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.
'Each Tiny Drop' by Risham Syed, with Kinetic Artworks by Savinder Bual
Opening performance for Manchester International Festival, 2023
Drawing on ancient practices and river rituals from South Asian culture, Syed invited audiences to collect water specially transported from the Soan River in Pakistan and steward it into the River Medlock in Manchester. The event was a celebration of the gift of water that we so often take for granted,
I was commissioned to make 5 outdoor sound sculptures for 'Each Tiny Drop'. These were made of steel, glass and terracotta, roof tiles. The works were inspired by tipping bucket rain gauges. You can listen to the sound of the works by pressing play on the audio track below.
Image Credit: Priti Shikotra.
Water bearers filled buckets positioned on top of the sculptures with long handled ladles. The water trickled through each bucket onto two pieces of bamboo, causing them to seesaw and distribute water into two glass funnels. As the bamboo seesaws hit the glass they created sound. The water ran down a series of roof tiles into claypots held by audiences at the beginning of their journey around the park. 1000 people attended this evening event.
Extract from the full production video.
Credit: Gersende Giorgio.
Image Credit: Sean Hansford, Manchester Evening News
Image Credit: Amy Dickson
Image Credit: Amy Dickson
Production Credits:
Concept by Lead Artist Risham Syed
with Kinetic Art Works by Savinder Bual
Directed by Angie Bual (Trigger)
Curated by Alnoor Mitha
Sound Design by Dan Jones
Musical Direction by Beth Allen
Commissioned and Produced by Factory International for Manchester International Festival
Image: Rob Harris
Image: Rob Harris
Details of the corrosion of the steel base plate after 9 days
