Introducing the Decompressionists
by Ranbir Sidhu
A United States Navy experiment during World War Two had battleship hulls painted in a gaudy mixture of bright colors. The ships, when viewed on the horizon, became invisible. For the past century, an international art movement has managed to perform a similar trick. Decompressionists are everywhere today, and much as it impossible to imagine the language of current day advertising without James Joyce as an inspiration, the visual and verbal rhetorics of the modern world would be much the poorer had it not been for Decompressionist anti-experiments. Yet few know of their existence, and fewer still recognize a Decompressionist work when they encounter one. This is as much their own decision, and it is not the purpose of this short introduction to uncover them or even to summarize their thought and work with a breezy shorthand. To know Decompressionist work, it must be experienced firsthand.
Among the modern critical masters of Decompressionist thought is Gyorgy Singh Ahluwalia and it is a unique pleasure to introduce him to a wider audience. Is he merely a critic of the Decompressionists? Is he one himself? I am not at liberty to say. His language at times suggests one or the other. I will let the reader decide. As with much Decompressionist work, the fundamental texts remain secret, and Ahluwalia’s many citations unfortunately lead the reader to blank spaces on the library shelf. If anyone’s interest is sparked sufficiently to pursue a study, to enter a colloquy with the myriad and labyrinthine texts of the Decompressionists, I can only say that the path, though always invisible, will appear in the most EXPECTED place.
