Those that Blossom, and the Blossomless
approx. 18 minutes
dimensions variable
Score for Crater composed and performed by Leyna Maria Papach
Crater is the 6th in a series of video works which have been ongoing since 2008.
In this series, Mukul explores the boundaries that normally separate the
mediums of painting and video and expands the parameters of each.
These works are paintings in a frozen state, which are then allowed to melt and disintegrate.
Ice is used here as the primary medium, along with mixed media including ink, acrylic paint, tea, charcoal, metallic powder, and more. As it melts, the work echoes tectonic shifts, weather patterns and satellite views . This work is presented in real time without any effects or time lapse. The glacial pace may induce trance like states and lucidity by fixating on a process that is at once cataclysmic and sublime.
The process of the disintegration is recorded in video. While there is a degree of pre-meditation in making the piece, the disintegration and its visual register over an unfixed passage of time is subject to forces beyond the artist's control. The work is informed by an awareness of the Hindu Shaivite concept of creation and destruction being intertwined, as well as the aesthetic philosophies of artists such as Anish Kapoor, Robert Smithson, Stan Brakhage, Andy Goldsworthy, and others embracing the notion of transience.
Crater was presented in 2013 at the Queens Museum and at UMASS, Amherst.