Navin Thomas

Born in 1974

Lives and works in Bangalore, India

Solo Exhibitions

2010

From the town's end, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

2006

sound asleep, PROJECT 88, Mumbai

2005

Auto In, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

2004

In Transit, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

Group Exhibitions

2013

Trilingual, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

5th Anniversary, Centre for Internet and Society, Bangalore

2012

Music for Restrooms, Atlas Performing Arts Centre,

Washington D C

Air, Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna

Skoda Top Twenty Show, curated by Girish Shahane, Lalith

Kala Akademy, New Delhi

2011

Generation in Transition, curated by Magda Kardasz, Zacheta

National Gallery of Art, Warsaw

Mix Tape, An exhibition of accessible audio tape, curated by

Lucas Abela, Tins Shed Gallery, Australia

IN CONTEXT: PUBIC.ART.ECOLOLGY II (investigating

the intersection between art, ecology and science), KHOJ,

International Artists' Association, New Delhi

2010

In other words, Exploration of new site specific sound works:

Select book house Bangalore

Continum Transfunctioner, curated by Gitanjali Dang, Exhibit

320, New Delhi

GALLERYSKE for Gallery BMB, BMB Gallery, Mumbai

2009

Analytical Engines, Bose Pacia, Calcutta

Immersions, Anant Art Gallery, Curated by Deeksha Nath

Group show, GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

2008

Where in the world, Devi Art Foundation, curated by the

School of Arts and Aesthetics, Jawaharlal Nehru University,

Delhi

Krinzinger Projekte, Vienna

Still moving image, curated by Deeksha Nath, Devi Art

Foudation, New Delhi

RE ASIA - Avatar, Asia's Narrators, a literature festival

curated by Ilija Trojanow, Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Berlin

Mechanisms of Motion, curated by Marta Jakimowicz, Anant

Art Gallery, Delhi

2007

New Installations from India, Part I, curated by Michael

Olijnyk and Barbara Luderowski, The Mattress Factory,

Pittsburgh, USA

2005

Indian Summer, curated by Henri-Clause Cousseau, Deepak

Ananth, Jany Lauga, Ecole des Beaux Arts, Paris (cat)

World Information City, Bangalore, curated by Institute of

New Culture Technologies, Vienna, Alternative Law Forum,

Bangalore and Ayisha Abraham

Residency Projects

2011

Art and Ecology, Khoj, New Delhi

2009

One World Foundation, Gallery Krinzinger, Sri Lanka

2008

Khoj-international sonic art residency, New Delhi

2007

The Mattress Factory, Pittsburgh, USA

2006

AFFA, winter artist residency program, Paris

Broadcasts/Audio Projects

2011

A call to prayer (Timeline of fruit bats fornicating in local

mosque)

2008

S.U.M.I.T (Electroacoustic piece using found composition and

small critters)

2004

In Transit, Live at All India Radio, Bangalore

Grants and Awards

2011

The Skoda Prize for Contemporary Art, 2011

2003

Grant from Sarai (CSDS), to document musical busking

performance through sound and stills

Education

Diploma in graphic design

Diploma in cinematography, Karnataka Film and Technical Training

Centre, Bangalore

[http://www.galleryske.com/NavinThomas/cv.html]

--

WHAT: “Trilingual,” a show of work by Navin Thomas, Amirtharaj Stephen, and Karun

Kumbera

WHEN: May 25 to July 5

WHERE: GALLERYSKE, 2 Berlie Street, Langford Town, Bengaluru 560 025

Thomas’ sound boxes, constructed by chronologically assembling found material, hint at the

human tendency towards destruction. His “Cause we felled down a forest,” eerily plays 32

movements of “Swan Lake” in different timings out of three sound boxes. –

See more at: http://in.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/908576/shows-that-matter-trilingual-

galleryske-bengaluru#sthash.oCZCaL8k.dpuf

--

Navin Thomas’ career goals changed from being the Incredible Hulk, a church pipe organ player to a fruit

picker, though currently he’s happy content being an artist. Viewing Navin Thomas’ artworks is like

entering a laboratory that has a minimalist sculpture and an aural engagement of living beings. As an

observer, the audience can choose to spend hours recognizing a pattern in the engagement or just relish

the innovative conversation between elements. Making sound installations from public telephones,

transistors, magnetic audiotapes, old television sets and ultra-violet light ecology, Navin sets out to

explore the interaction and relationship between the components of electro-acoustic ecology.

A self proclaimed flea-market junkie, he believes that one can know a lot about a culture from what it

throws away. His personal ‘micro-culture’ (a concept introduced by novelist William Gibson) ranges from

storerooms full of dusty radios to the lost and found sections.

[http://thefuschiatree.com/91/fullview]

Navin Thomas’ Invite for the show - From Town’s End…

First is the invite for the opening of his show From Town’s End… at Gallery Ske in 2010. Made

out of an audio tape and an empty cover of the audio tape, Navin came up with this in 20 minutes

as a graphic designer was unavailable. The design stays true to the medium and character of his

art; the realization of living in a sonic magnetic environment… and that life isn’t boring if we

just listen! Gallery Ske

Navin Thomas’ Don’t Stare at the Light, too brightly…,

Gallery Ske, 2010

Don’t Stare at the Light, too brightly… was shown as part of his show ‘From Town’s End’ at

Gallery Ske in Bengaluru in 2010. In this work, insects are attracted to the ultra violet light made

out of an industrial exhaust fan, as one of the two speakers play the calls of nocturnal insects and

animals, while the other one plays instrumental music ‘My Funny Valentine’. The tragic

romance (almost Shakespearean!) and devotion of the insects to the flower shaped light emitter is

played out as their bodies lie scattered on the ground. Gallery Ske

Navin Thomas’ The Conversation Piece, Gallery Ske, 2010

This piece was a conversation between two chairs. When people sit on the chairs, it’s the chairs

that converse with each other as the shift in chair leads to a fluctuation in audio frequencies

coming from the transistors wired to the chair. Surely it is a minimalist installation where one

can sit back and let the chair do the talking!

Navin Thomas’ Don’t Stare at the Light, too brightly…,

Gallery Ske, 2010

Don’t Stare at the Light, too brightly… was shown as part of his show ‘From Town’s End’ at

Gallery Ske in Bengaluru in 2010. In this work, insects are attracted to the ultra violet light made

out of an industrial exhaust fan, as one of the two speakers play the calls of nocturnal insects and

animals, while the other one plays instrumental music ‘My Funny Valentine’. The tragic

romance (almost Shakespearean!) and devotion of the insects to the flower shaped light emitter is

played out as their bodies lie scattered on the ground.

Navin Thomas’ The Conversation Piece, Gallery Ske, 2010

This piece was a conversation between two chairs. When people sit on the chairs, it’s the chairs

that converse with each other as the shift in chair leads to a fluctuation in audio frequencies

coming from the transistors wired to the chair. Surely it is a minimalist installation where one

can sit back and let the chair do the talking!

--

Navin Thomas’s enchanting creative journey

The choice of materials for a creative mind is akin to a boundless journey with many turns and

twists– each having a unique character. Time and effort spent on exploring them invariably

presents with myriad possibilities and fascinating processes of understanding. There’s a sense of

mutual give and take once work starts getting conceptualized. The materials on their own guide

the artist and reveal for themselves ways of using them. It’s an open-ended quest with no

definitive conclusions.

Working tirelessly and seamlessly over a prolonged period of time with different materials allow

a thorough understanding, through the mind as well as the body. Navin Thomas’s working

processes reveal the intriguing aspects of a creative sojourn. He is known to be an artist always

keen to experiment.

