Conversation Piece: Consuming The Packet

Conversations inspired by everyday encounters with art steered two friends, Abdul Halik Azeez and Sandev Handy, to rope in their friends Venuri Perera, Imaad Majeed, Sharika Navamani, Dinelka Liyange, Cassie Machado and SP Pushpakanthan to start The Packet in 2019. The initial intent was to create deconstructed artist books under this name. They wished to question the traditional understanding of the book form, and in the process, make it as elastic as possible. Plans for the first publication were initiated with an invitation to ten artists to meet weekly in an apartment in Colombo. The group found itself conversing about the growing art world in the city. They set out to collectively harness their energies into something different from the way they saw art being consumed around them. However, the devastating 2019 Easter bombings across Sri Lanka halted the publication print run and instead led to the working title of the book becoming the collective’s name.

The publication—that is now in its final stages—is quite literally a mystery packet containing myriad posters, zines and stickers. The contents of the paper packet fall apart when emptied; suggesting ideas about dissolving linearity, rigidity, repetition and structure. For a viewer to consume The Packet would involve deciphering image and text in a way similar to eavesdropping on a conversation between friends. Their Instagram account offers an immediate understanding of the context in which these dialogues take place. The diversity of media ranges from phone screenshots, The Packet’s news and working process to TikTok videos, random text notes and internet memes. What one understands of the content is limited to how much one knows about the context in which the dialogue is taking place. Yet, there are no rules or names involved in reading the directions in which visual material is disseminated or the thoughts that spiral thereof during consumption.

Conversation models and their outputs constitute The Packet’s core practice for creating new meaning and form. In an attempt to move away from existing structures, the creation—through collaboration—of streaming images that constantly shape-shift fuels different ways of thinking. Conversation as a practice is perhaps an entry point to unpacking The Packet.

All works by and courtesy of The Packet.

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