Impress/ion

Performance: plywood, tools, Tibetan bowl, wood, black sumi ink, mics, speaker, TV, and AMP

Variable, 3 Hours duration

July 6, 2024, At the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago

Curatorial Support: Pia Singh

Collaboration with: Bodies of Work, University of Illinois Chicago, IL

In "Impress/ion" (2024), Janhavi attuned herself to willing audience participants for periods of up to 10 minutes each. Three to four participants were invited into a circle with the artist, taking turns to individually "teach" the artist their name and any words. Janhavi and the participants experienced each other's voices through vibration until the artist came as close as she could to correctly pronounce each name and word. In between the act of learning audience names and words, Janhavi returned to her first language of woodcut print, carving a site-specific sculptural element that doubled as both a surface for rest and a means to exercise the capacity of her hand. Over a period of three hours, "Impress/ion" invited recognition of mapping alternative routes to freedom while finding and creating places of rest in between.

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