On Translucency

“Translucency is not the relief of the end of the journey but the cool you find midway. The energising rest. When the mind finds home in the body even when that home is far away. “
- Himali Singh Soin

Developed and presented as a live work during Himali Singh Soin and David Soin Tappeser’s residency with us in the spring, On Translucency was born out of a mytho-poetic manifesto that creates space for restorative contemplation in response to our changing times.

In October, we presented the performance in London in partnership with Delfina Foundation - watch now.

The essay is part of Himali’s collection of emergent manifestos, each spiralling around a central metaphor, that respond to our changing times. In Himali Singh Soin’s words:

“On Translucency is a mytho-poetic manifesto about the space between the shore and the tide, the translucent shallow, visible and invisible, dense and sheer. It departs from Édouard Glissant’s notion of opacity and arrives in places where frosted windows keep the heat of the sun out, soften the detailed edges of bodies while holding on to the relational, letting light through and not shutting out the other.

Translucency argues for a kind of not-knowing that allows for the [coexistence of the] private world of thought and the gregarious world of friendship, as island to archipelago. This manifesto is filtered through the translucent lenses of air, ice, skin, oil, and film. Translucency is both the right to illegibility and the desire for interpretation. Translucency is a zone of safety, a permeable way into our post-natural lifeways.”

Written and performed by Himali Singh Soin, the essay is accompanied by music by David Soin Tappeser. During their residency in Dubai, the artist and musician visited the intertidal sabkha areas around the UAE—ecologically vital zones, neither land nor sea, that form rich, porous buffers. Salvaging materials washed up in these areas, such as shells, salt-encrusted plastic bottles, as well as objects from local markets, David created musical instruments, their percussive qualities forming a contrapuntal dialogue with Himali’s text. For the iteration presented in London, the artists invited conch player Byron Wallen to infuse the sound of water and its rituals of devotion to the performance.

Nearly a year later, this poetic and powerful manifesto still resonates, appealing to a softer, less alienated approach to cultural interaction and planetary coexistence. Taking place at the close of a busy Frieze Week, in a time of deepening global chasms, On Translucency creates space for restorative contemplation and invites more fluid positions towards plural coexistence.

Biographies

Himali Singh Soin is a writer and artist currently who works between New Delhi and London. Singh Soin's interdisciplinary work focuses on the nature of identity, environmental issues, and the notion of deep time. She works across film, spoken word, performance, epistolary poetry, ceramics, music, and embroidery, which allows her to interweave complex concepts and narratives together.

David Soin Tappeser is a drummer, composer and performance artist based between London and New Delhi. His practice explores socio-eco-spiritual-tempo-somatic dimensions of sound. His performances and compositions use rhythm to unearth, manipulate, and deconstruct linear perceptions of time, interdependence, and alterity. They hint at intercultural entanglements, parallel histories, and extra-human frames of reference while thinking about environmental destruction and sociopolitical fissures.

Byron Wallen was born in July 1969 in London, England while the Apollo 11 crew were on their way to the moon. Widely recognised as a seminal figure in world jazz, he is constantly travelling the world recording, teaching and performing. He has visited East Africa, Morocco, Nigeria, Indonesia and Belize (his parents' homeland). On tour Wallen often works with local musicians, developing new ideas for his performances and compositions. In 1992, Wallen formed Sound Advice touring the UK and playing in Syria in 1996 and the Czech Republic in 1997. The band also appeared at the North Sea Jazz Festival, gaining critical and audience acclaim. In 1995 Wallen played in South Africa, recording with Airto Moreira and Moses Moseleku. A documentary film, Travelling, traces his 1998 trip to Uganda. In 2001 he appeared at the Harare Jazz festival in Zimbabwe and at South Africa's ARTS Alive Earth Summit festival in 2002.


Credits

Curator: Nada Raza, Alserkal Art Foundation
Project Manager: Mariam Abdellatif, Alserkal Art Foundation
Performance by: Himali Singh Soin & David Soin Tappesser
Conch player: Byron Wallen
Producer: Holly Shuttleworth, HS Studio
Production Manager: Andy Downie, Velocet
Sound Engineer: Simon Hendry
Producing Assistant: Abigail Hellam
Artist Assistant: Lakshita Munjal
Photography: Matthew Ritson
Videography: Ilaria Falli and Wiktoria Aleksandra Wojcikiewicz

With thanks to Westminster Chapel Events and RG Jones.