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Creation Date
2011
Description
Water Conversations: Water Bodies and Spirits India 2011
Buddha Enlightened 2-be International Artist project. Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India. Curated by Sanjeev Sinha, New Delhi and Diane Hagen, Amsterdam. 2011.
Participation in this event was funded by the Arts Council of Ireland & Dublin Institute of Technology.
In Bodh Gaya, Bihar, India a spiritual site for the global Buddhist community, Water Conversations seeks to discover some of the commonalities of how water is viewed spiritually as a symbol and metaphor for purity.
‘Water Bodies and Spirits’ is a wooden sculpture constructed on a pulling rickshaw to form a mobile grotto for water. Located in a variety of locations around the pilgrimage town of Bodh Gaya members of the public are engaged in conversations about the meaning and ritual practices surrounding water. A solar powered jet of water dances within the structure inviting passers by to engage.
Embedded within this exchange are questions of individual responsibility towards water, a precious substance with a finite future.
Many thanks to student assistants and translaters: Jaya Saxena, Ajit Kumar Singh, Mumba Raju, Akhilesh Gaur, Mohit Kant Mishra.
‘Water Bodies and Spirits’ is an edition of WATER CONVERSATIONS, a long-term visual art research project that initiates local discussions, interviews, and exchanges on the politics, traditions and practices surrounding water use in a variety of global regions. Articulated as a series of actions, small sculptures, posters, drawings, public interventions and site specific works the project explores the complex interstices between landscape, science and technology, culture and geopolitics.
Image credit: Anna Macleod
For more images and information please see www.annamacleod.com
Rights
Image: Anna Macleod
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 License
Keywords
Site specific, visual art project, discursive art work, sculpture, installation, environmental practice.