If it wasn't the Covid-19 pandemic, multidisciplinary visual artist Aishwarya Arumbakkam wouldn't know what the presence (or rather absence) of her parents would mean to her. As simple as it may sound or look, Aishwarya's photography of her parents' simplest of the movements, speaks a lot more. These photos and videos, is being showcased under the title Ten Sounds I Cannot Hear, as a part of this ongoing exhibition in Kolkata, Artists for Artists, being held at Experimenter, Ballygunge Place, till June 14.
In Aishwarya Arumbakkam’s practice, photography shapes her connection to the physical world, tethering her to things that worry and excite her, that she longs for, and wants to hold on to. In Ten Sounds I Cannot Hear, she uses photography, video, printmaking, and drawing to build and maintain a close connection with her parents across continents, in the United States and India.
Using repeatedly mediated imagery, Aishwarya shows a complex view of immigration where she and her loved ones are faced with the obstacle of separation while trying to preserve a sense of closeness. The title of the series is inspired by a folder in her archive of photographic and audio material, recorded with her parents over a screen, during the Covid-19 pandemic. Through the process of making digital time into physical objects, Arumbakkam attempts to shrink the distance that separates her from her ageing mother and father, and lengthen the time she has left with them.
Aishwarya says, "Ten Sounds I cannot Hear is a body of work I made in collaboration with my parents between 2020 and 2022. This was the start of the pandemic, and I was abruptly separated from my parents who were ageing and not of great health. I was living in the US, they in India and during this time of separation and isolation, work became a way for us to spend time together and also stay in touch."
She ended up spending an extended amount of time with her parents every day over a video call, making photographs, videos, recording, audio and over time when she looked at this material , what really came back to her was this constant attempt to stay in touch or just be together but an inability to actually do so because of the distance that separated them. "These gaps started leaving their traces, which when built up, they became the works that you see in the space today," she concluded.