Open Wound - Stories of Partition uses photo animations to explore the turmoil of families impacted by the Partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947. It has been nearly 75 years since the Partition, where 12 million people were displaced within three months and over a million died on both sides. But unlike tragedies such as the Holocaust, there is little for the larger public to understand and commemorate those impacted by this tragedy.
The work builds on the way old images reignite memories and, like a time machine, take us back to a lost, fading history that has roots in the present, communal tensions. The ephemeral animations in Open Wound are built from old family photographs combined with recent photographs of three or more generations, and text narrating some of the families' experiences. The animations weave in and out of spaces of time, allowing the viewer to simultaneously ponder the Indian subcontinent's history and the impact of that on South Asia.
The final work includes the stories of Partition from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh. They are displayed on iPads in hollowed-out, 1947 Encyclopedias. In the background loops a haunting video of one of the sites scarred by Partition.
20 November
