Sem 02 / Settlement Studies
Khijadiya Palimpsests
Vastavikta Bhagat
I
As tides rise and recede, a vast endless threshold reveals itself, neither sand, nor earth, nor water, a surface pockmarked with journeys and depositions of materials and of beings known and unknown.
Brackish water presses inwards guided through the lunar cycle, forming salt laced depositions along and around bunds. Bunds that are made to form pathways and barriers along the edges of salt water marshes, pans and freshwater lakes further inside. Bunds that dissect the site for the bipeds to traverse.
The threshold is endless, spongy, dry and wet, viscous and cracked, treacherous and uncanny, for the foot, the earth giving away, disintegrating into crystals of salt and sand in some places and making wet splotchy indentations in some.
As tides rise and recede, a vast endless threshold reveals itself, neither sand, nor earth, nor water, a surface pockmarked with journeys and depositions of materials and of beings known and unknown.
Brackish water presses inwards guided through the lunar cycle, forming salt laced depositions along and around bunds. Bunds that are made to form pathways and barriers along the edges of salt water marshes, pans and freshwater lakes further inside. Bunds that dissect the site for the bipeds to traverse.
The threshold is endless, spongy, dry and wet, viscous and cracked, treacherous and uncanny, for the foot, the earth giving away, disintegrating into crystals of salt and sand in some places and making wet splotchy indentations in some.
II
A rumour travels, of a wild cat on the prowl, flocks fly from one water pond to the next, their wings one with the wind blowing from the sea, the shepherd takes his cows and bulls urgently through the vastness, hooves forming imprints on the craggled land.
Colonies of mangroves and thorny scrubs alike form strongholds, through logics of sustenance and survival, forming a sculptural mass of growing, gnarled, twisted, and deformed in places, roots and branches anchoring themselves.
The scent is thick with salt deposits and decaying vegetation, leftovers of avian beings that transgress the sky, of water accumulated, holding a metallic tang in the air, reminiscent of sweat that forms on the skin, while walking here.
III
Further away from the sound of the tides, the surface is a visually amorphous, shifting entity, a liminal in between space, where winds move columns of tall grasses, and reeds. Trees interspersed scantily form islands of shade and spaces for nesting.
Purple, blue and green; algae, moss and fungi proliferate in puddles of accumulated water, laced with salt, that was collected as the highest tides of the season entered deep inside the land closer to human habitation and did not find a way out. Avian beings of colours beyond these make strange calls, a cacophony of sound heard best at dawn.
Fields of cotton and mustard, further away, form the edges of this space, migrants from afar travel to till and tend to them, making shelter, inhabiting this precipice of liminality. The logics of time and seasons structure the working of these bodies.
A rumour travels, of a wild cat on the prowl, flocks fly from one water pond to the next, their wings one with the wind blowing from the sea, the shepherd takes his cows and bulls urgently through the vastness, hooves forming imprints on the craggled land.
Colonies of mangroves and thorny scrubs alike form strongholds, through logics of sustenance and survival, forming a sculptural mass of growing, gnarled, twisted, and deformed in places, roots and branches anchoring themselves.
The scent is thick with salt deposits and decaying vegetation, leftovers of avian beings that transgress the sky, of water accumulated, holding a metallic tang in the air, reminiscent of sweat that forms on the skin, while walking here.
III
Further away from the sound of the tides, the surface is a visually amorphous, shifting entity, a liminal in between space, where winds move columns of tall grasses, and reeds. Trees interspersed scantily form islands of shade and spaces for nesting.
Purple, blue and green; algae, moss and fungi proliferate in puddles of accumulated water, laced with salt, that was collected as the highest tides of the season entered deep inside the land closer to human habitation and did not find a way out. Avian beings of colours beyond these make strange calls, a cacophony of sound heard best at dawn.
Fields of cotton and mustard, further away, form the edges of this space, migrants from afar travel to till and tend to them, making shelter, inhabiting this precipice of liminality. The logics of time and seasons structure the working of these bodies.
IV
The herd finally crosses the landscape to reach familiar human inhabitation crossing small factories made in place of an older home. Here half the homes are made anew and so are temples, while the other half appear to accrue matter and dirt with time and eventually disintegrate.
A large square and smaller otlas collect people in the evening, exchanging notes and gossip from the day. The landscape here is largely inhabited by an older generation, the younger members having migrated to foreign lands. Care is dispersed through kinships, one house looking over the other.
The fields reflect these movements, and seldom see more than a cycle of harvest, are kept as capital, to be bartered for the future. Remittance capital and migrations structures the logic of building and organisation here.
The herd finally crosses the landscape to reach familiar human inhabitation crossing small factories made in place of an older home. Here half the homes are made anew and so are temples, while the other half appear to accrue matter and dirt with time and eventually disintegrate.
A large square and smaller otlas collect people in the evening, exchanging notes and gossip from the day. The landscape here is largely inhabited by an older generation, the younger members having migrated to foreign lands. Care is dispersed through kinships, one house looking over the other.
The fields reflect these movements, and seldom see more than a cycle of harvest, are kept as capital, to be bartered for the future. Remittance capital and migrations structures the logic of building and organisation here.
The work from the module can be explored here.