LET THEM OWN THEIR LAND
Clay and other organic materials lie at the heart of Benitha Perciyal’s art practice. The medium’s physicality, its ability to decay and disintegrate allows Benitha to connect with her spiritual and philosophical interests. Recently encountered images of a child’s body washed ashore, farmers struggling to live, refugees displaced and homeless have deeply distressed her. “Isn’t it as if the sea itself rejected the child and the shore did not want his body either?” she asks. Though these images are from different geographies, to her they feel connected by “land and shifting consciousness”. The daily onslaught of painful images creates a weary numbness, yet the artist feels compelled to raise her voice. She points out, “The cry of the displaced and distressed is heard by none, as everyone is interested in holding on to their own land”. Through her work, Benitha is interested in raising the awareness of the social and environmental ecosystem in which we live, where the burden of responsibility of the distressed and displaced falls on all of us. She says, “When we restructure our views, we will see what connects us. Land”.
2018 Frankincense, myrrh, cinnamon, clove, powdered clay, bark powder, lemongrass and cider wood essential oils, cloth, fire bricks, teak wood, palm seed, coconut coir rope, iron, cattle plow and water Variable size
BENITHA PERCIYAL is a Chennai based artist with several solo shows to her credit. She is an alumni of the Government College of Fine Arts, Chennai, with a BFA in Painting and an MFA in Printmaking. In 2015 she was nominated by Atul Dodiya and Gulam Mohammed Sheikh for the Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art (FICA) Amol Vadehra Art Grant. In 2014, she was invited to participate in the Kochi Biennale and 2016 in the Yinchaun Beinnale. Her work has been shown at Centre Pompidou and is currently on show at the sculpture park in Madhavendra Palace, Jaipur.
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