Hiya Singh

A three-channel 16mm projection installation, The Onus Is On Me reimagines the film title as a tactile, embodied experience. I use elements of traditional title design—language, typography, motion—within the frame to emphasize and explore the directionality and physicality of speech. A custom variable typeface swings from left to right. A marquee animation represents the way words are read and absorbed. The dramatic reading employs monologue, a literary device rooted in the body.

The protagonist wants to be an actor but feels dissatisfied with the way they are perceived. They attribute perception to the onlooker’s psychological bias and projection—assuming that no one is projecting onto them. Escapism is their coping mechanism, represented by abstract silkscreened frames in the middle channel. The side channels represent reality, and the protagonist’s feelings are conveyed there through horizontal pulsating typographic movements.

Film is the natural choice for a project exploring the body’s role in shaping linguistic connections. Production oscillates between digital and analog formats, resulting in a labor-intensive, time-consuming, unpredictable process. Techniques like traveling mattes and screen printing on film create unexpected outcomes each time. There is something unexpected even in the projection of these films as they loop unevenly, revealing new combinations of phrases each time. This randomness serves as a metaphor for the dynamic nature of language, whose meaning shifts with changing space and time.