For example, at an unconventional residency program organized by KHOJ art organization, he

was one of the sound artists invited to experiment with their medium. Driven by a visual world, a

whole new world of sensorium was opened up in front of viewers. Other than his preoccupation

with voice culture, automation, and sleep cycles, the artist is known to keenly explore the

mesmerizing sound worlds of different organisms.

Earlier this year, at ‘Immersions - The White Cube Project’ by Anant Art Gallery, New Delhi, he

etched on black glass, and highlighted the pre-eminent role of computer and television screens in

our day-to-day lives. In his work, the reflective black void of the sleeping screen held virtual

world of possible interactions and resultant experiences. On the other hand, for one of his recent

creations Navin Thomas made use of found twigs, steel sphere, salvaged electronics, furniture,

used sheets, live crickets and mousetraps.

Born in 1974 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the artist has done a diploma in graphic design and holds

a diploma in cinematography from Karnataka Film and Technical Training Centre, Bangalore.

Among his recent solo exhibitions are 'sound asleep', Gallery SKE, Bangalore and Project88,

Mumbai (2006); 'Auto In', and 'In Transit', Gallery SKE, Bangalore (2005, 2004). His work

forms part of group exhibitions like 'RE ASIA - Avatar, Asia's Narrators', Haus der Kulturen der

Welt, Berlin, and 'Mechanisms of Motion', Anant Art Gallery, Delhi. Among the workshops and

residencies he has attended are the Mattress Factory in 2007 and AFFA, winter artist residency

program, Paris (2006).

The urge to experiment was again visible in ‘Analytical Engine’, an exhibition curated by Heidi

Fichtner at Kolkata’s gallery Bose Pacia earlier this year. The participating artists included

Rohini Devasher, Anita Dube, Kiran Subbaiah and Navin Thomas, among others. Along with

them he launched into an experimental journey through neo art mediums, conceptually

grounding his works based on sound component. He devised sound designing into art material. It

led itself to a process of interrogation of the proven tenets of art history and the apparent

irreproachability of history.

To put his off-beat work in a broader context, an essay by writer Zehra Jumabhoy on Frieze

website deserves a mention here. It pointed how Bangalore’s burgeoning economy has done

more than providing artists with fodder for fun. In this context, Navin Thomas agrees that the

boom has proved to be a boon for ‘object art’. The artist, who has made his share of ‘object art’,

was mentioned as turning his attention to other less commercial projects, including an endeavor

to hatch a bird in a cage populated by mechanical birds programmed to react to sound, in order to

observe how the ‘speech’ patterns of the live animal would be affected by the interaction.

Interestingly, members of the public could see the work’s progress.

As is evident, Navin Thomas often thrives on the sudden element of surprise in order to arrive at

something unexpected and keep the viewers engaged with his work. The deliberate merging of

exterior stimuli with inner thoughts is a strategy he employs to achieve this result. The

methodology sums up the spirit of his enriching creative journey thus far.

[http://www.theartstrust.com/Magazine_article.aspx?articleid=208]

-- Navin Thomas is an artist based in Bangalore. He is interested in electro-acoustic ecology and the idea of built architecture co-existing with natural ecologies. -- On winning the Skoda Prize

August to October 2010.

Navin Thomas

Exhibition: From the Town's End…

Venue: GALLERYSKE, Bangalore

In his latest solo show, Navin Thomas explores his continuing interest in the afterlife of salvaged

electronic junk with a possible audio capacity, creating work that incorporates found objects as

varied as old PCO telephones, former army loud-speakers, a customized hatbox, a PA horn from

a mosque, and a toy that gleefully sings in Iranian which was found in the Chinese toy market in

Chandni Chowk. Thomas’s work also examines how animals and birds react to household

electronic appliances and the effects of living in close proximity with seemingly domestic

magnetic fields.

Navin Thomas’s “From the Town’s End…” was shown at GALLERYSKE in Bangalore, from

August to October 2010.

[http://www.theskodaprize.com/2012/winner.php?id=1#.UmBbO1ObHgk]

--

On 28 January, 2012, at a swanky ceremony held at the posh Taj Palace Hotel in New Delhi, the second annual ŠKODA PRIZE went to Bangalorean artist Navin Thomas, for his exhibition From The Town’s End. Thomas' show extended his enduring preoccupation with the intersection of nature and technology. Using found objects such as discarded electronics, outmoded telephones, a singing toy, a mosque PA horn, old army loud-speakers, and other objects capable of making and transmitting sound, he examined the interaction between living creatures, such as frogs or birds, everyday house-hold electronics, as well as sonic and magnetic fields. He has described the show at GALLERYSKE in Bangalore that won him the award as an exercise in "electro-acoustic ecology." The award came with a check for 1,000,000 INR. [http://ec2-50-19-113-57.compute-1.amazonaws.com/ind/articles/show/30312] -- “While Your Were Sleeping,” the only work by Navin Thomas, might easily be missed by many visitors. Not only is it tucked away in the belly of the gallery, but it’s niche is so dark that you have to grope around to find the headphones. The gadget seen in the video is a toy Thomas found in a market of Chinese manufactured toys in old Delhi. The toy sings an Iranian song. If you don’t knows this background, however, then all this video shows is a bit of junk whose tinny speakers leak a cheerful song with gibberish lyrics. You wouldn’t recognise the rusty little gadget as a cultural traveller. All the sophistication of centuries-old artistic traditions of Iran, China and India is contrasted with this product of their contemporary cultures and politics: a mechanical toy that has decayed and looks like nothing recognisable as it sputters recorded noise. It’s a shame the show didn’t have more of Thomas’s works because he is among the more exciting artists in the GALLERYSKE stable. [http://deepanjana.wordpress.com/2010/09/27/review-gallery-ske-for-gallery-bmb/] --

Live and “hand-raised” pigeons confined in a room filled with copper wires and transistor radios

emitting white noise from unused frequencies. It’s Sound Sculpture, an art installation on display

at Lalit Kala Akademi. The installation by Bangalore-based Naveen Thomas — who says he

finds the effects of junk electronics on birds and animals fascinating — was first displayed in

Bangalore’s GallerySke in 2010.

Thomas, nominated for the Skoda Prize for contemporary Indian art — the highest in the country

— said, “I find it interesting to hear how the sound fluctuates every time a bird sits on the copper

wire.”

[http://www.hindustantimes.com/news-feed/chunk-ht-ui-print-delhi-mainnews-front/artiste-in-

soup-for-confining-pigeons/article1-803089.aspx]

--

Saturday, June 8, 2013

Navin Thomas: An artist always keen to experiment

Working tirelessly and seamlessly over a prolonged period of time with different materials allow a

thorough understanding, through the mind as well as the body. Navin Thomas’s processes reveal the

intriguing aspects of a creative sojourn. Other than his preoccupation with voice culture, automation,

and sleep cycles, the artist is known to keenly explore the mesmerizing sound worlds of different

organisms.

Born in 1974 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu, the artist has done a diploma in graphic design and holds a

diploma in cinematography from Karnataka Film and Technical Training Centre, Bangalore. Among his

recent solo exhibitions are 'sound asleep', Gallery SKE, Bangalore and Project88, Mumbai (2006); 'Auto

In', and 'In Transit', Gallery SKE, Bangalore (2005, 2004).

