"स् 15 + स 50 + स 1 = 66" by Poonam Jain
Devanagari / 18 pt Fancy font
Single edition, Letterpress print on paper
6.5" x 9" framed
About the Series
Following is a series of prints within an ongoing project called ‘Degree of Exclusion of Languages’ I look at the politics of knowledge and hierarchies of scripts through the lens of colonial and nationalistic on goings. The medium crucial to the narrative and the project has been letterpress printing. I study the medium from the making, socio-political impact, its journey to the death of letterpress industry and its craftsmanship.
In an attempt to understand a bit of its knowledge systems I found Kedarnathji (whose father started one of the oldest commercial press in Udaipur: Sarawati Press. I spent a month learning composing in Devanagari from him.
He is 78 years old and this has been his sole occupation handed down by his family.
One set of 18 point Devanagari movable types which contains 4000 pieces, weighing around 17kgs. He called it the fancy type. I have used these types to make a series of prints, to emphasize the limitation and the labor of the texts. What we take for granted today and the way we understand scripts and languages today was shaped prominently by coming of letterpress in the Sub Continent.
This is a series that is product of cataloguing about 250 characters of a Devanagari letterpress set. The number of types used in each composition are the only fonts available in this size and font. The forms are made unintentionally that takes a meaning once it is composed and printed. This is because of the varying size and quantity of a character. Hence, the titles are the products of the cataloguing process.
About the Artist
Poonam Jain (b. 1989) works with drawing and installation to highlight the structures that undergird the fields of pedagogy, economy and architecture. Jain has often turned to acts of counting and measurement that serve as rituals or determine the distribution of power in society at large and within the micro unit of the family. Through these overlapping interests, Jain has recurrently addressed the function of language and how it is used to order the world, exploring the possibilities of creating a gap between symbols and their meanings. Currently, Jain is researching the history of letterpress printing in South Asia, through support from the India Foundation for the Arts (2022-23), with an emphasis on the consolidation and exclusion of scripts and languages that took place over time.
Jain was a member of the Clark House Initiative, Mumbai, from 2011 to 2016. Her work has been shown in group exhibitions at Sapar Contemporary, New York, 2017; New Gallery, Paris, 2016; INSERT 2014, New Delhi; Gdanska Galeria Miejska 2, Poland, 2014; MKG127, Canada, 2014; Kadist Art Foundation, Paris2013. She has had solo exhibitions at Art Dubai with 1x1 art gallery in 2018, at Clark House Initiative, Mumbai in 2014, and at 1X1 Art Gallery, Dubai in 2014. Jain lives and works in Mumbai.
