THE SINDHU PROJECT: ENIGMA OF ROOTS
2020 - 2021
The Sindhu Project is a collaborative initiative with Gunjan Kumar, an American-based artist from India. Through the project we share responses to our explorations of archaeological sites and artifacts in the Sindhu (Indus) watershed, a geographical region stretching across northwest India and much of Pakistan. Through parallel journeys involving familial roots, Kumar and I bring contemporary art-making into dialogue with excavated forms that reimagine this ancient landscape.
I focus my investigation on Dharmarajika and the surrounding area, part of the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Taxila in Pakistan. Once the largest Buddhist establishment in the fertile Taxila valley, Dharmarajika dates to the second century BCE, when Taxila was a prosperous urban center on a branch of the Silk Road. My work for The Sindhu Project engages with the plans and architectural drawings of the excavated site as well as ancient decorative patterns still prevalent in the region. I transfigure the stupa and monastic complex of Dharmarajika as part of my ongoing inquiry into place, cultural legacy and identity. Taxila also holds personal significance for me: my mother lived nearby as a child.
The project includes five series of works with multiple components. The modular structure makes it possible to partition the works for simultaneous exhibition in Pakistan and India after the exhibition’s debut in Chicago.
I. اِک نقطے وچ گل مکدی ہے / At this one point, all talk ends.
II. اس دا هى دو جگ اطهه سايا / His shadow is on both worlds
III. چھاپ Chhaap
IV. Taxila series {After Dharmarajhika, After Jandial, After Sirkap, After Jaulian, After Mohra
Murado}
V. Ravi
I. اِک نقطے وچ گل مکدی ہے / At this one point, all talk ends.
2021
Laser cut and engraved clear acrylic
41' x 36' (height variable)
This large installation is inspired by the monasteries surrounding the large stupa at the Dharmarajika site in Taxila. I render the circular stupa form using etched clear acrylic disks, suspended from the ceiling in a composition of multiple horizontal sheets. The larger installation refers to the plan of the excavated monastery that encloses the stupa. My process of laser-cutting and etching mimics archaeology’s subtractive methods of surveying, excavating and screening, while the act of etching resembles carving in stone. I extend this rapport through my use of intaglio molds for castings of floor plans and rubbings of etched acrylic pieces in other Sindhu Project works.
II. اس دا هى دو جگ اطهه سايا / His Shadow Is On Both Worlds
2020
Laser cut and engraved clear acrylic
156" x 42" x 21"
This vertical installation is inspired by the votive stupa found at one of the sites in Taxila. Directly borrowing the stupa’s dimensions, the laser etched patterns on the contemporary medium of clear acrylic draw on geometric and organic decorative elements extending from the second century CE to the present day.
III. چھاپ Chhaap
2021
Ink on paper
Approximately 36" x 19.5" (Each drawing)
Using traditional ink rubbing methods employed by archeologists and art historians, I record the patterns found on objects excavated in Taxila. These patterns are also used in His Shadow Is On Both Worlds.
V. Ravi
2021
Video installation (on loop)