His work forms part of group exhibitions like 'RE ASIA - Avatar, Asia's Narrators', Haus der Kulturen der

Welt, Berlin, and 'Mechanisms of Motion', Anant Art Gallery, Delhi. Among the workshops and

residencies he has attended are the Mattress Factory in 2007 and AFFA, winter artist residency program,

Paris (2006).

In one of his earlier projects ‘Immersions - The White Cube Project’ at New Delhi-based Anant Art

Gallery, he etched on black glass, and highlighted the pre-eminent role of computer and television

screens in our day-to-day lives. In his work, the reflective black void of the sleeping screen held virtual

world of possible interactions and resultant experiences.

On the other hand, for one of his recent creations, he made use of found twigs, steel sphere, salvaged

electronics, furniture, used sheets, live crickets and mousetraps. His keenness to experiment was again

visible in ‘Analytical Engine’, a series curated by Heidi Fichtner at Kolkata’s gallery Bose Pacia The

participating artists included Rohini Devasher, Anita Dube, and Kiran Subbaiah among others, engaged

into an experimental journey through neo art mediums, conceptually grounding his works based on

sound component.

As is evident, Navin Thomas often thrives on the sudden element of surprise in order to arrive at

something unexpected and keep the viewers hooked to his work

[http://artexpoindia.blogspot.in/2013/01/navin-thomas-artist-always-keen-to.html]

-- The introspective and innovative creator is known to experiment with an array of forms and mediums. For example, at an unconventional residency program organized by KHOJ art organization, he was one of the sound artists invited to experiment with their medium. Driven by a visual world, a whole new world of sensorium was opened up in front of viewers. Other than his preoccupation with voice culture, automation, and sleep cycles, the artist is known to keenly explore the mesmerizing sound worlds of different organisms. He often draws his inspiration from the sudden element of surprise in order to arrive at something unexpected and keep the viewers engaged. The deliberate merging of exterior stimuli with inner thoughts is a strategy that he skillfully employs to achieve this. [http://artexpoindia.blogspot.in/search?q=navin+thomas] --

Fascinating ‘From the Town’s End...’ grabs The Skoda Award

The winning exhibition was that of artist Navin Thomas’s ‘From

the Town’s End...’, previously showcased at GallerySKE, Bangalore late last year. It's essentially a

continuation of his interest in the afterlife of salvaged electronic junk with a possible audio capacity

creating work that incorporates found objects as varied as old PCO telephones, former army

loudspeakers, a customized hatbox and a PA horn from a mosque to a Chinese toy.

The series examines how small species react to household electronic appliances and the effects of living

in close proximity with seemingly domestic magnetic fields. His interest primarily lies in the travels and

after-life of electronic gadgets and salvaged electronic junk.

He notes in an accompanying statement to his new series: “A couple of things, which I have been

preoccupied with over the last few years… beta-testing on the possible after life of salvaged electronic

junk, mostly discarded transistors and smaller objects, with a possible audio capacity… anther past time

is observing, how your pets and smaller species react to magnetic fields. For instance, is it possible that

your electronic doorbell makes regular contributions to the evolution of a newer acoustic ecology?"

His approach to this phenomenon is simply one out of curiosity about the private life of discarded

electronic appliances; and what is this show, about? Electro-acoustic ecology and magnetic climate…

Electro-acoustic ecology is mostly the relationship between individuals and communities living within a

sonic magnetic environment, which include the physical responses or behavioral characteristics of life

within it.

He elaborates: “At any given time, you are listening to some ‘form’ of radio, other than the traditional

analog Transistor, Cellphones and other hi end equipment use advanced types of radio signals… The

spatial radius and temporality of the radio phonic field brings in an intimacy of experience. More

importantly radio is a triangulated set of relationships between the listener, the player and its spatial

environment…”

[http://artexpoindia.blogspot.in/2012/02/fascinating-from-towns-end-grabs-skoda.html]

--

Navin Thomas - “Symphony for a Swine,” “Ode to Dengue” and “Meet the Neighbours”

[18]

Navin Thomas uses what he calls “low-tech” electro-acoustic engineering to map the behavioural

patterns and functions of small animals and insects and also investigates the “private-life” of

everyday objects or the “after-life” of discarded objects. His approach to sound is not simply a

scientific, experimental one – but also a philosophical one which takes Dadaist principles as a

point of departure. Thomas’s investigation of sounds and objects start out much in the same vein

as John Cage and Marcel Du Champ’s highly influential works in the field of music and art, i.e.

they do not necessarily imply or represent anything more than their pure essence. [19] However

in Thomas’s work created during the residency, he asks the question, “After the system of

objects, what next?” [20] and with this comes a distinct progression from Dadaist dogma. He

purposely makes defunct or disused objects speak again and thus gives them new use, reviving

them, conceptually and sometimes quite literally by housing mini eco-systems within them or

making them expressive of life. In taking the system of objects one step further and attributing a

voice or function to them, Thomas opens the work to interpretation and multiple readings.

The three works that Thomas produced during this residency are seminal to his oeuvre, in that

they illuminate and bring together the concepts at the very core of his developing practice. The

two studio works, “Symphony for a Swine” and “Meet the Neighbours” (a collaborative project

with Brandon Ballengee and Pratik Sagar) together with the public installation “Ode to Dengue”

formed a kind of feed-back loop; where one idea fed into another and the result served to amplify

observations, theories and attitudes Thomas has been documenting and relaying over the years.

Whereas “Ode to Dengue” was a climactic project resulting from several previous experiments

conducted in Sri Lanka (where Thomas was infected with Dengue fever), “Symphony for a

Swine” and “Meet the Neighbours” drew upon and from the city of Delhi itself and were

conceptualised during the residency. As part of his research into sub-sonic frequencies, Thomas

took a field-trip to the Yamuna River to try to record any viable signs of life. To his

astonishment, he found none, apart from what appeared to be a version of the African cat-fish

what seemed like a mutation with its red, bulging eyes. Thus his installation involved simply

placing these disturbing creatures in two compact fish-tanks for viewers to come and observe,

inviting them to come and “Meet the Neighbours”. Rather than the customary, picture-perfect

image of a goldfish in a bowl, or reminders of the wondrous act of observing exotic fish in

aquariums, Thomas gives us stark reality in its barest form; grotesque, feline, possibly

genetically-mutated creatures in a murky, confined fish-tank.

Juxtaposed with this was “Symphony for a Swine,” which consisted of three consecutive steel

urinals, emitting high-pitched sound of several pigs squealing in their farm-yard enclosure.

Originally in search of viable cat-fish specimen, Thomas’s quest led him to a hog farm where he

found the fish were breeding side-by-side with the pigs, feeding upon their excrement. The use

of urinals was a nod to Du Champ’s “Fountain” (1914) but was not overloaded with symbolism

in its appropriation, as it would be if they were ceramic. The shrieking sounds coming from an

otherwise silent unit for human waste-disposal could also be seen as a warning, alerting us to the

alarming effects of improper sewage treatment in the city. Aware of Thomas’s wider research

and preoccupations, one could see the work as indicative of the consequences of mass-farming

and over-consumption – polluted rivers, mutated life-forms and diseased food-chains. In the

same vein as Betty Beaumont’s exploration of mutated fish and underwater sound recordings,

Thomas takes an interest in conservation and issues of biodiversity although his aesthetic takes

on forms similar to Henrik Hakaanson’s laboratory-type installations of live animals and

recordings [21]. However, in contrast to Hakaanson’s high-tech installations, Thomas’s use of

basic materials (glass, steel, sound recordings and lights) rather than high-tech digital wizardry

keeps focus on the installations and specimens themselves rather than reducing the works to

mere spectacle.

