Description
Artist-in-residence 2023
Bamboo, Banana Leaves, Hempcrete, Dyed Twines, and Ropes
Using plants as a metaphor for identity, this project explores the transition of bamboo from Asia to America as it relates to the entropy of Asian American multiplicities. Concurrently, the decay of organic material playfully flaunts time in the face of museum objects which are unable to experience its passage. In creating a third space of existence, its own ecology and symbiosis, where do these sculptures now belong? Which landscape can it call home?
These structures engage materiality and challenge the notion of time by being both ephemeral and enduring. The bamboo and banana leaves will be mulched at the conclusion of the Centennial Festival and will therefore continue to live on through the Smithsonian gardens. The construction of the structures required laboring fluidly between states of collapse and stability. In their current state, the lines and shapes created evoke performative gestures and motion that connect to elements of dance. The integrity of the structures lies in a delicate state of being lightweight and sturdy, flexible yet rigid, and balanced while unstable.
About sāgar:
sāgar kāmath is an interdisciplinary artist working between mediums of painting, sculpture, installation, sound, video, collage, public art, and dance. his practice investigates the multiplicities of his identities as an Indian-born American through narrative building, materiality, line, space, and movement. his research-based methodology simultaneously interrogates his body, the surrounding landscape, and colonial histories through the engagement of non-linear time.
Workshops:
sāgar will lead public workshops daily from May 8 to May 14 from 2 to 5 p.m. in the Sackler Pavilion.
Artist-in-residence and community member programs received federal support from the Asian Pacific American Initiatives Pool, administered by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center.
