DPOTY 2021 Student Category Winner - Aishwarya Arumbakkam 'ka Dingiei'

ka Dingiei is a story about Human Environment conflict and Indigenous issues. When a community loses land, there is a visible loss of property and livelihood. However, there are deeper, intangible losses, the loss of culture, mythology, and identity that are arguably more valuable.

Using photographs, bookmaking and installation, ka Dingiei allegorically explores repercussions of land loss in the region of Lama Punji, a Khasi village situated at the border of India and Bangladesh.

Supported by the Umrao Singh Sher-Gil Grant for Photography 2019, SSAF

www.aishwarya-arumbakkam.com

ka Dingiei is a story about Human Environment conflict and Indigenous issues. When a community loses land, there is visible loss of property and livelihood. But there are deeper, intangible losses, the loss of culture, mythology, and identity that are arguably more valuable.

I visited Lama Punji in 2015 during a residency at Pathshala South Asian Media Institute in Dhaka, Bangladesh. My interest in storytelling and mythology made me curious about oral histories in the region. At the same time, the severe impact of environmental destruction in Lama Punji was unavoidable. I started pulling on these threads and this became the ka Dingiei project that these images are taken from. Through the work, I hope viewers can travel through this allegorical exploration of the repercussions of land loss in the Lama Punji region.

While working on ka Dingiei I have to constantly question biases embedded within me of my understanding of photography, of what it means to be an author, a collaborator, and an outsider. Staying true to a central core, which is Lama Punji, has been an important and necessary challenge to the work.

I’m a multidisciplinary artist working with photography, filmmaking and drawing to create narrative installations and artist books. Produced in grayscale, my prints, drawings, publications and projections are patient and intimate, slowly revealing mythical and political subtexts. Relationships and tensions between lens-based storytelling and documentary are integral to my practice. In my research, systematic collecting and image-making, I collaborate long-term with the communities around whom my work is centred. Through subversive storytelling, I attempt to contribute to an alternate collective narrative that unravels sociocultural complexities through personal experience.

I usually work on multiple projects at the same time. I also work on projects for a long time. It takes time for me to understand what the work is trying to tell me. I experiment, let it sit, think and try again. Practical aspects also necessitate that I take breaks within a project. During this time, I might not be shooting, but it’s there somewhere in the studio. It’s also most likely that I’m shooting or making something else. Stepping away and stepping closer, and the passage of time are important to my practice.