Sakshi Gudda Sakshi Gode

An earth project

For several years now, I have had the idea of working on the theme of ‘Sakshi Gudda’ ~ witness hillocks, the pillars of earth left untouched for measuring the quantity of soil excavated in an earthwork. My interest was in these pillars of earth left behind, their sculptural presence, along with the vegetation on the top, and of course their meaningful title.

The site that I located in the premises of the University of Agricultural Sciences, on the edge of the city of Bangalore where I reside, had more than just land for a sakshi gudda excavation. Within its green cover was hidden a semi-circular wall, about 50’ in length and 15’ in height, in front of which was a circular pit of 30’diameter. It is an target practice shooting range, elevated to the status of a lovers den encouraged by trees growing in the pit and making the original purpose redundant, with nature here in a subversive role. The pitted wall has, over time, become a witness to the lovers, with graffiti etched all over it. The stepped shooting trench is now a silent pit of dry leaves. The approach to this peaceful haven, its silence heightened by the sound of shrieking pigs from the nearby piggery, is sadly also the dumping ground for building debris and garbage, both organic and non-biodegradable, burnt to ashes or remaining as layers of time on the ground.

My artistic intervention acknowledges all these aspects of this landscape, making use of existing materials and visual signs: views of nature and urban Bangalore from certain vantage points, the debris (having ironically their own aesthetic), which are now the ‘sakshi guddas’ ~ the burnt ground, a trench dug through man-made ‘ground’ and pure, rich, beautiful earth which emerges on the other end into another trench with its shooting history indicated by ‘sand bags,’ gunny sacks filled with dry leaves. From here one enters the shady ‘sitting room’ in the pit furnished with the same sacks, to rest and read the writing on the wall on which I have added my graffiti to the existing ones. It is an earthy folk poem which, in translation, reads: ‘Who all shall I think of when I rise at dawn, let me think for a moment of Mother Earth, giver of sesame and cumin’. The wall also bears traces/outlines of the trunks of the trees growing close, behind the wall, whose foliage daringly peeps above it.

Sheela Gowda