Name: Art of substance and absence
Uploaded: 2010-09-08T08:38:00Z
Duration: 16 min 34 s
Description: Alwar Balasubramaniam's sculpture plays with time, shape, shadow, perspective: four tricky sensations that can reveal -- or conceal -- what's really out there. At TEDIndia, the artist shows slides of his extraordinary installations.

Alwar Balasubramaniam's sculpture plays with time, shape, shadow, perspective: four tricky sensations that can reveal -- or conceal -- what's really out there. At TEDIndia, the artist shows slides of his extraordinary installations.

Art of substance and absence

Reality is shaped not just by what is seen, but by what escapes perception. Through sculptures that capture thumbprints, fading shadows, and even evaporating forms made of air freshener, the boundaries between the visible and invisible are questioned. Meaning, he argues, does not exist inherently but is created by the mind and context. Even the empty space between footprints, more than the prints themselves, contains the journey’s real story.