The River / The Land / Histories
The River, 2014
During one of the initial investigative trips in 2014, to the Sacred Forest of Nallur, outside of Bangalore, we happened to meet an elder swamy, sitting under an old tree near the temple. He was the human guardian of this place, attending to the ecology of the forest. Looking at our collective member Shamala, he remembered 'Gangamma" the presiding deity with whom he once took a spiritual stroll in the jungle. "She's just like you,” he said with an ease and lightness, as though the human resemblance was just a natural way to ignite the myths and stories that helped to keep the forests and its ecology alive. It also seemed natural then, for the goddesses red face to begin to surface in our thinking and experiences in India. (From our book 3rd Space Vol. 1 The distance From Me to You, 2015.) This image was created in collaboration with regional theater design and makeup artist Ramkrishna Beltur, from Ravindra Kalakshetra State Theater, Bangalore, who worked with our Collective to explore alternate identities while in residence in Bangalore, January 2014.
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