| Synapse 2009 – 2010 Single channel video projection duration 09 mins 32 secs Studies say that the eye sees an object in the manner in which the mind interprets it and no two people see anything exactly alike. We create meaning through a mental bridge that the mind forms to complete the gaps. The video is an ironic play on legibility, where we witness 14 individuals’ attempts at reading the letters on a Snellen chart at an ophthalmologist’s clinic. The traditional Snellen (eye chart), meant to measure visual acuity, in this case happens to have been replaced by a variation consisting of the fragmented letters of the Preamble of the Indian Constitution, which commences with ‘We the people of India…’ Each person tries to make sense of the alphabets before them with hesitations and uncertainties, interrupted recurrently with change of lenses and monotonous questions regarding clarity of vision. Their pauses seem less about the limitations of their vision and instead appear to metaphorically demonstrate an ordinary citizen’s blurred view of the most inclusive document of the nation. |
