For the second exhibition, we received a few guidelines. We were to use a 'frame' and an 'archival object' in order to bring forward a memory.
Quite early on, i had decided that the subject of this project would be my late uncle. he was first husband to my mother and also elder brother to my father. He was killed during the violence in punjab in 1984. i never got to meet him, and i only ever heard of his death when my family talked of him. losing him was traumatic, and my family could never really heal. I rarely got to hear them talking of his life in a celebratory manner. Hence, i got to know very little of him while growing up.
I decided that i would get to know him through this project. I wanted to immerse myself in the stories of his unfortunately short life that my family would tell me, and then detach myself a little. I wanted to get to know of his life and his work. I wanted to be able to celebrate his life rather than remember him dead, and to build a relationship with him.
Initially, I was drawn to exploring the nature of his death: the violence and the sudden end. i thought of installations that would make the viewer feel the violence of 1984, through visuals and soundscapes, and by entering suffocating space set ups.
from here, i wanted to show how there was so much to his life, which was so easily taken away. the robbing of a life became my prime focus.
later on, i was drawn to my only memory of him: a photograph i grew up seeing. i wanted to frame his photograph in a size bigger than the average human body. i wanted people to walk through the frame, by lifting or drawing the fabric printed photograph. they would walk into a small room that would represent his life, using pictures, footage and his belongings. the belongings would seem to be floating upwards along with a rain of red petals symbolic of bloodshed. the installation would be a time freeze of the bloodshed robbing his life.this became the idea i wanted to go ahead with. from here on, i tried to simplify the idea to fit my budget, time availability and recourse availability.
I went through three to four stages of simplification, where i had to reduce, replace, add and clean out the arrangement. this was an interesting process because it required for me not to get too attached to the elements and symbols i chose, and at the same time, it required for me to retain the layers and thoughts as i reduced its complicated structure.
Quite early on, i had decided that the subject of this project would be my late uncle. he was first husband to my mother and also elder brother to my father. He was killed during the violence in punjab in 1984. i never got to meet him, and i only ever heard of his death when my family talked of him. losing him was traumatic, and my family could never really heal. I rarely got to hear them talking of his life in a celebratory manner. Hence, i got to know very little of him while growing up.
I decided that i would get to know him through this project. I wanted to immerse myself in the stories of his unfortunately short life that my family would tell me, and then detach myself a little. I wanted to get to know of his life and his work. I wanted to be able to celebrate his life rather than remember him dead, and to build a relationship with him.
Initially, I was drawn to exploring the nature of his death: the violence and the sudden end. i thought of installations that would make the viewer feel the violence of 1984, through visuals and soundscapes, and by entering suffocating space set ups.
from here, i wanted to show how there was so much to his life, which was so easily taken away. the robbing of a life became my prime focus.
later on, i was drawn to my only memory of him: a photograph i grew up seeing. i wanted to frame his photograph in a size bigger than the average human body. i wanted people to walk through the frame, by lifting or drawing the fabric printed photograph. they would walk into a small room that would represent his life, using pictures, footage and his belongings. the belongings would seem to be floating upwards along with a rain of red petals symbolic of bloodshed. the installation would be a time freeze of the bloodshed robbing his life.this became the idea i wanted to go ahead with. from here on, i tried to simplify the idea to fit my budget, time availability and recourse availability.
I went through three to four stages of simplification, where i had to reduce, replace, add and clean out the arrangement. this was an interesting process because it required for me not to get too attached to the elements and symbols i chose, and at the same time, it required for me to retain the layers and thoughts as i reduced its complicated structure.
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