Thomas’s public installation in Khirkee village, “Ode to Dengue” brought together two of the

artist’s preoccupations - observing natural phenomenon in synthesized habitats and bringing to

life an architectural structure made of discarded material, and making it useful again – this time

by housing local wildlife. By using Thomas’s specifically-crafted technology with an

architectural structure designed to look like a flower, the artist was able to observe and record the

effects of lunar and U.V. light on an existing bat colony and resident insects. The focus in this

instance was to observe behavioural patterns of nocturnal creatures but also to highlight “data-

deficient” insects, and as such give them recognition and prominence to in a sense, give them a

voice. Thomas’s outlook contrasts the life of objects with the natural life-span of living systems,

which are conventionally placed at opposite spectrums. As an artist, Thomas is able to control

this poetic space – bring defunct objects to life, dismantle them again, introduce forms of life and

existing eco-systems for short period of time. In doing so he gives us a chance to interact and

observe what we may not always see or listen to, despite their very significant presence and

existence right under our noses.

[http://www.khojworkshop.org/project/11751]

--

Singing in borrowed spaces

In Transit Railscapes, the sound show by Navin Thomas, is actually music from below

ZINDAGI IK kirai ka ghar hai, ek na ek din badalna padega... (Life is like a rented house, one has to move on some

time or the other). Picture this qawwali by a beggar accompanied by the formless but intense sound of the Ravana

hatha (similar to the sarangi) and the rhythm of a moving train... And then imagine the Ravana hatha against the

running train or the running train against the Ravana hatha ... Depending on how you look at it, it could put you into

a trance. The sound show by Navin Thomas, In Transit Railscapes, at Galleryske, is a marvellous record of the

sounds and ethos of the Indian train and its station. At the gallery, you will find sounds/hues from Mumbai, Delhi,

Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore.

The sound show is not an obvious work of art or music. There are no visuals, and a medley of sounds put together

may not immediately seem like music. But a Ravana hatha, the moving train, and qawwali put together could easily

turn into an aesthetic experience. The putting together is art, the product, music. Navin has done a wonderful job of

bringing together the non-vocal and vocal, particularly in his Mumbai piece, Busking The Local Suburban.

Navin Thomas tells the tale of people singing in and around the Indian train.

The record of sounds at the five stations is neither random nor mathematical. There is the hint of confluence. The

sounds include those of trains chugging in and out of stations, of automobiles outside the railway stations,

announcements of arrival and departure, songs by beggars on a moving train, the strains of the Ravana hatha,

qawwalis, and hawkers' calls.

Navin Thomas is looking at sound as an independent medium to convey cultural messages. "I am looking at the

capacity of sound as an exercise to stimulate the sometimes dormant auditory imagination." He poses this audio

work against a pervasive visual culture, which, he believes, has swamped the public sphere. He contends that the

visual has made it difficult to associate art with auditory possibilities. "Significant work has been done on audio-

culture in the last 10 years, but not much is known in public as there is no forum to exhibit such work," he says,

adding that in the West this was not the case.

The sound show is a record also of communities whose lives revolve around the locomotive. The busking

communities (those who sing on the trains) are there because the trains are there. Navin's work throws up interesting

questions around these communities. For instance, Mumbai is a city that cannot live without the railway line and the

lives of thousands of beggars depend on the suburban network. In the Mumbai piece, one of them sings, observing

that the Indian culture that opposed the British then, today had nothing to offer to artists in poverty: "Hum logon ko

kalakhar nahin maanthe, bhikari maanthe hain (No one sees us as artistes, but as beggars)."

Similar recitations have been recorded on trains and stations in Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, and Bangalore. Delhi has

qawwali from the street next to the railway station and the phat-phatis' sound predominantly, Kolkata has a

recitation of historical poetry that is an ode to the first train that comes to a village, Chennai's sounds are purely

those reflecting the heat and humidity of the city, while Bangalore has blues guitar chords by a couple residing near

the East Cantonment railway station, and lots of conversation in Tamil.

The sounds recorded around the five train stations are similar in a structural sense — the range of sounds at any

given time in any of these stations is the same. The difference lies in the languages in which the sounds find

expression — Marathi, Hindi, Bengali, and even English. A far more crucial difference, however, lies in the kind of

representation the sounds seek to make of the city in question. For instance, the guitar work and Tamil narration

mark Bangalore and the sound of the dosa skittering on the hot tawa marks Madras. The value of the work lies

precisely in this — trying to say that the life of one city is not the same as the life of another. For this reason, and for

the fact it outlines the story of communities that make a livelihood out of the railway line, this sound show is as

much a work of sociology as much as it is of art and music (though art and music can be sociological too!).

Questions of accuracy, however, could be asked of representation: why pick Tamil and blues music to talk about

Bangalore and not Kannada in the city railway station (assuming Kannada authenticates the railway station)?

Realities, however, are many and it cannot be said that one representation is more authentic than the other. There are

only several representations of any given phenomenon.

Navin commenced this project when he was granted a fellowship to pursue his interest in documenting urban street

music in Mumbai. Part of his presentation in 2003 to the Centre for the Study of Developing Societies, New Delhi,

contained this docudrama-style soundscape. From Mumbai, he extended the project to the other metros.

In all, a remarkable record of music on the urban railway line. A must-listen if you are someone who loves the

rhythm of the train, particularly at dusk, and if you love the qawwali...

The sound show is on at Galleryske, The Presidency, 82, St. Marks Road, till February 28.

PRASHANTH G.N.

[http://www.hindu.com/mp/2004/02/12/stories/2004021200050200.htm]

--

Navin Thomas sent me some of his photographs and notes to publish on this web site. This page may be expanded in

the future to include some of the audio files. Below is the study concept statement by Navin Thomas, STREET

MUSICIANS IN MUMBAI CITY, published on December 25, 2002: http://mail.sarai.net/pipermail/reader-

list/2002-December/002130.html

While travelling through various parts of the country, I was exposed to a lot of rural folk as well as urban street

music. I noticed that the amorphous nature of music had given rise to a unique marriage of folk music coupled with

popular 'Bollywood' cinema sounds, being performed by musicians in stages and arenas which intensify and interact

with the cultural experience of urban life - the streets.

There is an evident cross fertilisation between the two musical forms, with both taking from and responding to, the

other. The Indian 'filmi' music industry has a strong influence on popular Indian culture and while it has shaped

public preferences, it has also borrowed from classical music forms. For example, the 'shair-e', a musical form

performed in public where two people interact with each other through poetry and song is evident in popular cinema,

where the hero and heroine play out a more stylised version of the former. One popular image of street musicians is

of them being too lazy to get a real job, harassing people on the streets with 'inferior' or 'crude acts' to solicit money

to support a degenerate lifestyle. This perception is not confined to this part of the world.

As late as the end of the 1970's, street artists everywhere were arrested and charged with begging and obstruction.

Even today street musicians at the Gateway of India are usually whisked away or fined. Street music is perceived as

a 'baser' performing art &endash; an illegitimate art form. However, it continues to endure this viewpoint, surviving

elitist ideas of 'high' art.

Moreover, street music is being increasingly absorbed into mainstream musical forms without recognition. This

resonates with implications with respect to the ethics in art, wherein the art form and its practitioners are ignored.

Besides the obvious ethical violations of this practice, it puts in question the future of street music and the way it is

practised. Lack of recognition of the agents of the art form; deprive the artists of social and economic benefits that

are rightfully theirs. Street music is fast becoming an endangered resource.

