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...
© » 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...
© » KADIST
Sin Wai Kin
2018The video Tell me everything you saw, and what you think it means by Sin Wai Kin is from a performance series titled A View from Elsewhere...
© » ARTS EQUATOR
Leading art collectors put pressure on Balai Seni Visual Negara | ArtsEquator Thinking and Talking about Arts and Culture in Southeast Asia Articles February 15, 2020 by Kathy Rowland In a first for Malaysian art history, a Collectors’ Petition signed by 55 private art collectors have warned Balai Seni Visual Negara that they will no longer be lending works from their collection to Balai in future unless Balai reinstates pieces removed from Ahmad Fuad Osman’s exhibition immediately ...
© » ART & OBJECT
Valuable Paintings Found in Unusual Places | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
:quality(70)/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/uscannenberg/M45ZZ5XUD5ELFM2NFVJ4VVASYU.jpg)
© » ARTSJOURNAL
Stolen Syrian art funds international terrorism – Why aren’t we talking about it? – Annenberg Media Skip to main content Arts, Culture & Entertainment Stolen Syrian art funds international terrorism – Why aren’t we talking about it? Stories about the trafficking of blood antiquities across an international black market don’t often appear in the average person’s news diet; Stories about the terrorist organizations that these antiquity sales fund do, though...
© » ART & OBJECT
10 Stunning Prehistoric Sculptures from The Met's Collection | Art & Object Skip to main content Subscribe to our free e-letter! Webform Your Email Address Role Art Collector/Enthusiast Artist Art World Professional Academic Country USA Afghanistan Albania Algeria American Samoa Andorra Angola Anguilla Antarctica Antigua & Barbuda Argentina Armenia Aruba Ascension Island Australia Austria Azerbaijan Bahamas Bahrain Bangladesh Barbados Belarus Belgium Belize Benin Bermuda Bhutan Bolivia Bosnia & Herzegovina Botswana Bouvet Island Brazil British Indian Ocean Territory British Virgin Islands Brunei Bulgaria Burkina Faso Burundi Cambodia Cameroon Canada Canary Islands Cape Verde Caribbean Netherlands Cayman Islands Central African Republic Ceuta & Melilla Chad Chile China Christmas Island Clipperton Island Cocos (Keeling) Islands Colombia Comoros Congo - Brazzaville Congo - Kinshasa Cook Islands Costa Rica Croatia Cuba Curaçao Cyprus Czechia Côte d’Ivoire Denmark Diego Garcia Djibouti Dominica Dominican Republic Ecuador Egypt El Salvador Equatorial Guinea Eritrea Estonia Eswatini Ethiopia Falkland Islands Faroe Islands Fiji Finland France French Guiana French Polynesia French Southern Territories Gabon Gambia Georgia Germany Ghana Gibraltar Greece Greenland Grenada Guadeloupe Guam Guatemala Guernsey Guinea Guinea-Bissau Guyana Haiti Heard & McDonald Islands Honduras Hong Kong SAR China Hungary Iceland India Indonesia Iran Iraq Ireland Isle of Man Israel Italy Jamaica Japan Jersey Jordan Kazakhstan Kenya Kiribati Kosovo Kuwait Kyrgyzstan Laos Latvia Lebanon Lesotho Liberia Libya Liechtenstein Lithuania Luxembourg Macao SAR China Madagascar Malawi Malaysia Maldives Mali Malta Marshall Islands Martinique Mauritania Mauritius Mayotte Mexico Micronesia Moldova Monaco Mongolia Montenegro Montserrat Morocco Mozambique Myanmar (Burma) Namibia Nauru Nepal Netherlands Netherlands Antilles New Caledonia New Zealand Nicaragua Niger Nigeria Niue Norfolk Island Northern Mariana Islands North Korea North Macedonia Norway Oman Outlying Oceania Pakistan Palau Palestinian Territories Panama Papua New Guinea Paraguay Peru Philippines Pitcairn Islands Poland Portugal Puerto Rico Qatar Romania Russia Rwanda Réunion Samoa San Marino Saudi Arabia Senegal Serbia Seychelles Sierra Leone Singapore Sint Maarten Slovakia Slovenia Solomon Islands Somalia South Africa South Georgia & South Sandwich Islands South Korea South Sudan Spain Sri Lanka St...
© » KADIST
Michael Rakowitz
2017The Ballad of Special Ops Cody by Michael Rakowitz is a serio-comic stop motion animated film in which an everyday African-American G...
© » KADIST
Edgar Arceneaux
2006Untitled (Wheelchair Drawing) is a ten-foot photo transfer of the image of a wheelchair with burning embers in its seat...
© » 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...
© » 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...
© » NYTIMES LENS
Nancy Buirski, Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 78 - The New York Times Movies | Nancy Buirski, Award-Winning Documentary Filmmaker, Dies at 78 https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/01/movies/nancy-buirski-dead.html Share full article Advertisement SKIP ADVERTISEMENT Nancy Buirski, an Emmy and Peabody Award-winning documentary filmmaker whose eye was honed as a still photographer and picture editor, died on Wednesday at her home in Manhattan...
