Peel is a multi-channel audio-visual installation, it presents a visual echo of the present instance: it takes an unexamined moment and gives it life. The transitional motion of going to the fridge to get an ingredient is stretched into the echo of an unforgettable instant, and what emerges is an examination of the subtlety and hidden beauty of that moment. The mass repetition of small videos magnifies subtle nuances while blurring the whole ensemble into a mass of activity. For instance, the elementariness of simple gestures of a seemingly mundane daily activity (such as those of stirring, or putting hair behind the ear) get morphed into a complex choreography when multiplied. The effect of this process is mirrored in the dense and rich textured sound that emerges from the layering of the audio from the individual videos.

The work was announced as the winner of Art vs Design organized by http://www.artistswanted.org/ at the New Museum.

PEEL  voted as the winner of Celeste Prize’09  http://celesteprize.com/artwork/ido:27351/

Watch full video here http://vimeo.com/5293796

lullaby-daze1

Performed @ Waveforms, School of The Art Institute of Chicago, Spring 2008

The video was an attempt to re-encapsulate a optical turbulence which was toyed upon in my paintings. The major thrust of my focus was to maintain a rhythmicity of the light movements without loosing on the randomness of the two dimensional compositions.

This site-specific sound installation was part of a larger group show called “Department Store”. I thought it would be interesting to put the sounds of market places in India and in Chicago together in one confined space. These two markets are similar in spirit, yet so far apart both geographically and characteristically. And these trends manifest themselves in the sounds as well — there are times when the sounds from these two places are indistinguishable, and at other times the sounds could not be further apart.

dept-storemixx_1-2-2

The visual narrative of “Tunneling” is defined through the process of cutting through the wall of the performance space from inside to outside, the different layers within the building wall slowly exposed until the outer, nighttime street is reached. This image is constructed in a live fashion through use of a green-screen setup, a specially constructed table and custom software which “memorizes” the appearance of each layer of material as it’s being cut. The audio narrative consists of a multitude of voices singing verses, which are at first multiplied by many thousands, and slowly decimate while the wall is exposed until only one, the real voice of the audio performer, is left when the street outside is finally reached. An additional layer of domestic cooking sounds is intertwined with the voices, juxtaposed with the sounds generated by the cutting of the wall-layers.

Performers: Surabhi Saraf- audio,Nadav Assor- video and objects,

Exhibited: In “New Blood II”, Links Hall, Chicago

TUNNELING in Bologna @ NETMAGE 10 International Live Media Festival, 2010

Food Sounds Good is a composition of the sights, sounds, and gestures of cooking. The isolated, juxtaposed, and rearranged steps of cooking come together to produce sonic and gestural movements. They reveal the rhythms of domestic life.

A Collaborative performance as a part of Goat Island Summer School at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago, July,2008.
Performers: Michelle Milne
Surabhi Saraf
Katie Bateman
Brianne Waychoff

An attempt, using light trails to capture the energy and movements of children in a group, in different activities. Light trails, also depicting a different time frame of the child in comparison with an adult. Patterns of sounds are composed based on the patterns of light, to hold the video in time. The video is essentially a movement through the patterns of lights and sounds, installed at one of the locations of its shoot. This work is in progress.

To build an understanding with the children and know them better I conducted a workshop for a week. The kids come from a background which does not give them any exposure to art, belonging to the age group of 5- 10 years. The workshop was an attempt to initiate them towards drawing and narration through storytelling / illustration exercises.

Video: Surabhi Saraf

Audio: Babul Vazhoor and Aditya Bhatt

This live performance at Khoj, New Delhi, was an experiment of sorts in which compositions were created by recording, modulating, distorting and identifying rhythms and melodies out of the natural sounds of an aging fan. The intention is to create soundscapes through compositional re-structuring and amplification of sounds of objects around us, therefore hinting at the possibility of a subjective, surreal transformation of an everyday space.

The recorded tracks of the fan were mixed with amplified live sounds of the same from the installation space during the performance. The mono speakers played the live sounds whereas the stereo, the pre-composed ones. The space of the installation was defined by the position of the speakers, the volume levels and other effects such as channel pannings.  The idea being that the composition is absorbed and experienced as one moves around the premises: the audience is also an unaware but active participant in the whole set up. The experience of the person varies according to where he/she is positioned.

The cables,used to transmit the sounds forms another part of the installation. The cables connecting the speakers were arranged as drawings on the walls — visual web referring to the virtual sound web and leading to the “stage” of this performance: a room, where a video of sound waves were projected on to the fan, which is the generator of the whole installation. A closed loop of ideas.

Performed @ Khoj International Artist association as a part of the Peers’06 Residency