The purpose of this documentation is to study how street music, with its influences of popular and folk music forms

embodies the developing times, attitudes and the temperament of people in ever-changing conditions. Taking into

consideration that the streets are a stage used by artists and performers alike, part of the research work would also go

towards studying musical performances, the corresponding public spaces where they are enacted and the kind of

audience and response it receives. The streets are one such setting and it would be hard to ignore the influence of

street culture on this particular art form. One cannot delineate street music from the multi-dimensions of street

culture. The study would therefore be incomplete if the cultural settings of these performances are not considered

and researched.

In the course of fieldwork, photographs of musicians and their musical instruments, sound recordings and field notes

will be compiled together to fully represent the performances. The value of this multi-faceted collection is that one is

invited to hear the voices, see the faces, and sample the cultural context of the performances being recorded.

The notes will be of an ethnographic nature, studying the individual performer, pertaining to his economic, social

and cultural conditions. The homespun, creative and intelligent construction of musical instruments made by the

artist's themselves, will constitute an undiminished part of the documentation. These instruments mirror the many

dimensions of the artist, helping us gain a further insight into the realities that exist, in this particular form of music.

Streets and their culture lie at the heart of public life in contemporary India, especially in cities where urban housing

is crowded and uncomfortable and its streets act as thoroughfares, bazaars, theatres and most of all a setting whose

culture is constantly changing and where much of life is lived on the streets.

I will be exploring street musical performances in and around Mumbai City. This is an ideal location for this study

as the City is a large metropolis with a multi-cultural population consisting of diverse cultures from all over the

country. Specific areas appropriate to this study would include the Hajee Ali area, Grant road, Churchgate, the Flora

Fountain vicinity (including Pherozshah Mehta road) Chowpathy beach and most of all the various bustling train

stations in the city.

Although each item in the field collection will have an individual value, it will gain added significance when viewed

in the context of the other materials gathered during interaction with the people and activities being documented. At

the end of this project, the entire collection of recordings, photographs and research notes will singularly as well as

collectively be important. Each work will have merit as an individual piece as well as when viewed as a part of the

whole collection.

Copyright � 2002-2004 by Navin Thomas

[http://www.buskersadvocates.org/indiastreetmusic.html]

--

Navin Thomas

Shortlisted for ‘From the Town’s End...’, at GallerySKE, Bangalore, from 30 August-9

October 2010 In From the Town’s End…, Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas explored his continuing

interest in the afterlife of salvaged electronic junk. The exhibition had Thomas engendering

interaction between electronic objects and the small living creatures, such as birds and insects,

that inhabit the environment around them.

Thomas, who says he is interested in “the private life of your discarded electronic appliances”,

found each device used in the show in a scrap shop. The artist regularly scours flea markets and

other junk havens in search of gadgets with audio capacities. “I am curious to see what a city

regurgitates every morning,” he says. “I think you can tell a lot about a culture from what it

throws away.”

In an installation titled …, a tree-like structure constructed from metal pipes and radio antennas

was connected to discarded transistors tuned to blank frequencies. A flock of birds was

introduced to this humming tree. When the birds flew around the antennas, the intensity of sound

emitted from the radio sets fluctuated.

Patterns of attraction formed lyrical loops in Don’t Stare At the Light, Too Brightly..., which had

a public announcement speaker serenading a flower made from ultraviolet bulbs and an

industrial exhaust fan. Another speaker played the calls of nocturnal insects and animals.

Amid the installation, the drama of unrequited love played out: Insects gravitated to the bulbs

and died from their devotion; their corpses surrounded the light stand each night. The recorded

tracks, including the jazz tune My Funny Valentine, pushed the notion of bittersweet romance.

Thomas had you wonder whether sounds from a mechanical device could exercise a hold over

real insects as a love song appeals to humans.

[http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/x3qjsacl2sQ8kXIQE6ewVP/The-contemporary-hall-of-

fame.html]

--

INTERVIEW

ARTINFO caught up with the young Bangalore-based artist whose work has been the talk of the

town ever since he won the prize. He spoke to us about his experiments with electro-acoustic

ecology, and of his love of good whiskey.

In many ways, you seem to be playing around with the physics of materials in order to

achieve something akin to poetry, especially your work with sound. Can you find a point of

origin? When did you first find yourself fixated with technology?

When you’re sitting on top of a wooden desk in the store room, fooling around with the family

radio, receiving a quick jolt of current to the arm, at the age of four, it can be the introduction to

new media in a few brief shocks. So this could be the beginning for me in terms as what I call

electro-acoustic ecology, the system of things and how you and I and everyone else co-exist

within it. I don’t consider my choice of material as “hi-technology.” Mine is a sort of rough

science, very low-tech, just bits and ends of electrical wiring, maybe a tweaked amplifier or

transistor at the most.

Your studio, from what one saw of it in that video at the Skoda award ceremony is unlike

any other artist studio. In stead of being cluttered with paints and canvas, there’s hardware

and software. Could you tell us more about your work space?

The video you saw was a sort of fairy tale, conceived by the filmmakers. It seemed as if they had

some strange idea of me as some kind of android from a Desi “Blade Runner” set. I think it’s

because of my reputation of being slightly disobedient, they had to portray me as “Evil Dexter.”

The space used for the set, where they created “my laboratory” is actually my living room. It’s a

sweet little place with lots of sunlight and has a large collection of natural specimens in the back

ground. My actual working space is my kitchen, that's where the real experiments happen.

Your work redefines what one expects from a work of art. What is it that you as an artist

are trying to arrive at through your practice?

As you might already know, my religious preoccupation is being a flea market junkie. I enjoy

observing what a city regurgitates, I spend endless hours gathering space debris and with these

rocks I try to make sense of the world around me.

Tell us more about your background. What is it that has led you to the point in your career

that you're at now?

I came to a point in my life where I was actually fed up of “the art school aesthetic.” The frame

had to be destroyed. I wanted my private life and makings of the waking world to become one

process. So the secret is that I actually live my work.

A lot of your work is installation in a sense, yet, not quite. How would you describe your

work?

Electro-acoustic ecology, the system of things and how you and I co-exist within it.

Tell us more about your initial reaction to the Skoda Prize nomination, and later, to

actually winning the Prize? Were you surprised?

GallerySke actually put in my application for the Skoda prize. When I was informed about

making it to the top 20, I didn’t make much of it, but when I got the call from Girish Shahane

saying that I made it to the top three, I said, “Fukin hell, I need a new jacket.” To tell you the

truth I’m glad I was invited to make the toast for the evening. It would have been unbearable to

come back and deal with the collective sympathy of not having made it to the podium. I enjoy

good whiskey.

Has the Skoda Prize changed anything for you?

People introduce me as a National Award winner these days, which I find quite entertaining, and

then most of all, the real tax benefit is the part where I don't have to deal with shouting matches

over the phone anymore. Everything is passively calm and polite these days. Thank god for the

“Get out of jail free” card.

What is the general reaction to you work? Do you find that people ‘get-it’?

Well, I get all sorts of remarks which I’m used to. I think the funniest is when people say, “But

who the hell is going to buy this?” As far as ‘getting it,’ I think if people don’t, it’s quite an

accomplishment, because what that means is that they are going to spend time trying to figure it

out.

Tell us about your first show? How have you grown as an artist since then?

My first show was when I was 18 years old, there were people beating each other up, kids

jumping out of the balcony, people peeing in the punch and lots of visits from the police, death

metal was huge in the early 90s. Since then I get bored really easily, everything’s so sexy and

polite these days... barfff!

