Sreejata Roy, Mrityunjay Chatterjee: Why is a Cube not Perfect

Title:

Why is a Cube not Perfect

Artist(s) and People Involved:

Medium:

Interactive digital media (iMac installation)

Artist Statement:

The artwork (exhibited on iMac) is conceptualised through a ‘cube’ with a stainless steel finish. Benoît Mandelbrot, the father of fractal geometry, has unequivocally declared, “the idea that perfection is a cube is over”. However, for mathematicians and artists alike, the cube continues to retain its fascination as an embodiment of pure form. We affirm that the most practical, economical, and sometimes the most resilient architectural constructions often tend to be cubic. This installation invokes and interrogates the complex and imperfect space of the urban ‘cube’, through penetrating the configuration itself. The artwork probes these tensions and their link to urban ecologies, and the ways in which modernity relentlessly locates uproots and resettles lives, livelihoods and cultures. The narratives are taken from the book A New Exciting Space is Opening Soon, produced during a six week residency with Khoj International, New Delhi, India in 2008.