Please Don’t Tweet This!

Rathin Barman, India (2015)

Description

Title: Please Don’t Tweet This!
Artist: Rathin Barman (b. 1981, India)
Medium: Cardboard, household utensils
Dimensions (H x W x D):  Table: 91.4 x 152.4 x 66 cm (36 x 60 x 26 in) and 2 benches: 61 x 116.8 x 43.2 cm (24 x 46 x 17 in) each
Weight: 8 kg (18 lbs)
Location:
3 pop-up installations (mountain biking path on Garibaldi Mountain, Quest University campus, and walking path adjacent to the Eagle Run viewing area in Brackendale Provincial Park) during the first week of July 2015

Please Don’t Tweet This! was an exquisitely crafted temporary physical space made out of cardboard that deals with the aspect of unexpectedness while commenting on the social practices of virtual mapping. Through his pop-up cardboard installations, located in unexpected places in the community, Barman brought aspects of the unmapped histories of Kolkata to Squamish.

During his six-week residency in Squamish, Barman found Squamish to be a very well organized and structurally precise town. He was amazed with the way places and events were intricately mapped in virtual media unlike the spontaneous and heavily populated city of Kolkata. Barman’s residency project emerged from this contrary of social practices. Barman created temporary physical spaces made out of cardboard, a material associate with packaging and transporting things, and installed them in different locations around the town. One was unable to find these spaces in virtual searches; hence, he assumed, these spaces would come to the community as a surprise, a new element of which they were not aware.

 

Guest Blog

Read a guest Blog Post from Rathin where he discusses his residency project and the influences that inspired him to create it.

Press Release:

Press Release for 2015 Residency Artists

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