If metal can be polished to a mirror like finish, what polishing might the mirror of the heart require? Rumi I’ve always tried to compute emotions in clothes. Can clothes through storytelling, engage people in real time? Are inanimate objects able to appear animate depending upon a subjects mind? Six weeks. In a room. Typing and alternately staring at a screen. Welcome to my writing and research residency. During the past 47 days, I’ve bid farewell, fought with, railed against, reconnected with, lost hope in and much more with people and spaces. Immediate reactions to instances and environments get stored in the brain. There is this compelling need to let it out, to manifest it through fabric, words and images. The projections veer from the literal to the obscure. The results range from smooth to disjointed. And I enjoy the unpredictable quality of the brain’s output. These accompanying digital collages and illustrations are indicative of my mind space in the recent past, using the ever trustworthy, assemblage method. Taking an image or an illustration, deconstructing it, tearing it, reconstructing, and layering it. These are a selection from a pile of images made, which work as mood enhancers, an ecosystem of sorts, as a catalyst or sometimes just images, like I’ve said, to stare at, on my screens. What makes me enjoy these most is that while in the morning they seem complete and whole, by the end of the day they seem like works in progress.
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Kallol Datta is a design professional based in Kolkata. Awarded two residencies at KHOJ International Artists’ Association, his multidisciplinary practice includes clothing, writing and art. Kallol Datta 1955 is a clothing label set up in 2008. His writing has appeared in numerous publications and he is currently a guest columnist for The Telegraph.
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