Installation
Project | 05
Project | 05 Hear Their Cry
This project was my first experience of creating a multimedia installation art piece. Continuing on from my previous work on gender-based violence, I chose this time to focus on women and the Hijra, a recognised third gender on the Indian subcontinent.
Using my mother's saris created a darkened, perfumed room, reminiscent of harems, the installation invites the audience into the dangerous world inhabited by the vulnerable women and Hijra featured.
Sound and light were the dominant media used in the darkened room. I chose monochromatic red LED lights as it associates with a wide range of emotions such as anger, passion, love and lust but also is symbolic of neons of the red-light district in which many of the most vulnerable are forced to work. The sound art was a soundscape interweaving together audio files of interviews featured in docuseries, sourced online and from audiobooks.
Project | 06
Project | 06 Four Seasons
In this project, I worked collaboratively to create an installation piece on the changing seasons in the West of Scotland. My particular contribution was in creating a soundscape with an emotive force in characterising the changing seasons.
The back-and-forth movement of the soundwaves to envoke the sense of constant change in the cyclical nature of the seasons, though with an underlying consistent pulse.
Link to Sound Art: https://soundcloud.com/user-941193737/4-season-in-a-year/s-xXRrMGjG2u3
Project | 07
Project | 07 Transition: My Father's Memory
This intensely personal work was centred around an interview conducted with my father. I spoke with him extensively, about stories I had heard growing up, and asked him to reminisce about his childhood and beyond. The focus of my work was around the changes time brought to his life; from growing up in a close-knit village community, surrounded by peace and a lush tropical landscape, to the chaos and turmoil brought about by the Sri Lankan Civil War, in particular the loss of his two brothers to the violence.
The medium I chose to work with primally was sound, as I felt it best reflected the ‘story-telling’ aspect of the work. I chose to transfer the sound file to a physical, and eventually corruptable CD, with the boombox presented a sculptural piece. The incorporation of my father's portrait (painted a few years prior) in this installation also highlighted the passage of time and threads which bind us.
Project | 08
Project | 08 Intermedia Art Installation-Self-Empowerment through Intermediality and Intersectionality
Historically I believe hyperbole's limited, personal narratives and representation, giving way to a restricted viewpoint resulting in adverse identity politics. My artwork centres on my experience of self-empowerment through intermedia art. In this piece, I have united facets of intermedia art, including sound and visual with human interaction. With influences from artists who have worked with the topic of 'identity' coupled with sound art, I was able to produce work that speaks on both explicit and implicit layers. Ever since I moved to Scotland over 20 years ago, from the war-torn nation of Sri Lanka: I have been fascinated by the ephemeral nature of my cultural identity. I want to push the boundaries of the so-called 'traditional' by connecting and stitching together the disparate. The use of intermedia art reflects the intersections of my own personal identity, as a refugee and disabled woman of colour. I attempt to conceptualise in artistic terminology, what we all must contend with.
With thanks to my friends who took a role in my project, in particular the dancers: Dhuwa and The Way - Youth Group.