ADS0: Babel; architecture and landscapes in the face of catastrophe
Shona Sharma
I first studied illustration at CSM before I went onto do my
undergraduate degree at the Bartlett School of Architecture. From there I work
at Jason Bruges Studio as a production designer, designing and building various
installations across Europe.
As a British woman of mix Indian heritage, the politics of my being come
into play with much of my work. I use these crises
of identity to my advantage to explore the different histories of which I have
been created in. My practice involves understanding the intrinsic relationships
between personal stories and universal situations. Exploring how different
histories have influenced our being and how political scenarios are trying to
define who we are. My process is communicating such stories in multidisciplinary
response, using a variety of different mediums such hand drawing to 3d
modelling.
This is a tale of dealing and confronting past trauma with love and compassion. A tale which begins with a journey of searching for father but in turn finding mother. This project is showcasing alternative narratives of history, highlighting female voices which have been silenced by the power of the British empire. However, this project is more than highlighting and vocalising these women's stories but rather in the process of doing so also shows that these different narratives cannot be placed into categories of the perspective of the perpetrator or victim. But rather the project is an experience of all the narratives of both personal and universal, intertwining into a complex history.
Special thanks to my mother, Bernadine Sharma and my family, for allowing me to showcase their stories and for also teaching me a powerful lesson in love and forgiveness.
Through the Grave Stones
Splitting House
Recreating Mother's Childhood Home
Price of Tea
Mother Memories Merging
The Khasi tribe is a matrilineal tribe based in the Hills of Meghalaya, a north eastern state of India and in 2018, the governing body of the Khasi passed a legislation known as the 2nd amendment bill of Social Lineage. This bill states that any women who marries a non-Khasi man will lose their tribal status and so do the children borne out of this relationship. Khasi men on the other hand are exempt from this new law. This male abuse of power denying the Khasi women their right is not an unfamiliar story. In the early 19th century when tea was first discovered, the British took their tribal land and converted it into tea plantations and the Khasi women were forced into labour and at times subjected to sexual abuse.
By researching through the Indian archives, family documents and interviewing my family, this has given me the basis to design this performative film. Juxtaposed between the wireframe are moments of interaction between myself and my mother and her with her mother. In all three of these clips a ritual is being performed, either a Khasi rice blessing or ritual of drawing. These moments highlight the connection between a mother and daughter as well as showcasing their voices, as rice blessing is the only Khasi ritual is done by the mother. Throughout the rest of the film, we journey through corridors of my mother’s childhood home, which was built by a British tea planter, and out into the landscape which was once of my mother’s tribe but was forcibly taken. We then journey through endless tombstones in Scotland, searching for this man who left marks on the land, on house and on the Khasi women. They are the ones left with a longing for this man. When we find him, we haven’t found his love, we have found nothing of his. But what we do remember is the strength and devotion of the women and mothers who sacrificed everything for us to get here. And that in spite of this man and the countless other men who have taken so much away from Khasi women, still they rise.