AAKIL AARSHI: Mirror of the Mind:A Brief Note

PROJECT :PART-1

This is an ongoing research and workshop based community art activity within the Santhali community exploring the changing pattern of domestic and social life of Santhali community in relation to their cultural heritage and environment.The present blog activities is supported as part of the Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways project by Khoj International Artist's Association,New Delhi for a period of three months.

Access to knowledge is an important area to understand the changing social framework of Santali life .A community with no racial hierarchy exposure to institutional knowledge has changed the social life of a Santali. Moreover impact of globalization has created a rift between the older way of Santali life and the new generation of Santali who are exposed to digital entertainment and communication. To explore this changing life style and to evolve a platform for interaction I would like to conduct a collaborative workshop of papermaking with bamboo leaves together with the young generation of Santali men and women.

 Bamboo is an essential tree in Santali life. Starting from the making of the house, the roof; they make most of their everyday objects for carrying materials with bamboo. But leaves are one part which is only used for burning fire and they are very soft as a material. The workshop will be specifically based on developing bamboo papers with text written as water marks. Water mark is special technique in Paper making where a transparent impression of a text or any linear design can be imprinted on the paper only to be visible against light. So by sharing the knowledge of transforming bamboo leaves into paper I am trying to participate in their everyday life and explore their interpretation of the material as a process of knowledge sharing.

Parallel to this through the introduction of the process of watermark the project will try to document designs, texts and images that will address issues like conflict and contradiction of contemporary Santali life and also archive traditional designs and patterns of santali cultural heritage. The watermark on bamboo paper workshop will also explore the different levels in which globalization has affected the culture of Santali people by transferring popular sounds and words as watermarks in the bamboo paper.

Initially theatre workshops from third theater will be conducted to evolve a narrative network within the community which may be reflected in the watermark patterns.

In this respect initially a workshop shade of paper making will be established using indigenous technology of architecture making that is common to Santali life which can later become a possible site of economic rehabilitation once the community takes over the process of paper making as an alternative economic venture.

The watermark workshop will be conducted in 3 different Santali villages(Fuldanga,Pearson Palli and Balipara), around Santiniketan individually. After completion of each workshop an installation with the bamboo watermarked papers will be created inside the individual villages. The installation will be planned in collaboration with the participants and work as an interface between the different generations of Santali community evolve as possible site for community interaction.

So this project on one hand will investigate into the process of participation of an outsider into the everyday life of a community. Secondly it will allow possibilities of interaction within the community by making art as a user and not just an aesthetic discourse.

PART-2

The bamboo papers with watermarks will be later transformed into a bamboo paper book.
This workshop based art activity will be conducted in collaboration with two visual art practitioners Baidyanath Murmu(resident of Fuldanga Village) and Borhan Hansda(resident of Balipara village) .Both of them have completed their academic training in Fine Arts from Kala Bhavana ,Visva Bharati,Santiniketan.