My overall practice is driven by my fascination with the illusory qualities inherent in cinema and early animation. Imagining myself as a cinema pioneer I explore the interplay between the moving and the still, creating works that sit between the pre-cinematic and the digital.
By discovering low-fi ways to add movement to single images and commonplace objects/materials, my intent is to ignite an element of wonder at the illusion of cinema, giving the everyday enough of a twist to allow the imagination to run free.
We live in a society where the material is being replaced by the immaterial. This has drawn me to use tangible everyday materials in my work that I juxtapose with the relative immateriality of video. Behind the scenes of my videos there are various hand-crafted mechanisms that drive them that are hand-operated/cranked.
In recent years I have made kinetic works for audience interaction that have been shown internationally including Turner Contemporary, Margate, U.K, 1shanthiroad, Bangalore, India and Basement 6, Shanghai, China.
'Savinder Bual works with light and time choreographies in an interplay of micro-cinematic temporalities, illusion, animation, the handheld, and the mechanical.
Bual's work makes time, repeats time, holds time, slows time, concertinas time, makes time haptic; bringing together coincidence, illusion and epiphany, the present tense and instantaneousness in collaboration.'
From 'The Student Of Hallucinations, The Absent Moon And The Law Of The Feather', by Alex Hetherington, 9 Notes, 2022.
When making my work I imagine myself to be a cinema pioneer exploring the interplay between the moving and the still in an attempt to create a sense of awe and wonder at the magic of cinema and the illusion of motion.
My practice covers sculpture, performance, installation moving image and animation. It references engineering advancements from the 18th and 19th centuries. This was a period that was inextricably linked to new ways of seeing, attempts to control the seas and the 24 hour clock replacing the sun as a marker of time.
As tangible objects are being replaced by the digital, I am compelled to use everyday objects and materials in my work.
I draw upon technologies that require deep observation. Whether that be a tidal gauge, an optical device or the fine crafting of bamboo.
The mechanics of my work are stripped back and laid bare, highlighting their ephemeral nature. They request the viewer to slow down, focus and observe, in a world where our attention is pulled in multiple directions.
My mechanical inventions seek to transform the ordinary through movement, providing space to contemplate contemporary concerns. These include our relationship with time, our disconnection from nature and the impact of colonialism on contemporary society.