Nandita Raman

Statement:
The Bristlecone pine trees atop the barren White Mountains in California have continued to grow for more than 4,500 years in the cold, dry weather while the soil erodes every hour. Language like the roots of the bristlecone penetrates our amorphous feelings and fixes its meaning with words, leaving all that’s indescribable to disappear. The simultaneous process of locating and losing in the midst of gathering, sorting and arranging occurs in all systems of classification.

In this installation mirrors and photographs occupy the front and back of the thin plane of acrylic that is hung from the ceiling such that one can walk around it. Photograph is of the past. Mirror is in the now. Reflections are fleeting moments that leave no impression. The mirrors reflect the viewer: the interpreter of the photograph in the act of looking. This shifts the attention from the image to the self: the indispensable participant, one who makes categories, one who elucidates, one who is ever changing.

Bio:
Nandita Raman (b. 1980, Varanasi, India) received an MFA in Advanced Photographic Studies from the International Center of Photography – Bard College in 2012. She has exhibited in Chicago, New York, and North Carolina. Her works are in the collection of the Snite Museum of Art. She is a recipient of the Daylight/ CDS Project prize 2010 and the Sarai Independent Study Fellowship 2006. Her work is published in Harper’s Magazine, The Sunday Guardian, Marg Magazine, Elle India, Flair Italy, Outlook, and Timeout Delhi. She studied fashion Communication at National Institute of Fashion Technology, New Delhi, in 2001 and has produced and directed documentaries and ad films. She is based in Brooklyn, New York.

Artist’s Website: nanditaraman.com