the proposal

Where I come from
The culture of nature has been inculcated into most Indians since the very beginning. Respecting nature comes through daily practices like watering the basil (tulsi) plant or worshipping the peepal and the banyan tree. Hindu religious rituals encompass the medicinal and the metaphorical usage of plants, parts of trees including the roots. When nature does not get utilized in its natural form, there are ways in which it will still be included in daily practices and special occasions. In Mithila, a north eastern town of India, 'the lotus flower' is painted with other motifs like the banana leaves, mango leaves etc. in the wedding room to bless the newly married couple with physical desire, fertility and prosperity.
On the occasion Dassera (Hindu festival celebrating the defeat of Ravana by Rama, also a festival symbolizing wealth and) the leaves of a certain tree are exchanged to symbolize exchange of gold.
The rituals are plenty and so are stories behind them.
Respect and compassion for nature has always been demanded with the basic idea that the provider must be taken care of. As a child one is told not to pluck flowers or leaves because it is time for the plants to sleep. Children’s stories talk about the crying trees when the green branches are cut and the same trees offering their dry branches on their own.
These stories may seem bizarre to some but it is the culture I come from. Everyday there seems to be a struggle to keep one’s association with this culture alive. Nature being left to the whim and fancy of the thinking animal is no longer a natural surrounding. From square watermelons and tomatoes for storage convenience to carefully choreographed uprooting and rooting of trees, ground, and mud to manipulating the amount of sky we are allowed to see.

How will the residency benefit me?
As an artist and a member of the global society my concerns have been around the repetition of ideologies, beliefs, behaviour, values and culture that a generation passes to the other.
The idea of progress intrigues me on a day to day basis; when people ask, “so what are you doing these days?” A simple answer like “reading”, traveling, drawing, seldom satisfies anyone. This constant interrogation propagates a very false idea of progress. It really compels me to evaluate my idea of progress, success and growth, three words which has taken an overpowering charge over our thinking process.
We hug to ourselves the idea of progress. We like to think that we shall achieve a better state, become more merciful, peaceful and virtuous. We love to cling to this illusion without being aware that this is becoming a pretense, a satisfying myth. We love to think that someday we shall be better, but in the meantime we carry on. Progress is such a comforting word, so reassuring, a word with which we hypnotize ourselves.
At the Fermynwoods residency, I want to respond to the aspects of this persisting notion and greed for progress. I would like to use the time at the residency to contemplate on potential aspects of progress and growth e.g. waiting, observing the slowest movement and pure physical experience.
The former projects that I have come across on the Fermynwoods Gallery have inspired me further. I saw projects that enriched my experience and also set a challenge for high quality work.

Realtime work at Fermynwoods
Human interference has always been defended in the name of development (again a term not much thought about fundamentally) at times to much extreme.
As part of my project ‘I’ become the interference, an intrusive element. Here I do so to present to my audience my existence and experience through an instinctive treading of the space. If I come across something that speaks where it comes from and also bridges my culture with it, I will collect it. This will become my bank of objects. There will be occasions where I will dislocate what I have found. These found objects will build a certain vocabulary, pattern and will also serve the purpose of memories. In the act of doing so I also leave my memory in that place.
While doing the above mentioned acts of dislocation and memory building I would either follow a pre-decided path or discover a new one. Either ways the path becomes important. While following this path I want to use the camera strapped to my back to record what I will be leaving behind. Thus the memory of what I am heading towards is etched on my observation and the camera witnesses what I am leaving behind.
With observation and intuition I intend to do a series of experiments with:
Camera with audio and video facilities to my advantage
Moving around on my own in the woods
Grasping and adapting to the nature of my surroundings
Drawings, sculptures and collectibles
These experiments will take shape within a structured and stylized grammar which will help me put forth the rhythm of my experience.

How will I enrich the Residency program?
Coming from a country with diverse culture and behaviour I bring along with me a unique blend of skills and stories. I believe I will have much to offer from my references from nature, culture and questions like wise. I would be able to decipher new meanings from the space, the spaces temperament and beahviour. This would add to the existing collective data and experience of Fermynwoods Gallery.

I thus look at this residency as an opportunity for an intensive cultural exchange on a subject that is dear and of great concern. As the world goes global, we strive to keep our identities vibrating and I look at this residency as an opportunity to take this vibration across.

Vidha Saumya
01.08.09