Glass, candle smoke, gouache, LED filament
4.5 x 4.5 in each
I read about one of Bengali scientist Jagadish Chandra Bose’s many inventions, the crescograph, an instrument that records the movement of plant leaves or roots in response to stimuli on a pane of smoked glass. I wanted to adapt the scientific material of smoked glass into a surface for painting. This is a study of a sketch on a postcard by Bengali artist and contemporary to Bose, Gaganendranath Tagore. The sketch interprets Bose’s findings on the effects of artificial light on plant growth as an allegory for “academic light” that cultivates the Bengali intellectual class. On the back of the postcard, Tagore writes a short note to the recipient, asking “What do you think of this?”