TIE(D)

TIE(S)

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Burnt coir, wire

12ft x 3ft x 3ft

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Residency, Kashi Art Gallery

Fort Kochi

2018

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The artist explores the narrative of identity, culture and belonging using coir, a ubiquitous and versatile material that abounds in Kerala. The coir is intrinsically linked to the history of the state - traditionally, socially and politically.

 

Multiple coir ropes are suspended and hung, contouring the map of Kerala (seen from the bottom). The coir has metaphorically knotted itself and hangs charred and worn out, emphasizing the tangled historical journey of the material within the state. The coir that suspends and holds together the installation, is in its original colour and form, highlighting the strength of the knot that ties the material to its socio-political boundary. Tied within these knots are also recurrent enquiries of mankind linked to ancestry, mortality, displacement and survival.

 

The coir oscillates between object and subject, different orientations evoking the existential polyvalence tied to the material and humanity. The installation traverses the lines between metaphor, reality and illusion, rendering space-time theories connected to the memory and history of a place.