Get an Earful

The title comes from the term ‘Westfailure’. A pun on the Westphalia System — the ‘international political system of states claiming exclusive authority and the monopoly of legitimate violence within their territorial limits’,named after the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648 — it was first used by economist Susan Strange in 1999 in her essay titled The Westfailure System.

Among the works on display is a new piece,Anathema. Made for the Lyon Biennale,this 37-minute-long video explores the artists’ fascination with liquid crystals,matter essential to digital screens. The video uses individual shots from hundreds of advertisements for mobile phones,laptops and flatscreen televisions to show what Eshun calls “our theory of communicative capitalism”. “In the video,we have made a fictional scenario where liquid crystals live — not live like you or I do — but like sentient beings,” explains the British-Ghanaian writer,theorist and film-maker.

The exhibition was preceded by a screening of The Otolith Trilogy,which took place at NCPA on January 9. The first of these films,Otolith I,was made in 2003,around the time demonstrations against the impending invasion of Iraq,were rife in London. The Group participated in and filmed these demonstrations which,together with a real-life meeting between Valentina Tereshkova — the first woman to travel into outer space — and Anjalika Sagar’s grandmother,Anasuya Gyan-Chand,form an integral part of the 22-minute long film.

Since they began working together in 2002,The Otolith Group has held and curated shows around the world. In 2010,the duo was nominated for the Turner Prize for A Long Time Between Suns. This two-venue solo exhibition was the first solo presentation of the Group’s work in London,showcased in Gasworks and The Showroom.