Arpita Akhanda

A walk over senses
Installation
Variable
2017







I was deeply effected by an article where a kashmiri widow who when asked about why she had a bullet in her jewellery box replied- the bullet which pierced my husband’s chest, is responsible for his death but its the last thing to touch him. This bullet is my only jewellery.
​
This statement (thought I cannot find out the source now) made me realize the reality of the other side of the world where we co-exist. This statement changed my understating of love and loss.
​
A Walk over Senses, was my response to this realization which dealt with the five senses and politics around it.
​
I invited viewers to walk over and consequently grind to dust a Kaleen or carpet made of clay molds of five sensory organs. This work evokes a sense of loss inside the viewers interacting with the piece. As they walk over the clay organs, turning them into dust they question themself of being responsible for breaking the organs to reach the other side of the carpet to see the jewellery box holding casts of used bullets.
The viewers could also take an emboss print of a bullet stamped with Amir Khusrau’s immortal couplet on Kashmir ‘if there is Paradise on Earth somewhere, it’s here, it’s here, it’s here’ as a token to remember the violence they performed on my piece.