A Rotation is Completed: #365Rotation (Roshan Mishra, Nepal, ITP 2018)
Written by Roshan Mishra, Director, Taragaon Museum (Nepal, ITP Fellow 2018)
Roshan Mishra has recently displayed two art installations as part of an ongoing project titled #365Rotation. These two installations include poetry written by Roshan and a collaboration with Nepali artist Bishowmbhar Basnyat. For more information about Roshan’s #365Rotation project, visit his Instagram or Twitter pages.
#365Rotation is my ongoing project and this installation is based on that concept. I started project #365Rotation in 2016. This is solely my project. Since then I have been creating artworks on this topic. I still don’t know how this project will end, it could be an exhibition, a performance or it could even be a format of a book. Both of my installations fall within this idea of #365Rotation.
The installation of the body is titled in Nepali. It is translated in English as “A rotation is completed.” The glasses on the pillar behind the installation represent the “soul” of the body. The soul is detached from its body and it is looking at it from a distance. There is a poem written in Nepali, it is pasted just under the glasses. This poem is about what the soul is thinking about its body.
A Rotation Completed
From a distant
A soul
is gazing at a body
Like a red silk cotton
As if floating on air
It had appeared without asking
And it left without informing
Upon this tiny mass
of this gigantic universe
It was a micro being
But still,
it carried ego
Today, it remains silent
It carried a demon
now it has turned divine
Money and power
were inseparable friends
Look.. just look at it today..
Inside its pocket
there’s not even a Mohar
The moment I escaped its body
its numerous powers
switched off in a flash
Now it has to go aflame
and incinerate
Its flesh and meat
is bound to melt as
specks of pancha-tattva
Again it has to blend
into the ball of civilization
of this universe
Again it will struggle to
contend with hundreds of seeds
and find another soul
Then it will go on circumambulating
the eternal act of #365 rotation.
Translated by
Salil Subedi
My concept demands the audience to stand in front of the body and read the poem. While standing in front of the body and reciting the poem, the viewer will also feel in the same way, how the soul is thinking about its body! The body is very light, it is made with chicken wire and is hanging on a thin fishing wire.
My 2nd installation was titled “Isolation is NO Isolation”, Light & sound Installation, 2021. Again it is a part of the project #365Rotation.
In an empty room I installed a chair, a mirror in front of the chair, behind the chair there were three lights placed which cast three shadows. Also there was a WhatsApp notification sound in a loop.
Many of us stayed in isolation because of COVID and it was something we couldn’t avoid. Although we were socially detached and physically distancing, our shadow was always there with us. It was not detached, our mind was still attached with people, and it was still talking! When we looked in the mirror we talked with the devil and deity which were within us, none of us were alone neither isolating. Our figure was projecting three layers of shadows and it was representing our various personalities. As usual isolation was utterly noisy with the sound of notifications. Being within four walls; isolation was not able to isolate us.