In each residency, prompts (creative tasks or exercises) are given to enable the residents to get out of their own way. The prompts serve as triggers, enabling the residents to step outside of themselves and can also be a means of laying the foundation for the final output for the exhibition.

The Doll

Using biodegradable materials, residents created a  doll to represent the parts they wished to shed, question or re-evaluate.

Incineration 

The second stage in this process was the act of burning the doll - an act which was sprung on the participants; many expected it, some resisted and finally almost all performed the act of cremating the shadow self. 

Dissolution

The ashes created in the process were reverently collected and dissolved. The ashes of the doll and water-based paint were used to create a mandala, symbolising that life and creation is always cyclical.

Separation

In this prompt the participants had to create a work that sheds off a part of oneself (analogous to the serpent shedding its skin). Various options were suggested to achieve the process such as: 

• Wax Resist: Using candles or wax crayons and watercolors, create a wax resist painting on paper.
• Sloughing: Use an old, discarded piece of clothing as a canvas to represent the shedding.
• Face-Off: Creating a plaster cast mask of oneself, and using it to represent the shedding

Conjunction

In this prompt the participant had to create a silhouette of oneself (preferably in a natural environment) and fill it with things that reflected an authentic synthesis of the self. 

Text by Kiran Kittur
Associate Curator - As Above So Below, 2022.