BACK TO SQUARE 1 – (this is all we have…)
(GALLERYSKE Bangalore, May 2005)

‘They don’t make earth anymore’ – Mark Twain. The area that land covers on earth is a constant, but this crowding is because our wants for space increase. But how much space do we need? How much space do we occupy? How much space belongs to us? How much is enough?

These set of works were triggered off in the process of finding living and working in the city. I became conscious of the value of space when I had to find my own space other that that of which I was born into. The land beneath my feet was measured in square feet – I began to see squares everywhere.

The space my body occupied on the floor of the studio was taken as a point of departure. The area my body occupied for basic corporal activities like standing sitting and lying down was measured in square feet. The form of the impression that the body made on the floor was taken into consideration to make my images. These scanned and digitally edited life size images of my clothed body form are printed on vinyl stickers and stuck on light boxes to frame an experience of entrapment. This form took it’s inspiration from the impact of advertisement hoardings from my everyday urban environment.

I also listed some mathematical formulas to calculate the value of a floor-space area corresponding to rental rates, borrowing the checkered grid and methodology to solve math problems from my school days. A pair or square foot square foot measuring slippers which comprises of a 1ft x 1ft square pieces of black leather is functional and is an attempt to ridicule as it invites viewers to wear it walk over the already marked out and calculated grid - floor squares made with lengths of black tape.

The title ‘BACK TO SQUARE 1 (this is all we have…)’ is intended as a satire that addresses the present which happily co-exists with an optimistic fiction of progress; my works being a contextual response to the questions raised.

-Sonia Jose