Installation Art
Projection on Mist
2012
“Friends have been urging me to write to you for the sake of humanity.
But I have resisted their request, feeling that any letter from me would be an impertinence.
Something tells me I must not calculate,
And that I must make my appeal,
For whatever it may be worth.”
-Excerpt from correspondence from Mahatma Gandhi to Adolf Hitler
“Covering Letter” is an installation piece by Jitish Kallat. It is a space of darkness where light is projected onto a film of descending mist. As the projection continues, one can observe a series of ascending letters which can also be observed flowing below one’s feet in inverse. As the projection rises and reaches a certain degree of legibility, one can then observe that the projection is of a letter that was sent to Adolf Hitler by Mahatma Gandhi, urging him to rethink his actions in a last attempt to prevent a war. This installation is aimed to create a surreal space for the audience, catalyzed by words from one of history’s greatest promoters of peace to one of history’s greatest promoters of conflict.
Jitish Kallat was born in 1974 in Mumbai, India and received his Bachelor’s degree in Fine Arts from the J J School of Art. Kallat’s oeuvre reveals his scrutiny into the fundamental themes of our existence. Some of his works are his postulation on the present, while some delve into the past. His work has been exhibited in the world’s most prestigious museums, like Tate Modern (London), Gallery of Modern Art (Brisbane), and the Mori Art Museum (Tokyo) among numerous others. His solo exhibitions at museums include the Art Institute of Chicago, the Ian Potter Museum of Art (Melbourne) and Art Gallery of New South Wales (Sydney).
“Covering Letter” is being featured at the Venice Biennale 2019 ’s India Pavilion. This year, the Art Biennale is taking place from 11th May – 24th November 2019. Desee Art aims to shed light on the exhibition’s India Pavilion, that is celebrating 150 years of Gandhi in a show titled “Our Time for a Future Caring”.
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