Swayamsiddha: Myth, Mind and Movement
Video is available on demand
Swayamsiddha, 2009
Double Channel Video Installation, 7 minutes
Concept, Script & Direction: Seema Kohli
Performance: Seema Kohli and Himani
Photography: Avdesh Singh, Narendra Rai and Svabhu Kohli
Still Photography: Anshika Varma
Music: Vidya Rao
Editor: Amzad
“Pulsating, exhilarating and stimulating: a palpable energy that transcends barriers and rides the crest of life. Cradled within the womb, the crescendo of life, that begets life. A cosmic energy, powerful and dynamic, travelling through the universal realm, energising the seed of procreation, rendering constant both creation and the final conception. Time is a constant that unites with the fluid nuances of energy, serving as a pivot. It harnesses energy, thereby constructing a cosmic whole.”
– Seema Kohli
Swayamsiddha, 2009, is a double channel film installation that embarks on the age-old quest to explore the interrelation of time and energy. Upturning her own relationship to medium and materiality, the artist transmutes the three-dimensional space of her studio into her proverbial canvas, washing its floor with pigment, just as she would paper or cloth. Using all the materials available to her as a painter—from bubble paper to corrugated sheet—she tunes into a palpable, pulsating energy; and, in the process, discovers a juncture where time and energy simultaneously coalesce and collapse, uniting in one dimension but remaining separate in their projections. Both surviving within the cosmic whole, they expand, in the moment and through the work, to engulf the entirety of creation.