‘Bloody Boats + Voyage I’ is an art installation about deconstructing and dismantling the symbol of the traumatic journey that immigrants experience. This piece is as dynamic as an immigrant’s journey. The journey of a settler is not only a physical transition, but also a cognitive and social transition that revolves around multiple socio-political narratives. The repeated symbolic shape of a boat on a large scale resonate with the journey of an immigrant who moves for a better life, safe space, or a refugee whose displacement is the result of natural calamity or invasion.
To the artist, this installation represents a personal experience as an immigrant and seeks to echo several voices like hers through similar unsettling journeys which resonate with a large global population of migrants and refugees, both locally and globally. The subject is inspired by narratives illustrating how humans are struggling to strike a balance between virtual life and reality, full of economic distress and devastation, resulting in conscious migration decisions.
Akshata originally from India where the social and cultural fabric is complex in terms of caste, colour and politics, however being a woman of colour in Toronto, she found herself in a comparable position. She establishes a conversation between concepts of inclusion, dignity, consumption and subjectivity by discussing internationally generic problems in the form of symbolism and the multiplicity of all images that challenge viewers with the concept of challenging culture and the environment. Her research continues to explore the fantasy notions of travel in the future and co-existing in both the physical and the virtual world at the same time.
