Art installation to be unveiled today
ANDREW W. LYNGDOH
Arno Peeters and Iris Honderdos interact with reporters at Shillong Press Club on Monday.
Shillong, Aug. 28 : An art installation designed by a couple from the Netherlands, depicting Khasi identity, heritage and the challenges of development in red, gold and green will be unveiled at Don Bosco Hall here tomorrow evening.
Arno Peeters and Iris Honderdos have been
in the city for the past month. The couple had closely interacted with
local people, musicians, poets, academics, cultural icons, students,
traditional healers and others from different walks of life to
understand the essence and character of Khasi society.
Through the prism of their perspectives,
Peeters and Honderdos created a multi-dimensional portrayal of Khasi
culture, its precious heritage and fragile existence. Apart from
depicting the Khasi culture, language and music, the installation also
portrays the dangers stalking the indigenous community.
The dangers surrounding the Khasi community have been represented in the form of “snakes”.
The couple have used the seven huts
(Hynniewtrep), a mythological bridge connecting heaven and earth and the
traditional rain shield (knup) as illustrations of Khasi culture.
The art project is part of the global
initiative Visualising Development with Identity of the Royal Tropical
Institute, the Netherlands. The couple were hosted and assisted by the
Martin Luther Christian University here during the course of the
project.
On the eve of unveiling the art
installation, Peeters said the Khasi culture was “vivid”, although there
were problems surrounding the community in the form of largescale
illegal migration.
“The problems, like the presence of
illegal migrants, are quite serious. But we feel that they can be solved
by the community itself. At the same time, many young people have
narrated that aping western culture is another danger. They feel that by
aping others, even traditional folk music has been suffocated,” he
observed.
He said the art installation was a work to represent the information that had been gathered during the course of the project.
Asked about the colours, Peeters said red
signifies blood and danger, gold depicts local resources and green
represents the sylvan vistas of the state.
“But gold is the most sensitive part.
Take, for instance, coal mining. The mineral is abundantly present here,
but can also be a cause of trouble as you have the coming of illegal
migrants,” he pointed out.
On the art installation, MLCU
vice-chancellor Glen Kharkongor said it could either be placed at the
museum of the Don Bosco Centre of Indigenous Culture (DBCIC) located at
Mawlai here or exhibited in different parts of the world.
Peeters and Honderdos have worked in
tandem in several countries on a unique method of direct contact with
communities using participatory observation and communication techniques
to learn about the emotional currents and relations that shape the
community they are working with.