This immersive performance in Mumbai seeks to recreate the experience of early filmmakers

This immersive performance seeks to recreate the tactile experience of early image artists and filmmakers in a unique production at a suburban art house studio

There is magic in pictures, they say. Sometimes, in an oversaturated modern world that functions on visual stimulation, it is hard to recollect this magical experience of watching a moving image. Yet, since it was first discovered, artists, scientists and even magicians have experimented and played around with visuals to explore the possibilities. Filmmakers and creators Karan Talwar, Namrata Sanghani and Simran Ankolkar will attempt to put on one such production this weekend at Harkat Studios that hopes to explore similar ideas.

The idea emerged in 2023, when the trio were looking to recreate the first colour photograph. The image, Talwar remarks, was created by a scientist James Maxwell in 1855 when he shot images in three different colours — Red, Green and Blue — and projected them together. This idea formed the germ for the concept of Laal Aasmaan, Hara Gulaab Neeli Dharti as the trio titled it.

“It is a film performance using three 16 mm projectors and live sound. It falls into, what we would call, the realms of expanded cinema,” says Talwar, curator and co-founder, Harkat Studios. The visuals collated are a combination of shot film and found footage from previous workshops at the studio.

A 16 mm film reel

The attempt is to recreate the magic of images, shares Sanghani. “The film itself is a performance. It will be constructed live during the session by myself, Simran and Karan. Each image is overlaid with the other to come together as a visual poem,” she notes. The projectionists are as much a part of the experience as the film is.

The idea is to challenge the visual experience, she adds. The images on the screen are created and improvised upon live. Sanghani points out, “The most exciting idea was that it challenged the notion of viewing. That is the experience where colours emerge from. It is where a lot of practical illusions emerge from.”

Then, there is the sound. For a generation that grew up exposed to the digitally perfect experience of cinema audio, the whirrs and clicks of a cinema projector might feel strange. Composer Baan G adds that the dissonance is key to the experience. “The approach is to not let the image and the viewer settle. It is a juxtaposition of spoken verse poems and visual imagery that needs to challenge the audience into how they see the images.” Like the images, the audio will also include discovered recordings of poetry readings by  scholars and poets from archival collections.

Curator Talwar adds, “To paint a picture, the projectors themselves are large. Usually, in cinemas, they are hidden away, and you hardly see them. You never see how the images are created. Here, you will see them as part of the room, making sound and images, drawing attention to themselves. The medium finds importance within space.”

Will this add up to a complex an experience, we wonder. Talwar remarks, “We tend to lose sight of the magic. We have so much visual stimulation around us, it can be difficult to imagine a time before it. A large part of the experiment is an attempt to recreate that. We are very interested in drawing attention back to the process of image creation. Watching a film on 16 mm is an experience by itself.”

As one of the first in-house productions in 2024, the project was screened earlier this year at the India Art Fair, the trio reveals. Now, it opens in Mumbai, a city that experiences visual dreams at a breathtaking speed.
 
On: March 16; 7.30 pm
At: Harkat Studios, Aram Nagar Part 2, Versova, Andheri West. 
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Entry: Rs 300

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