Integer Study (Drawing from Life) is a portfolio of 365 drawings recorded daily like journal entries since the start of 2021. Over the years, Jitish Kallat has developed a “vocabulary of studio rituals,” mediated by natural elements, time, and the use of dates, measurements, and numbers as sense-making devices. In Integer Study, three sets of numbers―global human population, births, and deaths at a specific moment―give rise to thoughtforms. These abstractions traverse inquiries from existential to ecological, evoking themes of climate, extinction, evolution, and decay. This new book, supported by the Burger Collection, Hong Kong, returns the project to its original diary-like format, offering an intimate, handheld experience of the year-long ritual.
