Airlia : Re-imagining our daily environment, the project aims to integrate the installation in a large gallery space.
The installation is composed of an aircraft measured approximately at the size of a twin otter combined with artistic arrangement of oars. Each oar stems from the oval window of the aircraft, in substitute of its wings. It’s delicately placed in a tilting horizontal manner, in a way that it elongates on each side, procreating the depiction of imagery wings.
The wings which are fashioned by extensive arrangement of oars evokes a surreal sense of equilibrium in the space. While postulating the cognizance of ethereal mirage as if it would have soar from the ground, it does also pinpoints the metaphor of transcendence of which have been numerously depicted by mystical Sufi poets, like that of Rumi and Hafiz. In their writings, they featured the apparition of the soul’s mystical journey, while envisioning the spirit in ethereal pair of wings. With a mild association to Islamic mystical element brought by the Sufi, this installation analogically become a fundamental unit of seraphic entity. It’s placement, scale and overall appearance connotes ascension and foresees the endless possibility of transformations.
Stepping aboard a plane and boat alike, has somehow reflects the initiation of a human being, embarking upon his own journey where dramatic transition in their life occurs. Apparently, people experience a myriad of emotional feelings which among others contain fear and vials of hope in their quest to seek a better life as redirecting process take place. Personally, I have spent a huge amount of time, observing erratically heightened emotions at the airport; especially in Nepal, where at least hundreds of youth have opted to leave their home country daily as economic migrants, aiming to discover glimmers of hope in a foreign land. All these sights and prominent sentiment have somehow managed to speak to me as an artist who hailed from a developing nation.
These journeys mean something unique and particular to each individual- ranged from the migrants, asylum refugees to those of whose are privileged and have the capacity to conduct their own. Aboarding planes and boats alike, reflects the dramatic transitional phase for an individual. Realistically, the oars function to row a boat across ocean till its arrival at the destination on the shore. Each unit of oars reflects an inextinguishable notion of strength signifies hope and annotates patience throughout the ordeal in the sea.
In real life, the oars functions to row a boat across the ocean till arriving the shore, where destination is. Each unit of oars reflects the inextinguishable notion of strength, which also signifies hope and the virtue of patience woven with perseverance throughout the duration in the sea. Hereby, they represent the uniformed ardor of dynamic vivacity. United in a single entity, they vocalize risks, rise and downfall, ebbs and flows of the journey.
Leaving one’s shore for a foreign country depicts the emotional state of refugees. I’ve been heartbroken to perceive the emotional state of refugees at their arrival on the coast seeking for refuge; even tearful, at the sight of bodies washed ashore, because we are all correlated. Therefore, my work further expresses the universal testament of human rights, social justice and political structure.
