KHOJ as a synchronised micro-habitat

At this moment in time, ‘KHOJ studios’ is probably greener than ever before – not just in an eco-friendly sense, but also quite literally.

The two sides of the inner courtyard have been taken over by Dan & Heather and Pratik’s installations.  On the left you have “Khoj Court” with barley sprouting up the walls of the arched courtyard enclosure – on the right, green netting protects Pratik’s small clay pots filled with millet seed, which spell out the word “FORGIVE.”

While Dan conscientiously waters his vertical harvest five times a day, Pratik watches over his bird and squirrel-attracting sanctuary, documenting the wildlife from his first-floor studio.  Nurturing their creations, you can well understand what makes working with living material so engaging and why there really is no beginning and end-point to this type of work – process, product and after-life are all intertwined.

Also in the studios above are Brandon and Navin’s insect-attracting interventions.  Using UV lights, fruit and flowers they observe the various food-chain interactions occurring in their re-worked collaborative installation “Meet the neighbours.”  Whereas Navin’s interest lies in recording “data-deficient” organisms, Brandon is keeping a “bug-blog!”

It has been heartening and fascinating to see what affect being together for four weeks, in KHOJ, in India has had on these artist’s practice and psyche.  It’s actually not something that is easy to explain or very tangible in many cases, but here are some of the ways they seem to have impacted each other’s sensibilities:

- At the start of the residency, Pratik gave Heather and Dan a book on spirituality and reincarnation.  Pratik often explores the relationship between science, logic and ritual, whereas Dan and Heather are very conscious of the relationship between mythology and plant-life, often talking about Greek, Nordic and pre-Christian gods of vegetal resurrection.

- Navin’s initial explorations of the Yamuna looking for life and trying to record sub-sonic frequencies (which effectively didn’t transpire in the end) led Pratik to the same site – where he discovered Siberian migratory birds at a shamshaan ghat.  Pratik is now using videos of feeding these birds as part of his final work for the residency.

- Also Navin and Brandon, as mentioned above, have collaborated on a work that they hope to engage the whole community in.  Meanwhile, the insects from their studios are interacting with Pratik’s created habitat.  The birds attracted by Pratik’s installation are interacting with Dan and Heather’s courtyard full of barley.  All that’s left now is for the humans to come and visit!