AN INDIAN BEACH

Observations of hustle and bustle on both sides of a beach’s waterline.

Printed on a long continuous strip that, once pulled out of its sleeve, can either be examined section by folded section or opened into a large circle, Jolivet’s wordless linocut scenes record the passage of a day and a night on Elliot’s Beach, near the southern Indian city of Chennai. Viewers who begin where night gives way to dawn can see fishing boats pushed out in the background, joggers and commuters in modern or traditional dress and conveyances passing in the foreground, and goats and other animals sharing the sand in between with beached catamarans and people on diverse errands. Along with stands and small dwellings, morning crowds of vendors and visitors suddenly appear, vanish in the afternoon heat, then return in early evening until darkness brings another temporary lull. The author supplies general commentary for all of this on the sleeve, but she also invites readers to identify or make up stories about what her figures are doing—and, if so moved, to color them in. She herself colors only the ocean, with a solid blue that continues around to the loop’s inside, where schools of unlabeled but identifiable fish and other sea life (also, potentially, colorable) are thickly packed.

A literal as well as figurative round that cinematically captures a sense of daily rhythms at this popular gathering place.