Sheshadev Sagria
The worker in the paddy field uses a large instrument called the Kapar to level out the grains while drying. The daily use of the Kapar in the worker's livelihood makes the tool an extension of the worker's body. I imagine this laboring body evolving with the Kapar as an extension of the arm in place of where the hand would be, appearing like a deformed hand, while granting a strange ability.
While the labor of the paddy worker, a person from a lower-caste and marginalized community, is essential to the production and earnings from the crop, their body, evolved to meet the demands of this labor with the Kapar in place of a hand, will be seen as a threat in the form of an alien presence or an unidentified disease. When does a body part become an organ? Perhaps the extended organ is a weapon
Shapeshifter
2022
Woodcut print, watercolour, photographs and
photoperformance
I document specific rural land where people engage laboriously everyday such as paddy field, and try to manipulate documented images through the printmaking medium create as strange as possible, by using all the printed addition to create an idea of landscape which is never ending and larger than perceivable.
How do we dissect an unknown body? The hybrid bodies that I am developing are still unknown, but I am dissecting them by examining human anatomy, as we tend to understand our own bodies by studying them.
We have been living in a society that is subject to various forms of surveillance, such as state, medical, religious, and caste surveillance. These systems not only monitor our present movements but also our future positions. These surveillance systems have infiltrated all of our intimate spaces, including education, organs, and empty spaces. However, these surveillance systems are not adequately equipped to observe every action of people residing in remote or alienated areas, where various forms of life emerge every day, every hour, and every minute, each possessing a different set of powers and skills.
How will medical surveillance scan or monitor a body if it is still unknown?
