Interviews-23-2-17
SHRADDHA BORAWAKE INTERVIEW Interview : Shraddha Borawake What are you making?
I am working on creating a multi-sensory experience of incorporation knowledge of ancient sciences through the use of natural materials, living objects, found and discarded material as well as highly communicative elements like gems and crystals.
The show will consist of ten cubicles that are light tight. They are 5 x 5 meters in width. One has to enter the gallery space without their shoes. The floor also will offer sensory feelings. Such as sand, pebbles and other textures that massage the souls of the feet.
Each cubicle will have dynamic, kinetic displays of islands of healing and cosmic dwellings, which are created through the study of astrology, Ayurveda, New age healing methodologies and embodied knowledge.
The various cubicles will have sound, moisture, smell dispensers and light and shadow play in addition to the kinetic movement to continually provide a multi-dimensional experience.
The lighting outside the cubicles in the general gallery space will also be highly controlled as large photographs printed on silver foil will have projectors on them, thus creating an additional striations of affect, for those who are afraid of entering the cubicles.
At the entrance of the gallery, there will be a shoe rack to keep your shoes, as well an indemnity form, which confirms that the effect of viewing the exhibition is not the responsibility of the artist or gallery, and to enter with Consciousness – as well as an open mind to make peace with your own emotions and the collective anomaly that is humanity and its problems. How Are you Responding to the Place ?
The whole point of creating this interplay of light and shadow is creating a cosmic experience, in the quest of the fact that we are light warriors. I mean, we as humans are constantly struggling to overcome our barriers. In todays day and age, we are also at a point where this over-coming is highly internal as well as over-bearingly pertaining to the collectivity as humanity. We are fighting wrong with right, yet, secretly, those ideals may or may not be fully truthful inside. Such are the demons that show forms in all ways.
Therefore, I want to strongly share the wisdom of my culture, which has been engaged with the dialog of being cosmic, tying human existence, needs, drive, expression and purpose of existence to the the elements of life-force. It sheds light on HOW it is larger than us as a macrocosm, and yet very much reflects in the micro-inside of us!
Thus, I want to record the interactions with people inside the dark booths, indoors, and project these works on the shutters of the mall outside at night. Somewhere, I think I am a die hard peace-maker and UNITER as an artist. My soul burns inside the container called body to share and express my own experiences and learnings. I am constantly facing the flux of being an ethereal being and a grounded natural girl, a child of mother nature.
These projections will not only satiate the need for the expression of the same, but also in someway give the people of the town outside, at night to re look at these ‘islands’ of ‘healing’ that I will be creating inside. Thereby unifying the museum going crowd and the ones who don’t have time or priorities this need for ‘aesthetic’ experience. Thereby making the work inclusive.
What Exactly is the Work?
Its very simple, I am looking for soul in everything that already exists on this planet. Like, gems and crystals, they are our friends. If we allow them to share their vibrations, they help you unlock our chakras. There are certain grains and lentils that are connected to certain planets as well. Basically with the knowledge and proper use of these elements, upon studying our own constitution, we can communicate with out devices with the energies of bodies beyond our physical sight.
This is just the beinging, and I use my own body as an experiments to share the above.
How does this work?
The work will offer the transference of this very specific knowledge through the energy it emanates and its vibrations. Also, many hands have been a part of it. The students from the art school, who have been spending time with the gems, the various invited artists who have created special objects for some of the dioramas, the technicians who are helping build the exhibition in the space. Everyone is involved, everyones energy is contributing to a silent language. We are all healing together in the quest of the work. Its all about making it an enjoyable experience. We start with our selves first.
The things we hear in whispers and not the screaming explanations which are still limited by the ultimate author who wrote the Book, and endorsed the Word. Its all about raising awareness and acting with consciousness, and then the rest of the divine work will be done by the gems. And the touchy feely intimate interactions that are the forgotten mediums of contemporary art.
Why
There is no mystery why I have chosen to be an Indian artist, slightly outsider, slightly weird, slightly solitary and highly spiritual. I am here to just be a channel of sharing a possibility of peace with starts with the self. And with art, firstly, I myself am healing, the pain of my past karmas, the un-fullfilled wishes of my ancestors, the outcomes of new gained experiences and their effects on my mind/body/soul and finally my position in the collective sentient experience that is today. Art is the ultimate healer, because it employs creativity, criticality and new possiblities. The more I look at it from this humble way, the more I am convinced that todays creativity is going to aid for entire humanity to rise one day. So starting with the self, we all move forward to a better future with our positivity. This is what the crystals have taught me. Dolphins have the same effect too.