The Yellow Scarf
2019 - Installation (Installation)
Video: 20:24 minutes, Prints: 100 x 70 cm each
Shubigi Rao
Named after a book that artist Shubigi Rao read growing up, The Yellow Scarf explores the history of the Thuggee cult in India in relation to the colonial British administration that ‘discovered’ but also ultimately exterminated this cult of assassins. The modern term ‘thug’ is said to be derived from Thuggee. Rao’s fascination with the Thuggee is interwoven with her parallel research into the strangler tree, found throughout South and Southeast Asia. While the Thuggee assassins were a cult of Kali (the Hindu goddess of death, time, and often associated with sexuality and violence) worshipping bandits who often killed through strangling, the strangler tree is similarly known for its adaptive ability to grow around and to ‘strangle’ other trees. Presented as part of the installation are two prints that recall the elaborate ‘family trees’ that the British Administrator Sir Henry William Sleeman laid out to map and capture members of the cult. The prints functioned as guide maps, of sorts, to the taxonomy of knowledge and hierarchies of thought, and how this went hand-in-hand with a diminishing of indigenous (and later colonised) fields of knowledge. Evocative of a dense textual forest, the work (video and prints) places the viewer in an entangled history of conquest, governance, and both the literal and figural trees of knowledge. The Yellow Scarf is not just about the markers of monstrosity that are used to police a society, but is also the historical cultivation of society’s enduring fear of the forest and those that emerge out of it’s darkness. The Yellow Scarf continues Rao’s study of the horrors that have defined human history through a specific facet of systematic destruction. In her other works, Rao described the destruction of books as a manageable way to look at the horrors that man can inflict upon himself and the world. The Yellow Scarf provides a focused lens on the construction, management, and infliction of horror as part of a lesser-known history of colonial governance that has been written and rewritten over through films and popular culture. Despite these generations of re-writing, the past continues to haunt the present through resilient myths such as that associated with the strangler tree.
Shubigi Rao interrogates how we know what we do and how we remember what we do. Her multifaceted installations are a cybernetic foray across archaeology, neuroscience, anthropology and etymology. Sometimes absurd such as building immortal jellyfish, and at other times serious, such as an attempt to produce an encyclopaedia, her artworks are visual and physical representations that point at the complex and inherited systems that govern and define our lives. Since 2014 she has been developing the project Pulp: A Short Biography of the Banished Book , a decade-long film, book and visual art project about the history of book destruction.
Colors:
Related works sharing similar palette
© » KADIST
Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis
2022Five Hundred Twenty-Four, a single-channel video installation by Lenka Clayton and Phillip Andrew Lewis, features singers from over twenty Cleveland-area choirs counting numbers in an iterative process: one person sings “one”, then two people sing “two”, and so forth, to 524...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Exhibitions review The Big Review: Caspar David Friedrich at the Hamburger Kunsthalle ★★★★★ This curatorial triumph highlights the measured artificiality of the German Romantic artist who made work that still mesmerises J...
© » SLASH PARIS
Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Connexion Newsletter Twitter Facebook Abigail Lane — Doing Time — Galerie Semiose — Exposition — Slash Paris Français English Accueil Événements Artistes Lieux Magazine Vidéos Retour Précédent Suivant Abigail Lane — Doing Time Exposition Installations Abigail Lane, Black bird, Doing Time Abigail Lane Doing Time Encore 27 jours : 13 janvier → 9 mars 2024 La série exposée dans la project room chez Semiose, Doing Time, consiste en des broderies d’oiseaux insérées dans des boîtes fermées par des barreaux...
© » 1854 PHOTOGRAPHY
How can photography heal past trauma? Ask a friend - 1854 Photography Subscribe latest Agenda Bookshelf Projects Industry Insights magazine Explore ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW Explore Stories latest agenda bookshelf projects theme in focus industry insights magazine ANY ANSWERS FINE ART IN THE STUDIO PARENTHOOD ART & ACTIVISM FOR THE RECORD LANDSCAPE PICTURE THIS CREATIVE BRIEF GENDER & SEXUALITY MIXED MEDIA POWER & EMPOWERMENT DOCUMENTARY HOME & BELONGING ON LOCATION PORTRAITURE DECADE OF CHANGE HUMANITY & TECHNOLOGY OPINION THEN & NOW All images © Sophie Russell-Jeffrey Collaborating with her childhood friend, Sophie Russell-Jeffrey was able to access the most difficult episodes of their past – and push her portraiture into raw new territory Sophie Russell-Jeffrey was born and raised in Towcester, a small East Midlands town of around 10,000 people where “everyone knows everyone’s business”...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Southeast Asia Radar: Art in the time of COVID-19 and more | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia ArtsEquator Radar Via Philippine Daily Inquirer March 19, 2020 ArtsEquator’s Southeast Asia Radar features articles and posts about arts and culture in Southeast Asia, drawn from local and regional websites and publications – aggregated content from outside sources, so we are exposed to a multitude of voices in the region...
© » FLASH ART
Liu Chuang "Lithium Lake and Island of Polyphony" Antenna Space / Shanghai | | Flash Art Flash Art uses cookies strictly necessary for the proper functioning of the website, for its legitimate interest to enhance your online experience and to enable or facilitate communication by electronic means...
© » KADIST
Elisheva Biernoff
2009In her recent work, Biernoff is interested in investigating fictions and fantasies embedded in the remnants of consumer culture (for example magazines) or through ephemera such as postcards and old photographs...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Weekly Picks: Indonesia (12 - 18 November 2018) | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Weekly To Do November 12, 2018 Top Picks of Indonesia art events in Bali, Bandung and Jakarta from 12 – 18 November 2018 If you’re in Bali, swing by the exhibition “Efek Samping” part of the Futuwonder Project : Masa Subur ...
© » IGNANT
In The Studio With Jakub Kubica: Between Minimalist Design And Sci-Fi Archeology - IGNANT Name Jakub Kubica Images Clemens Poloczek Words Marie-Louise Schmidlin With a portfolio that spans minimalist furniture, functional design objects, and futuristic artworks, the practice of Jakub Kubica meets at the intersection of various disciplines...
© » SOUTH CHINA MORNING POST
‘Tattoos are not a crime’ – how Iranian tattoo artists are leaving an indelible mark on a society that is slowly coming to accept body ink | South China Morning Post Advertisement Advertisement Art + FOLLOW Get more with my NEWS A personalised news feed of stories that matter to you Learn more An Iranian man shows his tattoos in Iran’s capital, Tehran...
© » THEARTNEWSPER
Marina Abramović spreads the love in one-off performance at the Royal Academy Art market Museums & heritage Exhibitions Books Podcasts Columns Technology Adventures with Van Gogh Search Search Diary blog Marina Abramović spreads the love in one-off performance at the Royal Academy Against backdrop of turbulent real-world events, crowds gathered and hugged for Unconditional Love recital The Art Newspaper 11 December 2023 Share Marina Abramović performs An Invitation to Love Unconditionally in the Annenberg Courtyard at the Royal Academy of Arts, London...