This project assembles anecdotal and rebellious ruptures in the everyday, circadian meta-cultural actions, and excavations from archives that are active sites which reiterate their agency in the contemporary. In this project, the process lends itself to portray symbiosis and dialoguing among communities, ecological actors, the petrochemical-industrial-capitalist complex, and transcendent co-existences.
The complicated entanglement between colonial extraction and apathy, and neo-colonial circuits that perpetuate ecological ruin of an erstwhile lush region that encompasses the Dihing Patkai Rainforest and Soraipung village, has entrenched itself into the quotidian experiences and rhythms of human and more than human existences that are the originary inhabitants of the land. Amidst unspeakable tolls on mortality and well-being, there are fleeting instances of reparative escape synthesised into the tangible affects of operative violence that offer themselves to us when we turn our attention skywards, to the congregating birds whose calls will no longer remain if historical oppression of the land and its inhabitants continues into futurity.
Counter Map of the Soraipung area based on maps released by the Divisional Forest Office
The soundscape along with the counter map forms the core of the project. The counter-map, based on the drawings released by the District Forest Office and long walks with the collaborators, highlights interactions of the villagers with the forest and the industrial complex seated deep in the forest, along with human and non-human intersections. The soundscape comprises of field-recordings from four instances highlighted in the map:
- Bijoy, a native of Soraipung, works as a migratory-bird tracker and birding guide teaches his daughter about identifying different bird-calls, listening techniques and tracking tips.
- Field recordings from an active oil-rig functioning in the middle of the rainforest.
- Ambient sound recordings from various sections of the the rainforest.
- A group of villagers from Soraipung, who raid active oil-rigs operated by the Indian Oil Corportaion deep in the forest, for compressed natural gas usually used in extraction of crude oil. The soundscape records the group actively robbing a site.
The ‘filter’, a critical tool made of discarded fabric wrapped tightly around a metal pipe, is central to the operation of robbing oil wells. The villagers use the filter to flood the inlet-valve of an oil rig, allowing them to siphon natural compressed gas.
The project was exhibited as a solo exhibition at Warehouse 46, at Alserkal Art Foundation, curated by Anushka Rajendran, presented by Prameya Art Foundation.