What’s brewing in your "laboratory" at the moment? Are you working on something

specific?

I am meant to be working on my next solo show, but summer has kicked in and my eyes hurt, so

I’m just taking it easy catching up on reading “Black Coffee Blues” by Henry Rollins, and an old

Paul Bowles biography which I want to re-read.

When can we expect your next show?

I think soon after the summer is gone, I’d like to start working on a project that I have been

thinking about for a while. I acquired a large bandicoot trap a while ago, its time to clean it up

and see what happens...

- See more at: http://in.blouinartinfo.com/news/story/763151/talk-of-the-town-artist-navin-

thomas-on-life-after-the-skoda-prize-2011#sthash.7KBsRjTx.dpuf

--

Noise guy

Navin Thomas’ sound installations may use the roars of modern-day sounds, but you’d need a moment

of silence to enjoy them

1/3

Technically, you could reduce Navin Thomas’ concept of the “newer acoustic ecology” that we

live in down to the routine bustle that surrounds us, the disagreeable traffic and the unforgiving

cacophony next door. But Thomas would like you to mull over that racket for just a bit before

you write it all off as mere noise.

In an email interview, the Bangalore-based artist suggested starting with the most natural sounds

to understand his concept. “For example, the sound of six eucalyptus trees outside your home,

the sound of wind blowing through its leaves, or the cockerel in the distance along with the

solitary black crow,” he offered. “Now, if you add the shrill pitch of a UPS machine from your

neighbour’s apartment and the beeper from your Aquaguard – that contributes to ‘a newer

acoustic ecology’.”

At From The Town’s End, his new solo show at GALLERYSKE, Thomas is presenting a series

of sound installations – “some live and slightly interactive, some pre-recorded”. The emphasis,

however, isn’t so much on decibel levels as it is on deciphering various layers that make up the

chaotic dissonance surrounding urban life. Thomas wants visitors to the show to listen closely to

the sounds, and realise how they’ve begun to change and affect our lives in almost untraceable

ways. Or, in his words, “Is it possible that your pet myna gets excited every time you ring that

‘melody’ doorbell?” Again, you could quite simply explain all of this as little more than the

hubbub that people are expected to have grown accustomed to. But Thomas hopes his work will

encourage people to look at – or rather, listen to – such phenomena, to realise how sounds have

begun to result in “newer mutations in the natural sonic fields, and possibly even [a newer]

language”.

For his new works, Thomas took to trawling through Bangalore’s far-flung scrap markets (as

alluded to in the show’s title), scrounging for trashed radio sets, cassette players, the odd burnt-

out circuit board, and even a ripped-up electronic mannequin. “The materials were mostly

salvaged – a PA horn from a mosque, a customised hat box that now serves as an audio speaker,

discarded public telephones,” said Thomas. “Being a flea market junkie for years, I can swear

that you can tell a lot about a city or a culture from what it throws away,” he added. “Going to

the scrap markets for me, is like going on a treasure hunt – you don’t know where you’re going

to end up, or what you will find. In a city that has no real museums, the weekly visit to the junk

shop always gives me great delight.”

Thomas clarified that the things he’d picked up “didn’t come from an antiquarian store or the

vintage sections in the yellow pages – they are objects that I found, most of them unusable for

their original purpose”, which he then “re-worked and tweaked”. The artist admitted to having a

bit of a soft spot for rare, outdated instruments. “I respect the quality of tube valve amplifiers,”

he said. “Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to acquire one yet – I think I will build one soon, as

an exercise.”

Thomas has, in the past, donned the role of kooky scientist for his unusual art projects. In 2007,

at a mattress factory inPittsburgh, he created a piece entirely out of found electronics – “a

surveillance camera, a transistor, a defunk (sic) television, and a thousand live crickets”. Getting

knotted up in wiring and tinkering with gadgetry didn’t require “a certificate in eccentric

science”, said Thomas, “just curiosity, an inherent dissatisfaction with standard electronic

materiality, and [a proclivity] to alter the standard application of what is dished out to you.” He

added, “I do a good chunk of re-wiring [work] myself.”

In Future Tales in Automation (2005), Thomas presented a freaky (and hilarious) view of “the

telephonic after-sales [service] industry”, combining handsets and receivers with various

mythological characters in illustrations of the typical Amar Chitra Katha format, including

winged creatures wondering if their “shift will ever end”, and crown princes, their arms

outstretched, pleading to the “great operator of the hives”. In some way, the dictums of

megahertz specs and logarithmic units in From The Town’s End was “a continuation of the same

dialogue – of sonic fields, patterns and magnetic geography”, said Thomas. The sense of humour

is also apparent in his new show, especially with one toy, a piece that he picked up in a market

inDelhi, which was “made inChina, and sings in Iranian”.

Thomas acknowledged a sort of newfangled fascination among contemporary artists to dabble

with junk electronic equipment, evident in an abundance of shows of installations, and artworks

that employ circuit boards and gadgetry as metaphors. For his own part, Thomas said that he’d

always been interested in toying with contraptions, recalling the “magical” family radiogram in

his grandfather’s room, which he would play with as a five-year-old. His musical initiations,

meanwhile, were rooted in the early electronic music of Kraftwerk, Tangerine Dream and Klaus

Shulze from the ’70s, said Thomas.

The idea of being constantly dependent on technology never seemed problematic to him, the

artist added. “The truth is that I love the fact that my cell phone asks me how I feel in the

morning when I switch it on, or an elevator tells me to put a little more effort into closing its

doors, or my camera reminds me that I still have its lens cap on,” he said. As for his show, the

artist advised, “I recommend that visitors attend on less crowded days.”

By Time Out on September 03 2010 7.12am

[http://www.timeoutbengaluru.net/art/featuresfeatures/noise-guy]

--

What happens to telephones, transistors and other electronic items that have been discarded as

garbage? Ask Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas, who has explored the afterlife of electronic

items in his work titled From Towns End.... On Saturday, he won the second Skoda Prize for

Indian Contemporary Art during the India Art Fair.

"My approach is not that of an activist, but simply of someone curious about the private life of

your discarded electronic appliances. I am mostly interested in discarded transistors and smaller

objects that have an audio capacity," said the artist after he received the award, which includes a

cheque for Rs 10 lakh, from celebrated British artist Marc Quinn at The Taj Palace hotel. Apart

from salvaging electronic junk, Thomas also tests the effect of the audios on animals and birds.

- See more at: http://www.indianexpress.com/news/winner-from-towns-

end/905751/#sthash.XrplSxsO.dpuf

--

INTERVIEW:

Putting up his antennae HARSHINI VAKKALANKA

PEOPLE As artist Navin Thomas talks about the afterlife of

salvaged electronic junk, one is sucked into a make-believe

world where science fiction-meets-art-meets-science

I t is not very often that science meets art, nor does one find an artist who mixes both worlds

aesthetically. Yet Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas does it so efficiently that he has been

shortlisted for the Skoda Prize for Contemporary Art for the three best solo exhibitions of 2010.

Navin has been chosen from among 128 entries across the country for his exhibition, “From the

Town's End”, at Gallery Ske. In this exhibition, he has explored “the afterlife of salvaged

electronic junk” and how animals react to electronic appliances and magnetic fields in the house

(like a doorbell).

He has held more than 20 exhibitions across the world in cities like Vienna, New Delhi, Paris

and Warsaw.

As an artist, he has had residencies in One World Foundation, Gallery Krinzinger, Sri Lanka

(2009), Khoj-international sonic art residency, New Delhi (2008), The Mattress Factory,

Pittsburgh ( 2007) and AFFA winter artist residency program, Paris(2006). Excerpts from an

email interview:

What does it mean for you to be shortlisted for the Skoda prize?

