discoveries around my house

Prints by Savitha Ravi

Medium: Cyanotype on Intaglio print out of Tetra pack
Size: 18 inches X 12 inches
No.of editions: 2
Year: 2021

“Space is everything for time ceases to quicken memory ” (Yi-Fu Tuan).

What is an ideal home? We move from one place to another, always planning the next home. Everyone dreams of ahome which, in a way, is the ‘ideal’ to them. This ‘ideal home’ has details, very minute details. Each time one relocates or renovates, one tries little by little, to bring together the elements of this ideal, hoping to mould the ideal out of the current.

One is rarely content with what they have.
The desire for more triggers development.Every day the items in the to-get or to-have list grows despite older items getting crossed off.

For me, a place is something which remains and survives for a longer period and its architecture has so many significant stories that inhabit it, that create it, that help identify with it.

My work is about the creation of space.
Through my work, specific ordeals and memories associated with that place, space, and a specific time have been represented. Architectural structures and spaces have intrigued me for quite a while. The patterns of repetition and reiteration within these structures captivates me. These repetitive patterns are the tools I use to create a specific space. An imaginary space which I wish to be a part of in reality; a space that changes during its construction as I change with the passage of time.

My work is always devoid of direct human presence. Space is the permanent structure.The human presence and their events are alluded to just as different spaces trigger different memories and emotions when we pass through them.

Through my process, I attempt to add yet another layer to the textured histories of these structures.

And to archive their memory.

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editor's note

Volume 09

clay | chlorophyll | crimson

Grass is green where you water it. LC’s words float along over Misch’s guitar. It’s a phrase that feels so obvious, and I’m sure those who tend to gardens know this more than most, but it seems to land more than before. The impact noticeable, memorable, echoing through my being. Perhaps we’re ingrained to think it’s greener elsewhere. This patch is the problem and not whether we’re watering it. The key is in the watering. How we go about this practice is what defines our patch of grass. No matter where we go, our patch is, perhaps, the same. Some attributes and characteristics have been changed but the essence is the same: Us.

Stepping into Volume 09 of imprint, marks our third year. I am learning that this patch of green that we have been tending to for the last several years will mould, shift, and sculpt. This depends on how we water it and allow it to take its own shape. It has already happened in wonderfully unexpected ways. There is only so much structure or shape we can predetermine. Beyond that, it will absorb what it needs and reject all that is unnecessary. And perhaps, in this practice, we are changed. Our grass is watered as we water that of our writing, our image making, our practice, our magazine.

From light to dark, rigid to supple, new to old, there is so much in between that is bright and vibrant and unexpected. The practice of our magazine has focused on being open to what we receive; being open to deeply listening to what is shared; being open to work taking us to new journeys. This volume, and this year, will be no different. We will continue tending to it as we have done, learning along the way, from past seasons and present ones.

And yet, I know it will be entirely different.
But still.
It will be watered.