Silverbeach, intallation view, National Museum of Nairobi, Kenya Wallpaper, digatal print derived from drawings of collected objects on silverbirch bark
My work explores the narrative behind found or discarded objects. These objects can be shards of wood, pieces of plastic, leather shoes, broken toys. What they have in common is a fragmented history. They were once part of a culture, one which has now discarded them, but they remain part of our environment. There is an analogy between discarded objects and the dislocation that individuals may feel when they are exiled from their place of origin.
Working with a variety of cultural artefacts, the theme of identity provides the connection. Collecting can be a way of exploring identity as well as being a way of addressing past loss and future uncertainty. Collecting introduces meaning, order, boundaries, coherence and reason into what is essentially disparate, confused and threatening. The selection of partcular objects provides a key to exploring one’s inner world by mirroring and self evaluation, ‘you are what you keep’.
I create alternative stories in relation to the artefacts I find. I want to understand their importance for me. In doing so I am often drawn to my own native Indian culture, trying to interpret my present surroundings with distant, yet significant childhood experiences in mind.
Madi Acharya-Baskerville
Oxford
United Kingdom
Europe
