Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories: Anti-memorial project bears witness to silenced narratives of the Partition
Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories: Anti-memorial project bears witness to silenced narratives of the Partition
Even after 75 years of one of the worst human tragedies in the world, the memories of the Partition still cause nights of dreaded anxiety in people, it still causes a sense of longing in the hearts of those who left their ancestral homes, lost their family members and a legacy that was their own.
To understand the tragedy and pay homage to the millions of people who were a part of it, Chicago-based Indian artist Pritika Chowdhry has created an “anti-memorial” exhibition, tenth in The Partition Anti-Memorial Project since she started with Queering Mother India in 2007.
In the Partition Anti-Memorial Project, her anti-memorials are quietly provocative, temporary, and incorporate visceral materials and soundscapes. Chowdhry emphasizes that her goal is not to “speak for the women,” and her experiential art installations invite viewers to bear witness, holding space for mourning, remembrance, and repair.
Her latest project, ‘Unbearable Memories, Unspeakable Histories’, at The South Asia Institute in Chicago, alludes to the painful and silenced narratives that have been left out from mainstream discourses of the Partition.
Chowdhry talked to Firstpost through email, discussing her ongoing exhibition, the inspiration behind the Partition Memorial Project and her journey since 2007 as an artist and an individual.
Excerpts from the interview:
To consistently create art on a single theme for over 15 years cannot be without a lasting impact on the creator, that too about one of the most emotionally and physically violent events of the 20th century. Who was the Pritika that started the anti-memorial project in 2007, what drove her in the first place and where has this journey taken you as an artist and an individual?
Great question! What brought me to the Partition was 9/11 in 2001 and the Gujarat riots in 2002. That’s when I started asking my mother about the Partition.
I started actively researching the history of the Hindu-Muslim communal riots in India, which of course led me very quickly to the 1947 Partition. By the time I made my first art project about the Partition in 2007 titled Queering Mother India, I had a much better understanding of my own family history of the Partition. Over the years, I have learnt how entrenched the Partition is in the day-to-day politics and lived experience of the Indian subcontinent.
I made What the Body Remembers in 2008, and Silent Waters in 2009, which dealt with the gendered experience of the Partition. Shortly thereafter, I made Remembering the Crooked Line which looks at maps and cartography as technologies of partitions of the 20th century, and included other countries that were partitioned. My projects in the Partition Anti-Memorial Project have now explored themes such as monuments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh, the English language as a tool of colonization, the 1971 war and its many ramifications, the Jallianwala Bagh Massacre and the year 1919 in world history, and a deep dive into the the creation of the Radcliffe Line.
So, as an artist, my art practice has broadened not only my understanding of the Partition, but also of world history and current events. I have particularly honed in on the transnational connections between geopolitical events in different countries, in my art projects.
As an individual, my art practice has had a profound effect on me. In researching and making art to memorialize such violent events, I have learnt to channelize my personal outrage into gestures of repair, which is how I think of my art projects.
Also read: Prime Minister Narendra Modi pays homage to people who lost lives during partition
Going through the images of your latest project, you work with several different media at the same time. Is there any significance or relevance of what you choose as a medium and material for a specific artwork?
Yes, I am very thoughtful about the materials I choose for a particular project. The Partition Anti-Memorial Project comprises ten different projects and each one of them is made of a different material.
As an example, in Broken Column, I use latex and silicone to make casts of small sections of significant monuments in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh. I chose latex and silicone for their skin-like qualities. The casts in this project are translucent when backlit, and have a fragile tactility to them that conveys to the viewer these panels are like the skin of the monument. The latex captures every last detail of the wall, ornament, door, or text, every speck of dirt, every last tobacco stain. It is like taking a handprint of the monument in a very corporeal fashion.
As another example, in Memory Leaks, I used authentic copper dharapatras and havankunds that are used in Hindu temples to drip milk and water on deities and to make the holy fire. And then I etched the name and year of a communal riot on each dharapatra and placed partially burnt pieces of Urdu newspapers and books in the havankunds.
It is this concept of material referentiality in visual arts which basically means that every material that is incorporated into an artwork brings its own history, symbolism, and cultural specificity into the artwork, so it should be conceptually aligned with the objective of the artwork.
Could you tell me a little bit about a few of the artworks, the thought behind them and how they came about?
Sure, let me tell you a bit about Silent Waters: The Uncounted anti-memorial.
Silent Waters is an art installation of 101 larger-than-life-scale ceramic feet glazed black inside and out. The feet are filled with salt water which adds a durational element to the installation. The water often leaks out of the ceramic feet onto the gallery floor, and the water also evaporates over the course of the exhibition, leaving behind a crystalline residue of the salt inside and outside the feet.
The feet represent the caravans of people walking across the new border in 1947. This installation is an anti-memorial that acknowledges and memorialises the biggest migration in the history of the world – the population exchange of the Partition of India in 1947.
The thought behind it is that water has a ritualistic and ceremonial role in the funerary rites of Hindu, Muslim, Bengali, and Sikh communities. Therefore, in this installation, I gesture towards the presence and role of water with a minimalist sound installation that comprises the sounds of rain, running feet, and a body falling into water, and the soundscape plays in a loop.
Over the last 15 years and 10 projects, what is the fondest memory that remains with you? Also, what is your one creation closest to your heart?
Each project has possessed me fully when I was making it, and it would be really hard to pick one favorite! In terms of the fondest memory, I guess the travel to Dhaka and Lahore for the Broken Column project to make casts of the monuments there. It was an amazing experience because they feel just like Delhi and Kolkata, and it is kind of surreal that these cities are so similar to cities in India. I will always cherish the friendships and camaraderie of the artists and ordinary people I met in Lahore and Dhaka. They were so kind, hospitable, curious, accepting, and at the end of the day, familiar! It made my faith only stronger that the people of South Asia are one people in spirit, even though divided artificially by borders.
The subject of your artworks remains one of the most tragic chapters in the lives of a great number of people in India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. How is it generally received by visitors at your exhibitions, what sort of emotions do your exhibitions evoke in people?
The politics in our three countries are quite polarised and communalised by politicians that have their own agendas. And the Partition is such a big event, with a complex history, and so much bloodshed, that most people just get disengaged, or overwhelmed by it. It is hard for the human heart to comprehend such violence, and I get it.
So, what I try to do in my exhibitions is to educate, engage, and generate empathy in the visitors. Several of my works also invite audience participation, like in Memory Leaks, I invite viewers to just pour some water through a dharapatra or two. In Remembering the Crooked Line, I invite viewers to sit down and play a game of chess or parchisi. And many do! And even if they don’t, I talk to them and I find that the conversation itself opens a door to a new understanding, of the traumatic event of the Partition, and also how we may repair and heal that trauma over time.
Do you plan to bring any of your projects to India? What are your plans for the future?
I would love to! I was able to show a small part of the Partition Anti-Memorial Project in Delhi and Lahore a few years ago. But I hope to bring the whole project to India soon. There are logistical challenges to shipping sculptural installations, but I hope to partner with like-minded institutions, and exhibit all ten anti-memorials in India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh.
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