Lakeer by Shruti Mahajan is a short, extremely visual video that demonstrates the partition of a country in three simple steps, drawing, making and dividing. Lakeer is a line or a boarder, using India as an example she shows how the partition occurred in India and created the “lakeers” This short film has taken inspiration and interacts with the poem Ae Roshnion ke Shahar by Faiz Ahmed Faiz.

Using no spoken words, through this film the artist tries to explain what happens to a country during a partition in a two-dimensional way i.e on paper. She shows how politicians use maps to divide areas that are then conceptually mimicked in reality. They draw boarders that don’t actually exist and try separating places through manmade objects to create boundaries, which in turn becomes a conceptual limit in reality.

The first step is “drawing” where she draws new lines over the maps changing existing boundaries. Therefore just by drawing lines over a map the geography of a country changes at a global scale.

The second step is “making”. This word is taken literally in the video where S. Mahajan is shown cutting out fences like boundaries, which, is symbolic to how men create the actual boundaries at boarders with some kind of fencing or in the case of Indian, and Kashmir, barbed wires. These boundaries that are so easily just cut out to put on maps but the real equivalent would have colossal implications. These notions are made absolute by lawmakers.

The final step is “dividing” which is portrayed in the video by a haphazard cutting of the Indian map. This shows the destructive quality of partitions and how such tiny actions could have such tremendous implications, dividing an entire nation. This divide then creates conflict and within countries and people, giving rise a divide, not only geographically but culturally.

This video according to me was simple and accurate. It displays the process of partition in a very mechanical way making it easy for a viewer to understand it and draw appropriate conclusions.

The Poetics Of Space by Gaston Bachelard is a philosophical study of inhabited spaces. This book is filled with metaphors and imagery of an intimate place, such as a house. He uses the house as that is what hold the memories and experiences of living. He uses this concept, relating it to various other illustrations to explain, “All really inhabited space bears the essence of the notion of home”. Each chapter in the book is titled as per the exact subject matter.

Nests

(noun: nest; plural noun: nestsa structure or place made or chosen by a bird for laying eggs and sheltering its young.)

In the chapter Nests, Gaston Bachelard talks about shelter as a primal instinct. It says when a human find shelter, he or she feels protected, just as a bird makes his net to shelter their young ones.

He used the example of a snail crawling into his shell as a comparison to humans having homes. Just as a snail fins comfort in retracting back into his shell, humans too withdraw themselves from time to time and retract back into their shell, i.e. the corner of their houses to find serenity.

Vlaminck, a painter says “The well-being I feel, seated in front of my fire, while bad weather rages out-of-doors, is entirely animal. A rat in its hole, a rabbit in its burrow, cows in the stable, must all feel the same contentment that I feel.”

He the goes on to talk about how “marvelous” the nest really are, “The enterprise and skill with which ani­ mals make their nests is so efficient that it is not possible to do better, so entirely do they surpass all masons, carpenters and builders; for there is not a man who would be able to make a house better suited to himself and to his children than these little animals build for themselves. This is so true, in fact, that we have a proverb according to which men can do everything except build a bird’s nest.” He also says that even though the nest are invisible from above it is the best hiding palce for the “winged creatures”

Gaston Bachelard then recalls a story form the Journals of Henry David Thoreau, March 17, 1858 that talks about green woodpecker that took an entire tree for its home. He compares this taking possession with the joy of a family that returns to live in a house it had long since abandoned. The woodpecker’s confidence in the shelter of the tree in which it has hidden its nest, represents taking possession of a home.

Gaston then associates a nest to a simple house, the images of both seem to evoke the sense of simplicity.

What he strats talking about next it “bird architecture”, as Jules Michelet says that a bird is a worker without tools. Michelet says “a bird’s tool is its own body, that is, its breast, with which it presses and tightens its materials until they have become absolutely pliant, well-blended and adapted to the general plan”. He talks about there being an intimate quality of a house built for the body by the body, just like a shell.

Mary Louise Pratt, in Arts of the Contact Zone uses this term to refer to social places where cultures meet, clash and grapple with each other, often in context of highly asymmetrical relations of power.

Contest itself means to engage in competition to attain power, therefore contested spaces are disputed spaces. To put it in simple terms I see contested spaces as an area where there is a persistent struggle over, with two parties or more to simply gain power. Spaces however become contested spaces when there are limitations put on them, limitations in such a way that affect its inhabitants or the people in and around it physically and mentally. Physically meaning that they are probably removed entirely from the space or are constantly harrowed by the dispute because of the third party. Because of the creation of dispute, sometimes public spaces become contested spaces and no more remain open to everyone.

A prime example of this can be the situation in Kashmir where there is a constant power battle between India and Pakistan as to who’s country it rightfully belongs in. coming back to Mary Louise Pratts explanation, the situation in Kashmir, a special place where there is an Indian and Pakistani culture clash all in order to gain power.

Contested spaces are seen a lot in terms of real estate as these spaces primarily revolve around land ownership. It’s not always on large scale like the Kashmir situation but can happen on a reoccurring basis for example when families dispute over who own the bigger share of land.

Dialing it down even more, contested spaces almost always occur between siblings as to which side of the study table belongs to who.

