Born 1975 in Mumbai, India
Lives and works in Singapore

River of Ink II
2023
Multiple pallets of books, each pallet 120 x 120 cm
Ink-soaked books, wooden pallets

Shubigi Rao is known for her multidisciplinary projects and installations that use books, etchings, drawings, videos and archives. Through these materials, she observes how layered histories of intersectionality might be untangled and revised. Further, she explores the underpinning influence of cultural censorship within our systems of knowledge. River of Ink II is a reiteration of River of Ink from 2008 at a much larger scale. The work resonates across time, with ongoing relevance in our contemporary context. Erasure and destruction are considered vehicles for resistance and redemption within this work, which comprises more than 300 destroyed books soaked in fountain-pen ink. The artist considers these texts ‘decaying information and discarded knowledge’, ranging from topics of nationalism, cultural genocide, war, conformity, freedom of speech and expression, as well as consumerism. Each text has undergone a process of degeneration, dripping into a failed state of disrepair, emphasising the futility of preservation in the face of cultural genocide and the possibility of redemption through defiance.

Rao is known for her long-term, multidisciplinary projects, comprising layered installations of books, etchings, drawings, pseudo-scientific machines, metaphysical puzzles, video, ideological boardgames, garbage and archives. Her interests include archaeology, neuroscience, libraries, archival systems, histories and lies, literature and violence, ecologies and natural history.

《墨之河 II》
2023
數疊書本，每疊120 x 120 厘米
浸透墨水的書本、木卡板

舒比吉．拉奧，以其使用書籍、蝕刻版畫、素描、影片和檔案創作的多媒體計劃及藝術裝置見稱。透過這些材料，她觀察到如何整理並訂正歷史時期中的多元交織。此外，她還探討了文化審查制度在我們知識體系中的根本影響。裝置《墨之河 II》以2008年創作的《墨之河》為基礎再重現並擴大規模。其中持續切身的當代語境，在今時今日仍然能引起我們的共鳴。在這件作品中，超過三百本被毀壞的書本全部浸泡在鋼筆墨水中，而消滅和破壞則被視為抵抗和救贖的工具。這些被藝術家認為是「腐朽的資訊和廢棄的知識」的文本涉及了民族主義、文化種族滅絕、戰爭、從眾行為、言論及表達自由和消費主義。每一個文本都經歷了一個墮落的過程，墮進了一個日久失修的狀態，強調了在文化種族滅絕面前徒勞的捍衛和通過反抗獲得救贖的可能性。

舒比吉．拉奧以其長期進行的多媒體計劃而聞名，當中包括書籍、蝕刻版畫、素描、偽科學機械、形上思考、影片、富意識形態的桌上遊戲、垃圾和歷史檔案。她的興趣包括考古學、神經科學、圖書館、存案系統、歷史與謊言、文學與暴力、生態學和自然歷史。