For over a hundred years, when the East India Company ships brought barrels of saltpetre to the shores of England, they also brought with them a force that determined how we move in the world today.
Saltpetre, also known by its chemical name, Potassium Nitrate (KNO3) was a coveted global commodity that was mined, traded and fought over for its role in the production of gunpowder by competing colonial powers. An advantage over this material not only meant dominance over land but also over the sea trade.
Around the period that saltpetre was being honed for its use in sophisticating militarisation, the development of potassium nitrate splintered into other purposes such as in the production of fertilisers for the soil—descendants of which are commonly used in most present day greenhouses and conservatories across Europe.
The film has been hand processed solely in bananas, dates and cocoa powder— that is, materials that would otherwise not be available for use in Helsinki had they not once been carried in the bellies of ships across the heaving seas and into Europe. The hazy, somewhat ghostly images of the film are made possible from the flesh of the fruits thus inherently carrying within them traces of their history and the violence.
In the presence of the displaced plant habitat in the greenhouse, Birth of a Grenade responds to the multi species colonial violence by drawing connections between the raw materials and their applications in creating the by-products that are eternally constructing and destructing, building up while simultaneously breaking down.
The film playing on a loop performs the alternating role of grieving, anticipating and raging. It exists within these contradictions only to be further exaggerated through the performance of many multiplicities within the work.
Shubhangi Singh is a transdisciplinary artist whose practice draws from existing knowledges to address movement, identity, queries related to the body and its relationship with the environment. Singh considers ideas of absence and absenting in her work as a way of reflecting upon what isvisible, particularly in relation to history, memory and the labour of memorialising. Working across media, from text to moving image and site-specific installations, Singh’s works are routinely suspended between fiction and non-fiction, often adopting the position of an unreliable narrator.
Singh holds a Master’s degree in Visual Cultures, Curating and Contemporary Art from Aalto University and is the co-founder of New City Limits, an initiative to facilitate creative viewing and practice in Navi Mumbai, India. She currently lives and works in Helsinki.
Mediabox is Forum Box gallery’s space dedicated to media art. The program is created together with AV-arkki.
There are three steps to the media art space Mediabox, but the work is also available for viewing on a tablet by request. Please don’t hestitate to contact our staff if Mediabox is inaccessible for you.