HOME(LAND): Bodies of Water examines water as the first element we came to know, as it gently cradled us and holds us. Water is one of the four primary elements from which all of life is created, along with fire, air and earth. Water is a predominant and vital element that connects us to the land and to one another.
The works selected for this exhibition explore the element of water and its different means in unique emotional, spiritual, cultural and socio-political ways intersecting with different cultural notions, and belief systems from a perspective of belonging, collective resilience and resistance.
HOME(LAND) programming considers the possibility of opening diaspora discourses from a perspective of reconciliation where artists from different backgrounds and Indigenous peoples can share their experiences and commonalities in relationship to the land, as it encompasses a deep sense of community, spirituality, and identity for both.
Akshata Naik’s work Infinite Journeys 2.0, When the Sky Meets the Ocean and Voyage-I, reference the fluid notion of migration and its complexities when ‘starting a new life’ and its physical, social and emotional transition while echoing voices of unsettling journeys from a local and global perspective.
In When the Sky Meets the Ocean, Naik takes her previous work, Bloody Boats: Infinite Journeys 2.0 into the virtual realm. She creates 3D boats immersed in a digital space to explore concepts of dislocation, translation and migration. Demystifying the concept of space, the sense of horizon and the idea of place, this work evokes the millions of migrants who continue to relocate themselves and their dreams during the uncertainty of the current pandemic.
