Alisha Ekta Reddy 

b. 2000. 

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Installation Practice. 

Courtesy of the artist. 

 

Reddy’s practice resides within an ‘active space’ of making where process meets material. It is within this site of making, where creating creation and constructing construction is nurtured in its purest form. Here, a fantasy resides within a sort of infinity, where possibility and opportunity does not necessarily have a beginning or an end. Reddy is driven by this ‘active space’ because of her desire to capture the realm of fantasy in relation to the experience of becoming. These key concerns within her practice are realised as she aims to access a beyond; a virtual fold; a new plane of life, where her need to escape into a world anew is perpetually maintained. Reddy’s practice manifests through ritualistic installation practices which address potential matter, incidental happenings and material-object relations, interactions and processes.

 

In Unbecoming (2021), Reddy unraveled an entropy of abjection along a horizontal plane of reality, where the very nature of the work was realised through ‘material maturity’. This included a variety of raw and disregarded materials. As episodes of the work unfolded in relation to each other, foreign and unfamiliar relationships began to form. However, it became apparent that while there was an experience of becoming, there simultaneously, was an experience of unbecoming. That while something was being created from the vantage of life, it was also being created from the brink of death. As it gasped for its last breath, its body and flesh degraded, decayed, and deteriorated, being reborn again into something anew. After all, there is no creation without destruction. In this sense, while the experience of becoming was being constructed, conditions were also being redefined. All the while, cosmic ambitions were dissolved into reality, as the work's own being became nothing other than itself. This durational installation served as an active space, in which the experience of becoming was addressed through material relationships and processes. These unfamiliar and foreign encounters allowed one to access a new plane of life, a sort of fantasy. 

As stated earlier, Reddy’s practice is heavily concerned with active spaces and material-object processes, which manifest within an installation medium. It becomes apparent how crucial it is to professionally and practically consider health & safety, technical requirements and funding, in regards to a gallery context. Unbecoming (2021) addressed the importance of these considerations when water became a H&S hazard as it began leaking out of the parameters of the installation. Moving the work into a gallery context would mean I would have to be more considerate about slipping hazards, exposed electrical plugs and wires, and be more prompt in setting the parameters in which the installation exists. Understanding the relationship between observer, object and space would help avoid the observer tripping or walking into elements of the installation. Funding is another consideration, as there is a durational element to Reddy’s practice that requires space so applying to granted funds from creative organisations such as Creative New Zealand or Big Idea NZ is of interest. Additionally, seeking employment to help shift opportunity for art communities is another avenue to consider in the wider aspect of my practice.

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