Kavita Singh was a collaborator in “Teleconsequences” a
networked collaborative drawing performance installation for
the multidisciplinary drawing exhibition Marks Make Meaning.
She is an artist that lives and works in New Dehli. The aim of this
project is to explore the symbiotic relation between artist and
viewer, exposing the myth that creativity and meaning is a oneway
process. In (tele)consequences the creation of meaning is
experienced by sender and receiver through an open framework
as a process of cause and effect, or as Roland Barthes puts it as
the birth of the reader ransomed by the death of the Author.
Reflecting on the surrealist explorations of consequence and
chance the project echoes the words of Andre Breton who
spoke of these collaborative practices as “the most fabulous
source of unfindable images…” and asks how would their games
unfold in our present technological networked society.
(tele)consequences was a collaborative global drawing
performance that could be joined from any location in the world
by simply using a networked computer or smartphone and
Skype app. This telematic drawing performance for the Marks
Make Meaning exhibition involved a large wall mounted scroll
of paper, two metres wide by one and a half metres high, upon
which we projected the live incoming Skype video call of a realtime
drawing. The gallery guests, students and staff in Brighton
then drew on the paper screen, adding their marks and
contributions upon the projected drawing, using a range of
materials from pencils, charcoal and paints to collage, objects
and human figures. The camera in the exhibition sent a live
combined image of the drawing on the projected drawing back
to the remote participant via Skype. Each performance lasted up
to 20 minutes and was initiated by a unique theme or title. After
each collaborative drawing we rolled out a new paper screen
and invited another global partner for our next performance. A
video recording of the most recent performances was then
projected on the paper screen in the gallery between the
scheduled events.
University of
Brighton, Grand
Parade Gallery,
12th to 29th March 2018
