Kitchen Spectacle
With Sindhu Thirumalaisamy and Vasundhara Sharma, 2011
Performance with steel rack, kitchen utensils, incense sticks, thread, rubberbands, sugar cubes, rice and water
Performance with steel rack, kitchen utensils, incense sticks, thread, rubberbands, sugar cubes, rice and water
A kitchen shelf performs throwing utensils off its shelves. Acts of destruction are sometimes presented as spectacles, and appreciated as such. People who consume these spectacles of destruction are distanced from the act of destroying – by a TV screen, by a glass window, by role playing, through a narrator or through a stage. Destruction in our own homes can become appreciable when we are able to remove ourselves from its consequences and become a spectator.
Things fall in the kitchen all the time. Sound and sight of these objects disrupts domestic life momentarily. A moment is taken to assess one’s surroundings, take in the damage, and decide how to react to the situation. This moment soon passes and life resumes. This work focuses on these moments of domestic disruption. Set as a spectacle in the gallery space, further distanced from any real kitchen through the sound of smooth jazz, this exhibit highlights a common form of destruction that can be appreciated.
This project was part of a larger workshop called Appreciable Destruction led by artist Kiran Subbaiah.