Aman Aheer

the low voice (2024)
oil, cow dung, iron powder, spray paint, electrical cord, and loudspeakers on canvas, 210 x 97 cm each

Since their arrival on the scene in the early twentieth century, loudspeakers have been an object of contention. Temples and mosques across the subcontinent and beyond use them to deliver calls to prayer and amplify sermons. Increasingly, demands are made for loudspeakers installed on minarets in India to emit the azan quietly so as not to disrupt public life. If the speaking voice stands for the rational human with political power and presence, the hushed or unobtrusive voice is often associated with the subordinate, and those incapable of articulation are designated as the subhuman. the low voice draws together questions of utterance and erasure, of sound in relation to space and propinquity.

The two paintings—composed of oil paint, cow dung, iron powder, and affixed with loudspeakers—connect the slow silencing of the Muslim past and present from the Indian landscape and link it with the sustained violence faced by Dalits and other lower castes. As quiet compositions, they invite the listener to consider the material dimension of inaudibility and reflect on what kind of presence exists when sound is suppressed.