Arpita Akhanda

Body of water ( I & II )
2021
Photo-performance and maps of rivers,
Paper weaving on archival print on Hahnemuhle Photo Rag archival paper
16.5 X 12 inches each approx.
Part of শরীর | Körper: The memory collector, Kunstrum, Aarau, Switzerland.
Photographed by Nathanael Gautschi



Body of water is a series of photo-performance and paper weavings developed from a poem I wrote during my regular visit to the river Aare at Aarau, Switzerland as a resident artist.
It attempts to generate a relationship between recreated characters from past/memory and the water bodies these characters had to cross in search of the home, inspired from my family history of transit during and post-partition and my own experiences of migration and exploring the unknown city in an unknown country through river/water body. I am born in a city of rivers, I live in a city of rivers and my family crossed cities of rivers in search of a home. I got very attached to the river Aare during the four months of residency, I felt as if that was the only place I found a connection with the foreign land.
Here I tried to weave the biological, historical, mythological, and physiological bond between water and body. This work travels between the idea of the water body as a carrier of both migration flow and settlement.
Photographed by Nathanael Gautschi