Kaal-Chakra:
The Cycle of Time

  “Kaal-Chakra” literally means “The Cycle of Time”. In Bengali & Sanskrit, “Kaal” means time and “Chakra” means cycle. It is a self-directed kinetic sculpture that abstractly represents the complexities of time as a lived experience. This piece features two or more (Now 3D printed) sliding rods symbolising as two clocks carrying weights entangled with threads that change their synchronization at intervals. This ultimately represents the effect of different time zones, which ultimately talks about tension and disorientation of navigating multiple temporal zones and realities. The piece emphasizes the fine line between how time is defined scientifically through unit measurements and how, as humans, we feel time as an “experience.” The movement of the weights, along with the shifting threads, evokes the emotional turbulence of feeling as though time is slipping out of our control. As an International student I believe it’s a shared experience for immigrants, international students and workers balancing their origins, Bi-locations, multiple time zones, time gaps, and new environments. The recent development of this piece evoked a more severe question within me. What I’m searching for. Is it the matter of cultural shift and time management or the crisis that comes with it? Certainly, crisis as well as hybridisation are very generic and broad words but this piece is taking turns towards that direction. The hybridisation of our emotional and metaphysical nature towards any kind of crisis, be it crisis of time, crisis of belongingness, crisis of thought, crisis of delocalisation.