The floods that affected Kerala in August 2018 have caused severe after effects in different parts of the state, affecting the landscape, homes, people and economic drivers adversely. The floods displaced thousands, washed away homes, damaged infrastructure facilities and inflicted livelihoods to an extent that it may need years of repair to help them regain normalcy. This project intends to look at one’s position of loss and survival through a traumatic experience, losing a sense of belonging, yet striving to restore balance in daily life.
Research Questions
- What effects do the traces of the incident have on the emotional state of the residents? How does that define the relationship with their immediate environment?
- How does one recall the incident? What are the perceptions of the aftermath of the incident?
- What relationship do the people have with the space and objects lost or damaged during/ after the incident?
- What relationship do the people have with the space and objects lost or damaged during/ after the incident?
Mapping changes in the space | Photo essay
Imprints and marks
The prints explore the textural change in the interiors and exteriors of a home. The impressions of the space are information that have changed with time. This information indeed becomes specific to a particular space and time.
Rust Imprinting
Rust is more than a stain left behind as it is as continuous process provided the apt environment. As a remnant of the flood, I decided to explore it as a technique on fabric. Rust does not only stain the fabric, but has the capability to destroy the surface. This becomes symbolic to to the subject of study.
Further enquiry
- Is trauma dismissed or discounted only because it is a natural remainder of a disaster?
- Is a traumatic experience reduced to figures alone? Do statistics and death tolls alone determine the intensity of trauma?
- What happens when a space that is considered safe becomes unsafe?
- Did the floods cause any shifts in social paradigms? Were there shifts reset after recovery?
- How does one give words to the unrecognizable? What language justifies the implicit?
A series of installations using textile and found objects exploring the traces of trauma on one’s memory. I hope to create a space of empathy and understanding by enabling the participation of the viewer.
Concept sketches
these walls won't forget
Trauma comes with the immense power to transform and adapt. A community is affected not only in the form of impairment but also through the persevering act of reconstruction. This body of work looks at the position of loss and restoration that the people of Kerala experienced as a collective during the floods. The work in its fragility stands as a testimony to the tedious act of restoration and recovery the community undertook to restore balance and normalcy. The experience becomes paradoxical as one engages in the act of restructuring through a phase of dreadful discomfort that affected the core of a collective.
Stitching represents repair and restoration while rust is symbolic for the natural damage that is left behind by water. The panels was patched together by sewing with a surgical needle to represent wound and healing. The panels have needles hanging from them that indicate the ongoing process of reconstruction. This also gives room to the viewer to participate and engage with the piece by leaving a stitch or mark on the surface.
Remnants of a Deluge
The second body of work regarding the thesis involved working with objects of memory.They have not just persevered in the face of time and collective memories in a space but tolerated changes that have affected a community and a region entirely.
The remnants of the flood are presented in drawers with deposits of mud. The use of mud represents the tedious task of cleaning and restoring that the families had to undertake after the wash out. The installation gives one the sense of what one’s possessions and homes looked like after the deluge.
Installation of work in an assigned space
Details of the installation