Performance art is essentially a performance presented to an audience with a fine are context but can also be interdisciplinary. A performance can be scripted or orchestrated or even spontaneous.

Performance art has had a role in avant-garde art throughout the 20th century, having essential roles in dadism and futurism. The main purpose of performance art is to challenge the traditional conventions of “art”. Most performance artists use their body to a great extent in performances.

Performance art is not bound by time but has to have an audience to which it is directed, without the presence of an audience it simply becomes a piece of art or a performance. For instance Nikhil Chopra, a Performance artist, documented himself creating art on the street, what made it a performance art was the audience that looked at him and had an interaction with his space while he created his sketch.

Nikhil Chopra is an artist that completely immerses himself in his act. Its almost always pre planned but not all of his performances are scripted. His character in the performance is extremely important and is not afraid to express his creativity in anyways going to the extent of being extremely comfortable stripping down in front of a camera or even an audience who has come to view during a performance.

The entire collection is based on a depiction of historic places of Sri Lanka, and what they were used for though maps. The artist has moved away form generic ways of map making and has moved towards a more aesthetic approach moving towards a kind of an illustration. Using the example of the Illustration of the Galle Fort, one can easily tell the space in which it was located because of the illustrations around the map. It was clearly a busy port used for trade because of the depiction of a multiple ships on the sandy shore, with the sea close by. The ships or boats also have different flags, showing that the port was used to trade with number of different countries. There is a compass on the top left corner, which is a nautical symbols, re enforcing the concept of sea travel.

When depth is added to a two-dimensional object “Space” is created, it is what encompasses everything around us. Space can be looked at through a number of lenses, physical, psychological, objective.

Space plays an important role in a painting or an artwork. It helps the viewer get a clearer picture about what is actually happening along with it surroundings, though its dimensionality.

I saw this painting on social media from the Hammer Museum in LA, although I don’t know its name or the artist, this painting intrigued me. It has so much detail that it instantly gives you information about the people in its and the surroundings. It game me the impression of an English society at some kind of a match or a derby, sitting on the bleachers. The spectrum of people in the society is also captured through the painting showing that all of them are from the same social strata because of their clothes and how integrated each of them are with each other. Even though the painting literally has only humans you can easily tell so much about the space they’re in.

One would think without 3D rendering in paining, gauging the space or the surroundings would not be possible. However, when there isn’t dimensionality in the paining, what exemplifies its space and surroundings are the protagonist or elements. For example, miniature paintings don’t really have rendering but we still understand the its space though the clothing, colors and paining style.

Chola Bronze 

The Cholas were one of the longest ruling dynasties in the history of southern India form; they came into power in the late 9^th century and stayed in power until the late 13^th century. During this period art, literature and religion flourished. The Cholas were Hinduism believers and the rise of other religions didn’t shake their faith.

The Cholas were greatly known for their bronze sculptures. These sculptures were created so that they could be carried out of the temples and used daily in temple festivities and rituals. On many of these statues holes were found on the base, which were said to be used to carry them during the rituals. The sculptures would be heavily decorated with jewelry.

The Bronze sculpture I chose was the Shiva Nataraja, which can be found in The British Museum. It is also called “Dancing Shiva in a ring of fire”

Hindus believe Shiva appears in this form at the end of the cosmic cycle and in the beginning of the next one and therefore associated with creation and destruction. Through the pose he seems to be peaceful yet in his dance pose yet in a ring of fire symbolizing destruction. Shiva is most likely preforming the tandava in this sculpture, his dance style. The figure seems to have a rather expressionless face, probably trying to strike a balance between the creative and destructive nature.

It’s said that in his wild hair that extends towards the sides during his dance, rests the goddess Ganga. Which is a personification of the holy river that was said to have streamed out of his hair showing him in the form of a creator. Along with the Ganga there are crescent moons in his hair, which as associated with his wild nature therefore his destructive form.

He also tramples over the Hindu mythological creature “Apasmara”, the dwarf of ignorance.

Ritualistic Dance 

In Hindu mythology Lord Shiva is said to maintain the cosmic cycle, of creation, preservation and dissolution. Tandava is lord Shiva’s sacred dance that fuels this cosmic cycle. While dancing this vigorous dance form he is called Nataraj, the Dancing God. Tandava depicts Nataraj’s violent nature as the destroyer of the universe. Along with symbolizing creation and destruction, the Tandava also shows the daily rhythm of birth and death. Some beilive that there are seven types of Tandavs, each performed with different emotions. Andnda Tandava depicts him enjoying, Rudra Tandava depicts his violent nature. However these are the main forms of the Tandava, the others include, Tripura Tandava, Sandhya Tandava, Samara Tandava, Kaali Tandava, Uma Tandava and Gauri Tandava.

The Tandava is the sacred dance- dram of southern India, performed to appease Lord Shiva and recognize the cosmic cycle. The Tandava has energetic and sharp movements making it an extremely hard dance to perform. Tandava is performed by Lord Shiva and in response to his vigorous dance, Parvati, his wife preforms the Lasya. Lasya is just the opposite of Tandava, with gentle and graceful movements. Its also sometimes called the feminine version of Tandava.