RITUAL TRACES

Monali Meher and Amina Ahmed are engaged in interdisciplinary art practices that encompass, amongst other layers, performative gestures and ritualistic movements of the female body within the natural and built environment. Both artists consider the relationship of the body to the elemental forces of air, earth, fire and water. Also important, is the passage of time, repetition, and engagement with the audience in moments that are ceremonial and intimate. These interactions offer the potential for profound silent conversations that oscillate between our physical existence and metaphysical yearnings.

Monali Meher, Visiting Brooklyn Bridge
Bridges are great architectural achievements symbolizing progress and growth. They are also metaphorical connecters between places, cultures, and people. In this performance, the artist walks backwards across the bridge, carrying lit incense sticks in her hands. By walking backwards, she faces and meets the eyes of the audience/witnesses/followers. The ritual of incense becomes a momentary experience shared by people who participate in the walk and the pedestrians of the city itself. The ephemeral smell and smoke has its own movement as it merges into the atmosphere and disappears, and this metaphor is so close to life as well as to live art. In this turbulent political and social climate, the act of walking backwards across city boundaries and ending with facing and acknowledging the East River is a significant component of the performance.

Photo Credit: Natasha Zeta