Video Spa, 2004
Video installation and lawn chairs

"Video Spa" is one of Krisna Murti’s latest video environments. Designed to surround the audience in both sound and image, Video SPA is a virtual relaxation treatment for the 21st century. Through this piece, Murti wants to trigger emotional states that have atrophied, yet still reside beneath the conscious level of an urban stress-filled lifestyle. Combining metaphors of Hindu-Buddhist spiritual beliefs, including symbols of renewal and cleansing on both the material and psychic levels, Video Spa combines discussions of both Kantian theory of aesthetic experience and Hindu-Buddhist spiritual experiences of the soul, both dependent on something residing within yet in excess of the sound or image.
(Text by Amanda Rath)