Shraddha
7.83 Hz Bound
Earth is Benevolent. She cradles our sentient experience through senses, mass, material and mutation. Vibrating at the frequency of 7.83 Hz with Love and Innovation, over time immemorial, Once, a ball of fire, setting on a journey to transforms through the Five Elements The winds of time cooled her skin And Earth sprouted life within. She secreted sustenance through, Her acquiescence. Encased within the sky, Akash, heaven, the fifth dimension. Life, she holds everything down to hearth Gravity in Magnitude, Latitude, Longitude and Servitude Transcending processes over and over again Soil, Dust, Fauna, Bricks, Towers, Plastic, Rubber, Waste, Forests, And Humanity She now Bleeds - Agni - Fire as Resurrection Vayu - Wind as Fabric of Time Dharti - Earth as The Mother that Hosts Jal - Water as Sustaining Force of Life and Ether as Technology As a micro and macro symbolic textural exploration of all the elements at play Grounded On And Through Benevolent Mother Earth.
7.83 Hz Bound stands as a collaborative lens-based installation of photography and concept by Shraddha Borawake and ceramics by artist Ruby Jhunjhunwala. The various mediums anchor the mythic façade of sleek imagery to the ground reality of human development through stories in fired clay and the use of mundane objects. This vernacular narrative addresses the ongoing flux of the Anthropocene that is ; Man vs nature, natural vs artifact and nature of the artifact through this examination of the material. Throughout this entwined trilogy of the highly constructed, to naturally occurring and the discarded; a mythical symbollic journey grapples with the role of the five elements in, on and within the planet and our social fabric.
On one hand the planet is contaminated with mass-produced objects ranging from ‘natural’ to ‘toxic’. Yet, the healing vibrations, such as 7.83Hz, sustain the survival of the globe as a planet, hosting inhabitants with generosity. Taking into consideration that all human constructs have originated from basic elements excavated from the planet’s delicate ecosystem. The work suggests a unification of consciousness of all beings and objects, in order to critically engage with the environmental destruction created by man’s need for survival.
Yes, the Earth is exploited for her resources, but simultaneously she exhibits her own force, constantly reclaiming that which was taken from her.
Pulling the context from within my soul. The historic oral narratives of the Five Elements – Panchatattvas was a combination of researching Ancient Ayurvedic Sciences, Mythologies, Translated texts and ingrained knowledge. This act of inserting symbols within the ecology of the content of ‘known’ experiences informed the form of the work itself. Examining the body in relation to the celestial components that make up our entire being. Looking at it through the lens of sustainable development in urban India into its contemporary musings, which lead to a very obvious juxtaposition. I was instantly comparing the transformation of rural practices in modern culture, a fading past, a decaying truth and a sad reality in the face of development. On one hand, India has a rich culture in sustainability seen through the daily practices of using eco-friendly material. For example, the use of cowdung cakes for cooking. The rural chula – traditional stove made with mud and clay, served as a trope to represent dying practices in the more down to earth lifestyle. As well, the holistic approach of micro and macro being directly related, symbiotic and indistinguishable from one another struck has a way forward in terms of materializing itself as a holistic artwork and the dialog it provided.
The vernacular aesthetic of the juxtaposition of the sleek imagery and the cluttered clay forms along with sculptures made with found and discarded objects helped to claim its space in authenticity. It reflects a world seen as Ideal and the one that is neglected. This relates on many levels to life. On one hand we inflict violence upon our bodies as biomass, taking for granted the healing effects of our cells which constantly regenerate as time passes. The dwindling disconnection as bodies as part of the Earth and as a conglomerate of the elements itself. The disassociation of the macrocosmic elements that formed the Earth through the process of the elements and its relevance to the biological make up of our own constitution. Here, the Vedic Mythic past of India plays a strong role in tying back these concepts into the reintegration of our sentient being, grounded and dependent on this planet.
The symbiosis of the same has lent to creating a layercake of insertion of meaning in all the symbols used in the work. The images allude to the anthropomorphic manifestation of Fire, Wind, Earth, Water and Ether. With references of de-colonization, industry, culture, femininity, force and time. While the sculputres reference the anthropocene, the bio-waste, toxicity, material culture and bi-products of consumerism. All of this relates to one another across the expanse of this inter-discliplinary display. Death, life, reclaiming, latitude, gravity of the earth as well as gravity of our destructive actions on this planet. Yet, the name takes it back to the resonance of the planet. I don’t wish to project a catastrophic future, but rather remind the viewer of a sustainable past, the devolution of material over time, the presence of the Earth’s processes and the direct repercussion of our actions. It leaves an open ended question as to what do we do with this information.
This work also reminds us that the Earth has had Her own journey, as she came into being as a ecology. She has hosted us generously as the ‘clever’ life forces that has enabled the moving of mass and matter through the alchemic process of transforming the elements to create new forms of function, use and luxury. Framing ‘nature’ and the environment into a perception circumvented by a selfishness that we all part-take in on a daily basis, that is, protecting our bodies from the sun, wind, fire, water within a stratosphere which silently shrouds the oxygen which sustains life-force within us with every breath.