Nandita Kumar | Birth of BrainFly
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Statement
Lately a few questions have been running in my neuronscape….
In what ways do biological concepts inform or interact with experimental visual media?
How is the body broken down, abstracted and reinterpreted to explore emotional or
intangible concepts? How can we expand the notion of the boundary between the body
and environment?
My art is the reflections of my psychological and evolution that has been induced by my
multicultural upbringing. I was born in Mauritius, brought up in different parts of India
and finally moved to New Zealand to complete my undergraduate studies in Fine Arts at
Elam School of Arts, Auckland University. After completing my bachelor’s degree, I
completed my Masters for Experimental Animation at the California Institute of the Arts,
LA.Experimental animation is the best medium through which I can effectively
communicate ideas and give a sense of time, place and atmosphere. The strength of my
expression lies in creating and connecting images. This medium allows me to address the
complex nature of society. I enjoy creating my own reality by layering a myriad of
moving painted images that work on multiple emotional levels.
Over the last 9 years, I have predominantly worked as an artist trying to collage a
timeless world and poetically draw inherent correlations between the self and the various
dimensions of our cultural diaphragm. I explored these concepts in my film, Tentacles of
Dimensions, which is a sequel of my first film Birth of BrainFly.
Birth of BrainFly is a surreal narrative, dealing with the process of a person’s
individuation in a mental-landscape. It explores three underlying concepts: a journey
through and into the Self; the constructed labyrinths of ego; and creative transcendence of
the mind’s physical limitations. Tentacles of Dimensions follows this first evolution.
This film is a journey from the external world into the internal subconscious realm,
starting from the television where one awakens to the fact of constant programming,
leading to centering of polarities existing in our selves, through understanding and love.
The main protagonist is a character brain, which keeps morphing according to the
environment it’s put in. This brain travels through different worlds, connected through
portals, within the body. Every dimension the brain accesses through the portal, leads to
evolution and mutation. The film confronts conservative attitudes and contradictions
towards the human body and sexuality, race, color, desire/materialism, male/female,
anima/animus, heart/mind and illusion of love and lust. In its process of evolution it
accepts all dualities within its structure and therefore the birth of a true individuated
conscious being takes place. This film fuses art, ideology and personal life connecting to
the larger life through self-awakening.