FEATURE

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Articulating Peripheries in a Ferry

‘Periferry 1.0’, a project initiated by Sonal Jain, Mriganka Madhukaillya, artists and film makers from North East under the banner of Desire Machine Collective@Khoj Guwahati, a subsidiary of Khoj International Artists Association, has recently done an interesting public art project in a ferry. Delhi based architect Adim Phukan gives a conceptual introduction of the project.

One of the chief premises of Deconstructive thought is to address hidden imbalances in concepts especially of binary oppositions in our thoughts/culture/approach. It exposes apparently equal 50-50 balance polar oppositions in our perceptions, e.g., man- woman, good-evil, darkness- light and- centre- periphery to be otherwise: the structure itself of our logical, centric thought process is such that when we define polar oppositions, often one entity has rather a hegemonic hold over the other i.e, man over woman, centre over periphery etc.
In this light, events like Periferry can be easily labeled as an attempt to try to deconstruct our general perceptions, conceptions and thoughts.

As soon as you bring up the word Periferry, (Periphery) its binary opposite comes into mind.. i.e., the Centre.. the almighty, gravitational, and hegemonic hold of the centre Permanently, unequivocally, over the periphery. In such a light, Periferry having been organized upon a Ferry, a zone of ancient, unmodified, bureaucratic stronghold says a lot about its Deconstructive approach.  The process of negotiation involved in finally succeeding in getting the permission, consent from the echelons of the Inland Water Transport Department (set up during the British reign) regarding organizing a cross cultural event upon its ferries is a major, unusual achievement. One, where the acute imbalance existent between the centre & the periphery, seems to have been deconstructed for one brief, refreshingly, exemplary moment.

Derrida states Deconstruction as a “strategy of using the only available language/resources while not subscribing to its premises”. He also adds that “to make a new word or new technique is to run the risk of forgetting the problem or believing it solved”.
In this context the organizing of Periferry on a ferry, i.e., in the heart of bureaucratic red tape was vitally important for the context of the issues that this project addresses to. If the entire project had been suspended in a neutral territory away from the visceral complexities of governmental sanction, it would have swiftly defeated its own purpose, like many lofty agendas often do. Furthermore, the involvement of the peripheral boatmen, river bank daily earners (who always feel edged out from the central “happening-ness” of land dwellers) in the execution of this project was vitally important. The invitation of government officials, cultural personae, mainstream artists, etc in the open day of Periferry created a platform for “cross intermingling’ across borders, roles & prefixed categories. A high sense of “own ness’/ recognition, identity was noted amongst the river bank daily wage earners.

Furthermore the musicians who gathered to play on the ferry on the two subsequent shows were distinctly aware that the audience watching their performances would be highly limited accounting to the unique geography/size of the ferries. But moved away from the secure foundation of their landlocked standards, they could for once maybe, play for themselves, and maybe the river Brahmaputra.

All in all I consider Periferry a substantially deconstructive exercise.