When I made it to the top twenty, I didn't make much of it, but after I made it to the top

three it took a week for me to realise the seriousness of the whole affair and what a lot of

effort Skoda has made to be supportive of contemporary art in this country.

How did you get interested in art?

I think it may have started off with me being one of those little boys who came back home

in the evening with a pocket full of seedpods and rocks. All my childhood heroes were all

anti-heroes— the cobbler, the carpenter and the town drunk. Most importantly, I had a

distant relative who managed a farm and every time I stayed over, he would get me to fix

things on the farm. So I think I learnt about craft and sculpture from having to regularly

tend to farm animals.

Could you briefly describe your journey as a contemporary artist?

I started off wanting to work with ethnographic sound. I wanted to be just like Paul

Bowles, travel in search of forgotten song and language. With the help of a few grant-giving

organisations, I actually did pursue this interest seriously for a while. It was filled with

travel and adventure and landing up in strange places in the midst of strange people. After

a while, I began to feel like a social worker. So I dropped my bags and started to follow up

with other practices in sound. I love what I do these days.I sleep, eat and live it.

Some of the best experiences were…

Finding myself in a hidden passage way under the Nizamudden Dargah, two months in a

rainforest trying to record a mythical singing cobra, watching a solar eclipse in the desert

with no protective eye wear, waking up on a mountain top and wondering why the clouds

were several meters below my feet…

What is you art about? What do you wish to communicate through it?

There are a couple of things, which I have been preoccupied with over the last few years.

One is beta-testing on the possible after life of salvaged electronic junk, mostly discarded

transistors and smaller objects, with a possible audio capacity. Another pastime is

observing how your pets and smaller species react to magnetic fields.

For instance, is it possible that your electronic doorbell makes regular contributions to the

evolution of a newer acoustic ecology.

I would like to remind you that my approach to this phenomenon is not that of an activist,

but simply that of someone curious about the private life of your discarded electronic

appliance.

You are inspired by?

On my days off, I like to go to scrap yards and observe what a city refuses and throws

away. I think you can tell a lot about a culture or a city from what it throws away. I like

observing people at scrap markets, looking for the strangest oddest of ends, wondering how

they will reorganise and revive an obscure object. I also enjoy hanging out with scrap

market dealers and flea market treasure hunters — they always have a very interesting

story with a very peculiar object that goes with it.

Why does science play an important role in your works?

I was trained in graphics and cinema; I knew nothing about sound except for some old

Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream records I had inherited from my mother's brothers. And

as a child of the 80's, fooling around with a medium wave transistor and trying to find new

obscure frequencies was a favourite pastime. I was also fascinated by patterns of flux every

time our antenna moved during the course of a thunder storm. I think I pursue sound with

a lot of enthusiasm because I had no training in it.

What are your favourite subjects and why?

My grandparents raised me with a lot of birds and animals in the house, it must have been

to make up for a lack of something else. Anyhow, I used to spend my free time trying to

teach the pet parrot to talk or observing how the rabbits got along with loud music. I think

how it all finally surfaced was in the deep interest in mutations in language and electro-

acoustic ecology.

HARSHINI VAKKALANKA

[http://www.thehindu.com/todays-paper/tp-features/tp-metroplus/putting-up-his-

antennae/article2693126.ece]

--

Gallery SKE organized From the Town Ends, a set of installations by Navin Thomas. The new

gallery space in the heart of the city was ideal to showcase his works. To quote the artist, the

show was about 'electro-acoustic ecology and magnetic climate'. For the last few years, Navin

has been preoccupied by the after life of electronic junks with audio capacity. Be it old PCO

telephones or former army loud speakers. This exhibition brings together all kinds of objects

along with different sort of sounds and lighting. It projects the viewer from roof top antennas

mounted on a pole to comfortable seats placed next to transistor sets. Navin intends to observe

the reaction small species, birds in this case, to domestic magnetic fields. The viewer wanders

around, picks up the phone, listen to the operators and remembers those days, not so long ago,

when he/she probably had all those objects and maybe still has them at home in a corner of an

attic. A nice reflection that merges nostalgia and environment.

- See more at: http://www.artnewsnviews.com/view-article.php?article=art-

bengaluru&iid=13&articleid=265#sthash.g2n2BsYf.dpuf

--

INTERVIEW

An artist tracks the city through its junkyards Saturday, Feb 4, 2012, 12:16 IST | Place: Bangalore | Agency: DNA

Malavika Velayanikal

Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas, who is known for "mixing science and art in his work"

has just bagged the Skoda prize for Indian contemporary art.

Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas, who is known for “mixing science and art in his work”

has just bagged the Skoda prize for Indian contemporary art. It was his solo show “From the

Town’s End…” exhibited at GallerySke in Bangalore that won him the prize. In an earlier

interview, he had told DNA that if he won, he would use the Rs10,00,000 prize money to fund a

few projects that have been waiting for funds. We caught up with him again. Excerpts from an

interview:

“From the town’s end…” explores the afterlife of salvaged electronic junk. What makes

you so curious to see what the city regurgitates? In a city that has no real museums, the best way to observe a culture in transit is to visit its scrap

yards. You can tell a lot about a culture from what it throws away.

You studied graphic design and cinema. Why the switch to newer, or rather, different

media? I get bored really easily. If something becomes really familiar, then its mostly time to move to

some uncharted ground. Besides, my schooling in design and cinema does reflect in my other

work too.

On an earlier chat with DNA, you had remarked that being a flea market junkie taught you

to land up in strange places among strange people. Can you tell us a bit of such artistic

expeditions you have been on? The best part of a journey or an expedition is the part where you get lost. If you chase the

obscure, you’re surely a wielder of obscure instruments to which you need even more obscure

parts. I enjoy the hunt more than anything else. When I finally do get what I want, I usually give

it away at some point.

What is that you want your art to convey? My work is not political and has no exotic flavour. I enjoy riddles and messing with your mind

more than anything else.

You bagged the Skoda prize. Another Bangalore-based artist, Sheela Gowda, is on the

short-list for the prestigious Artes Mundi prize. Seems like Bangalore art scene is vibrant

than ever. Your comments? Apart from Sheela Gowda, the city’s very own humble Hazra bagged the prestigious Sanskriti

award a few months ago. So that does make a bunch of us that does make our city proud. I have

a feeling it has something to do with the air that hovers around the plateau.

You had said that you would use the prize money to pursue a projects waiting for funds.

Could you give us a sneak peek into what we can expect next from you? I’m on the verge of moving into a larger more functional studio space. So I am quite thrilled

about it. As for future projects, I have been invited to do a large sound installation in Bombay.

The work intimidates me by its complexity and that excites me.

Can you tell us about your new hobby? I am actually thinking of learning a new language. Something that is really far out and that I will

never have a chance to really use.

What puzzles, inspires or disturbs you as an artist? Electro-acoustic ecology, states of flux, catfish with blood-red eyes and then you, and me and

everything else in between.

What trends do you see in Indian contemporary art? I went to this bar called Kyra in Indiranagar a couple of months ago for the first time, where I got

to watch this group of people called ‘Dying Embrace’ perform. I hope to see more of their

performances.

