the bridge

the bridge

2017

video installation

white cotton saree, transcribed dreams handwritten with pencil, video of menstrual blood (loop, single channel, no sound)

D301, CalArts

The Bridge projects the video of menstrual blood on the white cotton saree with text, hung on the wall. The text documents two of my dreams. In one of these dreams, the protagonist returns home to find their family leave for the city as a ‘company’ decides to build a dam across the stream in the mountains right before a village, so the entire village vacates due to lack of water. In the other dream, despite the protagonist escaping the office of the power, they find themselves walking on the endless, directionless, sun-less barren land of salt and oil alongside burnt naked bodies—burnt by directly being exposed to salt and oil. White saree that most often symbolizes death holds these texts, while the video shows the artist’s menstrual blood being washed away—menstrual blood is used as a metaphor to the ability of a woman to give birth. The text is written from left to right, hence the movement of the reader starts from the left, moves through the projected video replacing his shadow on the space and ends on the right. They continue this movement from left to the right, crossing the bridge of words and sentences through the projection of flushed out menstrual blood until they finish reading the text.