Contemporary Folk Tale | 2017
Land Art (Cotton Cloth and Rope)
Size: variable
12th – 19th Feb 2017
Singur, West Bengal, India
The Interplay of stories and visual is what defines the work. There is an investigation between environment, symbols, folk tales, ritual and visual. There is an inquiry into how Scale influences the visual and immersive experience in land art both for the artist and the spectator?
The elements for the work were originally located at the site, which was wrapped with red cloth. The elements include a bridge, a football field in the semi-dried seasonal river, remains of the idols of mythological Hindu Goddess Durga. The headless figure and the pedestal pertain to the symbols and elements of folk tale and myth developed with the indigenous leftover remains from the celebration of the festival by the natives of WB, India. These elements in the environment and locating the connection among them with sight lines in the form of red textile proposed the integration of the visual. Together they complement the visual balance with nature without creating any harm to the original things already present on site.
The choice of red for covering the elements contrasts the visual with the green of nature. The sliced red line is an extension for the intellectual thought and confirms the visual lines that link the elements. Hence, the environment becomes the basis for determining the choice for this land art.
Different elements of nature are used as background including water, a semi-dried path of water and wild vegetation. The ephemeral nature of the work talks about death, decay and the constant motion of time.