[ISEA98] Paper: Permi K. Gill & Ari Salomon – Electric Prayer Wheel: a meditation on genocide

Abstract

Electric Prayer Wheel is a new collaborative installation and web site by Ari Salomon and Permi Gill themed around issues of genocide. Inspired by the tradition of Tibetan prayer wheels, the artists refer to the specific political situation of the Tibetan people as a means to open a dialogue regarding cultural genocide. Salomon was inspired by his work in India with Tibetnet, a online project to improve communications between the Tibetan Government-In Exile and Tibetan refugee communities around the world. Gill’s body of work has been utilising washing as a metaphor for issues of ethnic cleansing The installation will incorporate 3 parts: 1) Entrance: a large (8 foot high) prayer wheel will be covered with washing symbols (found on clothing labels). Viewers must walk around the wheel as they enter. An electric eye chimes a bell for every revolution of the wheel. 2) Interior: a series of smaller prayer wheels will present text describing a multitude of genocides from this millennium. 3) Projection: a video projection of an electronic interpretation of a prayer wheel. The electronic prayer wheel will be a collage of video, still images and text rendered as if spinning on the surface of a cylinder. If resources allow, live video of viewers in gallery as well as web-based public interactions will be incorporated into the collage. The collage will be stimulated by a research project on the Tibetan struggle as well as two historical struggles related to the artists own ethnic backgrounds (Indian and Jewish). The Web site will incorporate small animations with images used in the installation. These animations, like the video projection, will be a contemporized version of a prayer wheel: loading the web page will set these wheels in motion. Viewers will be able to submit their own reflections on the theme of genocide in the form of images and text. Viewer input will be processed into spinning animations.

  • Permi K. Gill, IN/UK/US, is a British artist of Indian descent working in San Francisco. She received her Masters in Fine Art in 1995 from the University of California at Davis. Gill also received BA (Honours) in Critical Fine Art Practice at Central St. Martins School of Art and Design, London. Gill’s exhibition history includes numerous site-specific installations in London at such venues as Viewing Space Gallery, the London Film Festival, and Marshal St. Centre. In Weimar, Ger-many, Gill received a commission as artist-in-residence at the European Cultural Workshop. In San Francisco, Gill’s accomplishments vary from a commissioned installation, “Faceless Angel”, at the Philip Johnson Building, to group shows at Southern Exposure, “Whatever”, “Refusalon”, “Critical Apparel” and Four Walls Gallery, “Caution: Eye Irritant 1”. Gill has also been involved in curating exhibitions which have received public recognition in San Francisco. She has worked for commercial and non-profit galleries in San Francisco, recently putting together a publication for artists on international opportunities for American artists abroad. She has also been on a advisory panel to select public art for the Sacramento new court buildings. She is currently teaching Photography at U.C. Davis and History of Photography at The Art Academy School in San Francisco.
  • Ari Salomon, IL/US, is an Israeli-born, California-bred conceptual artist and a graphic designer working primarily in digital media. He received a BA with honours in Art History/Visual Culture from the University of California at Santa Cruz in 1993. In addition to exhibiting his own art around the Bay area, he has also worked as a technician on several complex installations at local museums and non-profit galleries such as Yerbe Buena Center for the Arts, Capp Street Project, The Jewish Museum and Southern Exposure. Salomon recently traveled to India to work with a team on the Gangkyi Wide Web part of the TibetNet Project. The TibetNet Project is dedicated to expanding the online capabilities of the Tibetan Government and Nation (see web site for more info). He helped build a LAN and Intranet for the Government as well as developing other desktop publishing projects. His focus was teaching skills individuals could use to better communicate employing new media. While there he had a chance to learn more about Tibetan culture and reflect on the role new technologies had in affecting their political struggles. Salomon has used technology in both the form and the content of his work. After being a photographer for 4 years, he began working with mixed media and new media. Favorite materials are L.E.D. signs, L.E.D.’s themselves, self-sealing clear bags, surveillance cameras, lasers and digital video. He has also begun creating Web based work. In 1996 he worked on a creative performance project to demonstrate the possibilities of using digital video in interactive environments presented to the MacSummit conference at the University of California at Santa Barbara. Thematically, Salomon presents a steady interest in the construction of language and the fleeting nature of its public consumption. Appropriation is his preferred trope for deconstructing popular media in both public and private arenas. Often with a humorous touch, he uses everyday objects in unusual ways: defamiliarization becomes a means for viewers to make new associations.
    tibet.org/Dharamsala