Jitish Kallat Wind Study (the hour of the day of the month of the season), 2015 Burnt adhesive and graphite on Indian handmade paper 39 x 26,7 inches The process for Jitish Kallat’s new works titled Wind Study (the hour of the day of the month of the season) begins with a graphite drawing on paper. Evocative of unknown neural networks, unnamed constellations or sacred geometries, the drawing becomes a device to read the forces of nature that inhabit the space and time of the artwork during its making. Kallat carefully overlays the graphite lines with an inflammable liquid that he sets aflame and in a few moments this undergoes phase transition- from liquid to semisolid to fire to finally arise as dark fumes. The movement of breeze at the moment of combustion determines the direction in which the emergent fumes would leave their marks on the surface of the paper. The drawing thus becomes an apparatus to convene and eavesdrop on a silent conversation between the wind and fire, directing the very course of the work.
