Akeroyd Collection

Works

Kawita Vatanajyankur, Dye, 2018

Vatanajyankur, against an eggshell-blue background, becomes an implement within the dying process in this single-perspective video work. She is suspended by her ankles, upside down, above a bowl of red dye. In a flesh-coloured body suit, she appears unburdened by the distractions of clothes, lending a certain vulnerability to the scene. A sprawl of threads attached to her head is draped into the dye as she is repeatedly lowered in and out of the bowl by hands that appear from off-camera. Seeing these hands handle her body, and use her as an inanimate object, she becomes a passive device, like a mop or brush, to administer the labour of the dying process. The body has been objectified but remains human and vulnerable. She is literally being used and instrumentalized, perhaps implying there is a sexualized undertone to proceedings that makes inscribes the body itself inside economies of use and transaction, perhaps.

MediumHD Video, single-channel
Duration7 minutes 30 seconds
Editionof 4 + 3 APs