when one’s thirst is quenched - the moment of reflection where perhaps a new reality might unfold, sublime but irrefutable. The size of its doors, stairs and overall spaces causes one to become keenly aware of their own physicality, shrinking slightly to move through. As the house realises its place within the landscape, we realise our place within. What makes a house a home is always below our threshold of consciousness - subliminal
