Matti Braun

It’s a hop, skip, and jump through Matti Braun’s latest work, V.S., 2003. Named after India’s foremost satellite engineer Vikram Sarabhai, the installation transforms the gallery floor into a pond with thirty-odd tree trunks that serve as handy stepping-stones for those who don’t want to get their feet wet. After crossing the gallery, one discovers a meager British copy of a rare Indian Patola cloth hanging on the wall. Braun’s artifacts reflect the perversions of cross-cultural exchanges while suggesting other kinds of exchanges. The tree trunks in the water offer an earthly mirror image—however distorted—of satellites scattered in the sky; the prized Patola cloth, which cannot be exported legally from India, ends up leaving the country as a mere pattern that can be printed on any piece of material. While starting off in India, Braun ends up with a subtle yet biting critique of the perversions of locality in the age of globalization.