Remnants/ Relics/ Residue - Nivedita Madigubba - Speaking in Tounges

Nivedita Madigubba

Speaking in Tongues, 2024

digitally altered Sanskrit prayer and sounds of air resonating within ritual vessels translated through a Parametric speaker. 

6.5 in x 6.5 in x 3.5 in.

$750

Nivedita Madigubba was born and raised in Hyderabad, India. She is curious about the collision of different knowledge systems brought on by colonization and the social and political forms they take today. Her practice engages with products of cultural processes as materials that embody memories to reframe them and visualize counternarratives. Madigubba holds a BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and an MFA from the University of California, Berkeley. She was the 2023 recipient of the San Francisco Foundation’s Cadogan Award.

Artist Statement:

Speaking in Tongues is an invitation to reimagine ritual as a spiritual practice. Hindu philosophy posits divinity as a harmonious union of masculine spirit and feminine matter. English translations of Sanskrit prayers and ritual vessels have marked collective memories of practicing Hindus with heteronormative gender binaries and purity ideals. Dominant traditional views prioritize spirit and purity over matter; ritual practices often impose ideologies of purity while overlooking matter in favor of its masculine spirit counterpart.

In this work, both visual and auditory elements emphasize the body as matter, reflecting viewers' physical forms back to them. Sound from a speaker disrupts the act of looking/reading, transforming a viewer's body into a conduit for whispered prayers. Digitally altered Sanskrit prayer accentuates the clicking sounds of tongue and throat, redirecting attention to the body as a divine form. These whispered prayers, translated through a parametric speaker, are audible only when a viewer stands directly in front of it. Accompanying this, is a geometric meditation aid, reimagined as a hand-engravved copper plate and acrylic mirror. Speaking in Tongues is a call to remember matter as an indispensable component of spiritual practice.