//The Cactus Lover - 2018
"The Cactus Lover" is mixed media project that includes fifteen days long double channel video and two graphite drawings. This work responds to a painting "The Cactus Lover" painted by Carl Spitzweg in 1855. The work foregrounds a fifteen-day video display of a cactus plant that grows at the slowest rate of any plant. It engages with the ideas of temporality, perceptual stagnancy and boredom, and responds to the high-paced and time thrifting nature of modern societies.
Display at Jangpura studio, Delhi, 2023, double channel video display (front and back)
Display at 'What About Art' residency, Mumbai, 2018
Graphite drawings represent the passage of time around the cactus plant. By eliminating the plant, it depicts the morning and evening hours through the movement of light.
"Priyank decided to turn his bedroom in the apartment into a studio where he spent 15 days, 12 hours a day, filming a cactus plant which later turned into a mixed media installation. He was inspired by a book about boredom and chose to consciously situate himself in a space where he was forced to be bored juxtaposing himself with the slow growth of the cactus plant. During this filming, Priyank explored ideas of the passing of time, temporality and what happens in an artists’ subconscious while working on long durational projects. Priyank created beautiful graphite and charcoal drawings as a result of this time consuming process which he also displayed in his studio." - Posted
