All the Snow Whitened Kashmiris went to sleep after biting the poison apple
Formal
“All the Snow Whitened Kashmiris went to sleep after biting the poison apple” is a non-interactive digital image I created on January 05, 2023. It is a networked art meant to be displayed online, at different virtual public spaces and the Behance gallery.
It is meant to be observed by the audience, while asking them to inquire.
Aesthetic
The work attempts to tell, narrate, visualize and document a story from current affairs that isn’t widely covered by the global press.
The audience can observe and interpret the artwork through the theme of a fairy tale and hints of a genocide. This is why I picked the words ‘Snow Whitened’ in its title, drawing references to the classic fairy tale where the protagonist falls into a long sleep after biting an enchanted apple.
To wake up from this everlasting sleep, the curse has to be broken.
Likewise, the long sleep in the world’s most militarised region (Anjum, 2018, p.47), Kashmir, induced in the form of frequent massacres, might require a curse-breaking.
The work refers to a specific event and it has to be mentioned in captions.
Technical
The free online painter app from www.youidraw.com was used to create the first draft of the work. The subsequent drafts were retouched with the free online image editor, www.befunky.com, to change the image background, and at the final stage, layers were added with Adobe Photoshop.
Story
“My son…. while surfing Facebook came across a photo from the scene of the shooting, which went viral on social media… shows his head against the tyre of a vehicle, hands inside pheran – the woollen cloak worn in winters and legs stretched.
Next to his body some fresh apples are lying scattered and a white bag… which contained them apparently.
The picture shows the door of the driver’s side is open with few blood stains visible on the metal body suggesting the victim was boarded in the vehicle before he was captured in the camera (Reshi, 2021).”
This was how Shahid Aijaz Rather’s dead body was reported after the image went viral. The event took place on October 24, 2021.
The picture has stayed with me ever since, and I wanted to turn it into a painting. It is somehow less gruesome, with the dead 19-years-old boy captured in a sleeping pose.
The photographic image, which served as the inspiration for the work, can be found at a few but different news articles.
References
Anjum, Alliya. (2018, December 01). Moving from Impunity to Accountability: Women’s Bodies, Identity, and Conflict-related Sexual Violence in Kashmir. Economic & Political Weekly. 53(47), 47-53. Retrieved from https://www.academia.edu/38089427/Knowing_in_Our_Own_Ways_Women_and_Kashmir
Reshi, Ishfaq. (2021, October 26). "Targetted killing," says father of 19 year old Kashmiri shot dead by CRPF. Maktoob. Retrieved from https://maktoobmedia.com/2021/10/26/targetted-killing-says-father-of-19-year-old-kashmiri-shot-by-crpf/
