My skin is a part of me. When seen by the outside world, it becomes who I am. But it is not the totality of me. skin is a meditation on the visual interface of my body to the world. It is an effort to present what is present, but also to express what is not. It is a possibility of identity, an expression of the seen and the not seen. The creation of this video work arose from the act of recording of the handling of contact microphones for an audio work. It seemed to me that my effort to incorporate the sound of my hands into an audio piece was not telling the whole story. I needed to acknowledge that my skin, the element that was being recorded, told its own story that was accessible only in the visual realm. I was compelled to activate the sense of sight to tell the story of my efforts to be seen as an artist who wishes to incorporate the overtones of being a visible minority into his artistic practice in unexpected ways. My training in traditional music and percussion systems, my upbringing as a South Asian Canadian with strong roots in India, and my love of technology have resulted in a practice that sees the value of tradition. It is a necessary construct, both in the creative process, and as a potential for creating work that reaches beyond it. My work is not a rejection of tradition (as system/social expression) but an envisioning of it to be more than an end in itself. The social and political realities of our individual and collective culture are too complex to either be “embraced” or “given up”. We need a nuanced and subtle dance with our distinctions, a complex relationship that allows for a reaching beyond of the bounds they supposedly imposed. From the Cineworks (2008) exhibition: Debashis Sinha's skin uses anatomy (which means 'to cut up')......skin is a lush and hypnotically absorbing screen of subtly shifting pixels in the interpretation of colour detailing the surface of a hand. Ambiguous forms unfold accompanied by an electronic, fluttering pulse. The piece marries skin surface with screen surface. By naming the colours on the screen, more dissection takes place.
