The Dreamscapes Project
Salman B Baba
ARTIST:Salman B Baba || 2021-ongoing
A girl tied in the garden outside the home; celebrations and mournings taking place simultaneously in peoples home; a dead body in a patio area or even a heap of bodies; a desire to be home or vision of being evicted from one's home; a guy arranging for burial; a sister dreaming of her brother picking up arms and she bleeding clots from nose; a guy shouting the innocence of a man killed; people telling a mother to cry over her son's dead body; a constant search for parents or siblings, or a young adult holding a baby in a lap; a grandmother dreaming of her burial in madare watan (Mother Country ~ Kashmir); preparing a grave for oneself or a person who has not yet died: an old madman whispering to himself, maybe a prophecy: a shepherd family hysterically dancing and shouting ‘ase kya gov, ase kya khyov’ (Tr. what happened to us, what we ate) after consuming ‘enchanted’ mushrooms in forests; a young boy seeing forests of human heads morphed into trees;These are some of the oneiric visions about/of Kashmir of young adults living in Kashmir. What could all these macabre dream sequences really mean? What could dreams mean in general? What do dreams speak of? Are dreams a means to witness? What and whom does it witness then? What does dreaming mean in the context of a Child? Where does ‘child as a category’ stand on political representation in bio-politics when children have violent oneiric visions? How much seeing is enough for one’s eyes to seize to be a child? Do dreams become a means to explore contestations and conflicts in everyday life, and a way to understand the form of human life that exists or is possible in ‘a permanent state of exception’?
Dreams have been understood and interpreted in myriad ways throughout history. The dream is often seen as a kind of communication, a means for the expression of difficult desires, ideas, and conflicts that are otherwise ‘unthinkable’. The understanding of dreams is as thoughts that have been largely barred from consciousness or notion as dreams being way to talk about the unintelligibility of reality, and about the ways, this reality is acknowledged. Our interests lie at the intersection of these various ideas and then taking dreams beyond their symbolism or representation and recognizes dreaming (not as mere metaphors but) as integral to political subjectivity. Recognizing the demand of dreams, can dreaming become means to give voice to what is otherwise unspeakable? And if dreaming are a site of ‘revolt’ and ‘resistance’ and refolding reality - a space of self-making? What does it mean to be inn dream of other/someone?
Salman's interest in dreams arose when he started journaling his own dreams post- Aug 5, 2019, when even the pretence of Kashmiris as a self-determining citizenry was systematically annihilated. It marked a period of extensive stress and anxiety for him as a Kashmiri when all channels of telecommunication & internet were blocked and one could not communicate/speak to anyone through any means. It turned into a period of extensive dreaming, not letting anyone sleep.
Child's Play
A series of performances || 2021 - Ongoing
Child's Play is a series of performance which looks into the forms of expressions of self, how one sees, gains understanding and interprets the world in the most precarious conditions. These performances are choreographed with the notes from the oneiric events and narrations from the young students in Kashmir. The narrations speak about how these young students understand Kashmir and what are their dreams about/of Kashmir, thus proving an insight into the psyche of these young students.
How often does spring bear witness to the devouring blooms?
Performance || 2022
Child's Play is a series of performance which looks into the forms of expressions of self, how one sees, gains understanding and interprets the world in the most precarious conditions. These performances are choreographed with the notes from the oneiric events and narrations from the young students in Kashmir. The narrations speak about how these young students understand Kashmir and what are their dreams about/of Kashmir, thus proving an insight into the psyche of these young students.
Each night puts you in our dreams?
Installation | Performance | Sound | Video | Postcards || 2023
'Each night puts you in our dreams' are dream accounts of young adults from Kashmir in South Asia that foregrounded social and psychological anxieties, vulnerabilities and crises a person is susceptible to when subjected to a permanent ‘state of exception’, a manifestation of total control. It is a visual manifestation of long engagement with Kashmiris about their dreams recorded as audio excerpts to understand what kind of visuality exists in their oneiric episodes. Thus looking at dreams and dreaming carefully to understand various nuances. Taking an account of dreams of Kashmiris who hope for ‘reconstitution of the speaking being’; and investigating if ‘dreaming is a space of reclaimation?’ Can dreams become a mode to reconstitute a political self even in the darkest of times?
Exhibition View
An excerpts from oneiric narratives.
The video was made in Processing 3.0. It is a compilation of texts developed from the oneiric narratives collected over past few years.
Rambagh, Srinagar, Nov 2021
The moon must have come out early
And the sun is yet to set in the unclear clarion sky
Perhaps to witness.
Say Labaik,
Labaik Alahuma labaik
Labaik
Every thing is hushed,
the air is thick with the anticipation
As you are, heavy
HEAVY
The world inside
The world outside
Ripples with unease
Like an eerie prelude
The clock takes an unsettling turn
Shadowy Figures
The stark fear grips the air
And I stand strangely calm
Reassuringly whispering words
It’s Ok, Mother.
Silence,
Thick as fog,
Hangs in the air,
A weighty shroud.
It draws people like moth,
To a flickering flame.
Disjointedness,
Fragmented.
A women shouts,
“Ye ha morukh be-gonah.”
(He was killed innocent)
Say Labaik,
Labaik Alahuma labaik
Labaik
Here, I am.
DReams of Kashmiri's
… down the nights and down the days;
… down the arches of the years;
… down the labyrinthine ways
Of our own mind ; and in the mist of tears (Thompson, 1890)
Each night puts you in our dreams.
the moments when shadows, …
What do they whisper to the senses?
In the unsettling quietude of nights,
the world conceals its hues.
And I hear its haunting rhythm.
Come Dance ,
Come mourn,
Come cry,
Come loose,
Loose to the blackness
Let the black, blur the reality.
Rajpora, Pulwama, July 2021
‘Dreams will find their dreamers and all a dreamer has to do is remember.’ (Darwish, 2011)
And tonight,
plunging into a twisted dream.
Recalling a decades old tale
That happened few days ago
And remember,
When you remember
Will you remember it
as tapestry of heavens reality
Or a mercilessly piercing dream.
A taxi, a reluctant ride
Hallowed silences
A village,
encircled by other worldly
horrendous creature
Someone might have died,
Someone might have been killed,
Someone might be innocent
Someone might be you
And remember,
When you remember
Will you remember it
as tapestry of heavens reality
Or a mercilessly piercing dream.
A home, a desecrated sanctuary
Shattered memories
A mother,
Cradling her infant
Swathing it with a blanket.
a blanket upon a blanket,
a blanket upon a blanket,
a blanket upon a blanket,
upon a blanket.Write your text here...
