The video work ‘Preface’ consists of an oversized book, presented like a sacred/ religious object on a prayer stand. The book presents the promise of democracy enshrined within the Preamble of the Constitution of India, in Braille. The video has developed as a result of my long engagement with the text, The Preamble of the Constitution of India that elucidates the purpose and underlying philosophy of the Constitution. Being the most religiously diverse country in the world, India’s democratic republic is premised on a national belief in pluralism and an assimilative culture. Rendered in Braille and thus reduced to various unreadable dots are words that spell out the fundamental principles, procedures, powers and responsibilities of the government and also the fundamental rights and duties of citizens. What you see are a series of images that evoke neural patterns constantly changing, transforming where the dots/words break open, blot, clot, smudge and stain the pages. What interests me is how this text gets interpreted by different people differently.
