psycho- geography........phew!!!!

yaeh....... you read it right, the sessions on the 9th and 10th of october, taken by our very own Renu were on psycho-geography. nah...... it isnt as heavy as it sounds and was basically about expressing violence through art... simple, right? well, not so for some of the interns who had a mortal fear of painting. the session was flagged off on day 1 by discussing what exactly is violence and we managed to come up with a pretty concise definition that it is simply an act of aggression against a person who resists.it is about power equations but then again power is never static, its mobile and is a networked phenomenon. depicting violence through art is a means of testing social codes whether symbolic, realistic or ritualistic.

renu started by showing us a series of images she had put together so that we got a general idea of what she was planning on putting us through... the images ranged from 17th century post renaissance to modern. some were subtle, where it was difficult even to figure out instances of violence while in some it was disturbing to even look at the images because they were too graphic.well..... this was the easy part with Renu doing all the work now we had to start. which we did by jotting down 10 words we associated with violence and then 10 colours we associated with those words.. an eg of this would be war-olive green or torture-purple. the 2nd half of the session saw the interns writing a story based on chits they drew out of a box. well. they put on their thinking caps and came up with 3 brilliant stories, an eg. of which is given below:-

THE VICIOUS CIRCLE OF VIOLENCE:-

i remember this day as if it were yesterday ven though i was just a boy of 8 then. a bomb exploded somewhere near the army camp. i could hear the blast echo through the many valleys and hills surrounding our village. the deathly silence was now filled with screams and cries of the jawans. somewhere in the background i thought i heard my sister crying softly."our brother was the bomber", she said." they will soon come for us-we should run, but we have nowhere to go!".we tried to gather our thingsand make a quick exit; but it was in vain. in what like a quick flash of lightning the military forces arrived in their jeeps, driving so fast, hurtling dust and stones in all directions. soon our village was on fire-all i could see was red and yellow flames leaping into the dark,dark sky. the men in green and black started spilling out and beating up the men in our village, dragging them out of their homes with sheer vehemence and force. i did not need to see what was happening to feel-their screams echoed louder and louder, they were being assaulted and tortured brutally and yet our fellow villagers did not tell them about our brother. my sister pulled me away and hid me in a secret attic which was once our brother's room." stay here!" she said "and do not move , no matter what happens!". the jawans came to our doorstep; looking for some more men. seeing my sister cowering alone in the corner did not deter them. their faces changed, they were smiling but in an evil, malicious way and then they said something to each other in a language i did not understand. one of the jawans left but the other stepped towards her and dragged her by her long, dark hair. my sister was howling now, beggibg, pleading, writhing trying to escape. his face was indifferent and by sheer brute strenght, he slapped her till she was unconscious, tore out her clothes and raped her. i lay above, helpless and watched as he violated her. even in her unconsciousness i could ense her mind, body and soul crying in pain. my mind was turbulent, in a rage, but my limbs remained still as death. numb. the memory is fresh in my mind, the scars still show, her screams still wake me up after nightmares and each day i know that soon, i will have my vengeance.



then came the part we were all scared of, yes you guessed it , painting!!!!! we had to individually paint our idea of violence. it didnt turn out to be as difficult as we had initially imagined and the paintings turned out to be quite acceptable with some you could even classify as good. really wasnt as difficult as we thought.... you guys should also try it.............!!!!!!!!!!!!!