Flight Rehearsals

2003 - Film & Video (Film & Video)

Kiran Subbaiah

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Flight Rehearsals focuses on Subbaiah’s desire to fly as a means to highlight the relationship between human ambition and limitations of the physical world. The video presents philosophical explorations of the human desire to defy gravity and time. The minimalist set of a table highlights the intention and persistence of the protagonist rather than technological innovation. The video manipulates the camera angle to distort the appearance of space so that Subbaiah’s repeated attempts at beating gravity can achieve momentary flights. As the flight attempts move into the bedroom, what first appears to be a close up of an alarm clock turns out to be an oversized ringing alarm clock further back to create a distortion of space through manipulations in scale. Such effects highlight both the proximity and distance between apparent success and distorted perception.

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Born in Sidpur and living in Bangalore, Kiran Subbaiah works in a variety of media that includes assemblage, video and internet art after initial training as a sculptor. His works examine the relationships of use and value in everyday objects through subverting form and function. Constructing paradoxes through deadpan and humor, Subbaiah’s works also manipulate the object in an act of emancipation in order to highlight art’s autonomy from having to serve a purpose. Moreover, Subbaiah is interested in the relationship between human subjects and their apparent doubles in photography and video.

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Colors:

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• ambition.n.01
• distortion.n.05
• repetition.n.02
• gravity.n.01
• minimalism.n.01
• perception.n.03