[http://www.dnaindia.com/bangalore/1645791/interview-an-artist-tracks-the-city-through-its-

junkyards]

--

To many middle class Indians, access to past mythologies and epics came about through the visual culture of Amar Chitra Katha comics that were translated into English and vernacular languages. These comics, hugely popular even today, narrated past exploits of legendary characters from classical epics through graphic illustrations. If the media generated fascination with the mythology of the past at a time when fear of cultural invasion from the west was felt acute, Indian liberalisation witnessed a reverse aspiration with the wide proliferation of call centers in urban areas. Mimicry—speaking like an American—became almost an occupational need for call centre workers. It is this cultural hybridity that the contemporary artist Navin Thomas invokes when he deploys the cartoon format from popular media and stages an incongruous confrontation between the traditionally dressed gods and goddesses with contemporary technology of information. Taking from the popular language of Amar Chitra Katha, Thomas uses speech bubbles to let the divine beings speak a contemporary language: technology makes a direct inroad into their spaces and even it transforms their traditional iconography as all the faces sport the parrot like beak- an emblem of mindless communication in a globalised world carried out by a call centre cyber coolies who feel compelled to speak in a foreign accent. The golden age comes under the shadow of technology in an anachronistic setting where the gods and goddesses incongruously inhabit a world ruled by technology. [http://www.aaa.org.hk/Diaaalogue/Details/1181] -- Navin Thomas brings to his residency project a diverse practice that foregrounds his free spirited and inventive use of material. He uses the technique of electro acoustic-ecology, a combination of sound reworked often with sculptural installation to create what appear eccentric and frequently surprising works. Using lo-tech combination of instruments and drawing out sound from the unexpected. Thomas’ use of whimsy as a tool contrasts and overturns, quite beautifully the perception of his city Bangalore’s sharp tilt towards order and sophistication as the hub of software South Asia. What is important is that in Thomas’ work sound becomes an important if highly cryptic measure of the spaces that we inhabit.

[http://lesmuseesdeliege.be/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/D-Presse-europalia-gb-ok.pdf]

-- Navin Thomas is the sole artist in Analytical Engine whose work is conceptually grounded primarily in its sound component. Composed of three separate sound tracks that project from PA speakers mounted on assembled wooden pedestals with large resonant momo-pots as amplifiers, the work is a tongue-in-

cheek interrogation of the tenets of art history and the apparent irreproachability of history. One track is a digitized version of Geeta Kapur reading from her now classic tome on Indian Modernism, "When Was Modernism" and another track is of the artist in discussion with Pooja Sood, the director of Khoj in Delhi and a contemporary flag-bearer of independent art production, on the unstated etiquette of artist 'do's' and 'don'ts' while in residency at a supporting agency or otherwise. The last track is incongruously composed of the groaning din of belching following a meal of momos, those infamous sticky dumplings originating in Delhi, the erstwhile capital of Indian art discourse. Constructed in a bricolage fashion which points as much to the inventiveness of it's own making as to it's content, the piece is indicative of the self-reflective character of the works presented in Analytical Engine. [http://www.bosepacia.com/exhibitions/2009-01-24_group-show-curated-by-heidi-fichtner/press-release/] --

Navin Thomas’ three inkjet prints on aluminium sheets are the artist’s depiction of “my generation as witnessing the

birth of colour television and growing up alongside ‘the expanding hydra of cable TV in this country’. On Sunday

afternoons, where there was still such a thing as national television, most of us, would be lounging in our living

rooms watching obscure foreign films with even more obscure subtitles.”

The artist then draws the past to the present of world cinema broadcasting on TV now, and creates parallels in the world of TV. [http://www.hindu.com/mp/2008/11/25/stories/2008112550650400.htm] --

Bangalore-based artist Navin Thomas has been studying the impact of architecture in urban

ecology for the last five years.

Thomas, who is working on a collaboration installation project for Khoj, "Ode to Dengue", to

"observe the behaviour of bats, mosquitoes and other nocturnal insects in urban shelters" experiments with the effect of ultra-violet artificial light and architecture on creatures.

The artist has also placed a large ultra-violet structure outside the Khirkee Mosque in Saket

to attract hornets. The sculpture, however, is drawing thousands of resident bats from their

colonies inside the mosque.

"I have also created sound installation CD - 'Call to Prayer' - with recordings of bat calls from their colonies in the capital," Thomas said.

The artist observes that with changes in the environment, more artists are working with the ecology.

[http://overseasindian.in/2011/mar/news/20113003-132824.shtml] --

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Artist statement (March 2005)

After the completion of my last show (in transit: railscapes), and several proposals later, I was

forced to consider part time work at a local contact center. The lure of decent wages and flexible

work timings were reason enough for me to sign up and undergo extensive training in

requirements like voice, accent and culture, both British and American. During the course of

training I was introduced to “R.P” which is “Received Pronunciation”, commonly known as

‘Queens English’ or ‘B.B.C English’! (During this period, trainees are also required to watch and

mimic certain television personalities, who might possess effective ‘R.P’ skills. For those

interacting with American customers it would be to pick up common slang from popular

sitcoms.) At the end of two months of training, I was certified, to have been neutralized of any

“Indianisms” in my use of the English language and that I was now capable of communicating

efficiently with potential clients from the United Kingdom.

During the course of a call it is mandatory to follow an assigned script under a fixed time frame.

For example:

Thank you, for calling x, y, z…

Before we proceed, can you confirm your mother’s maiden name? (Security check)

As I understand this is what you are experiencing or this is what you require

(PARAPHRASING)

This is the part of the process that gets interesting. In an attempt to provide an effective and

comprehendible telephonic after sales service, the industry seems to be churning out automated

human machines, that a lot of the times seem to be following scripted dialogues, irrespective of a

correct solution.

From my earlier interest in sound as an independent medium, I have composed a sound piece

(auto-in), which revolves around the use of ‘paraphrasing’ in conversation and accepted scripts

in telephonic conversations. Primarily it focuses on the excessive repetition of “key words” and

so called “security questions” audible as the automation of voice.

The accompanying sculptural works mainly that of a crow and a parrot with human torsos

engrossed in a game of dominos, whose traditional numbers I have replaced with phonemic

symbols. Taking into consideration that most Indian languages are phonetic (i.e. the speech

sounds match their written forms) and English is a non- phonetic language (i.e. the speech

sounds do not always match their written form) hence the use of phonemic symbols to converse.

These two birds have been traditionally used in Indian mythology as the taletellers of epic

proportions. For example, the “Kathasaritya Sagara” which is the story of a parrot narrating short

stories to a young princess. Most of the stories usually transcend into newer one’s which have

only a small trace of the previous episodes. And as for the crow, its depictions in folklore and

classics like the “Jataka Tales”, were melancholic stories of human natured animals or vice

versa, which usually ended with a moral.

Accompanying the crow and the parrot, are the two figures, which I refer to as the ‘recorder

heads’ - human like figures with 60’s ‘spool’ audio recorders for heads. The recorder heads

ideally depict my fear of us becoming the human automated machine.

This is my first attempt at working on a large installation piece, compromising sound and

sculpture and for this installation, I chose to work with fiberglass as a medium for the sculptural

work as fiberglass has the capacity to reproduce ‘replicants’, supporting my interest in forced

repetition.

Signing out...

Navin Thomas

[http://www.galleryske.com/NavinThomas/FutureTales/Statement.html] -- IMAGE and VIDEO LINKS http://www.galleryske.com/NavinThomas/index.html http://www.galerie-krinzinger.at/artist/navin_thomas/works/selected http://artbrussels.rsolution.be/Catalogue/?id=104&year=2011 http://www.mattress.org/index.cfm?event=ShowArtist&eid=78&id=337&c=Past