Blowback

03 Blowback

Blowback aims to explore the kite as a political object rather than merely an object of leisure. During a study exchange in Varanasi, India, we experienced first-hand the local significance of kite flying as a time-old and weighted pursuit, quite distinct from our own cultural presuppositions we associate with the activity. For us the kite represents a quaint leisure object, it summons images of children and summer holidays. The kite, for us, is an emblem of our common everyday position, “relaxed and comfortable. (Another infamous quote from John Howard)

In India, however, images from the local kite festivals resemble a riot scene, these festivals commonly result in fatalities. The sporting event, ‘kite battles’ or ‘wars’ that take place involve one person attempting to cut the string of another’s kite, the mass of people means bodies get cut and blood pours, also it is also common for people to get trampled and fall off rooftops during battle. The complexity of many of these games brought to our attention that the kite is as much an object for play as it is as an outlet for religious devotion. The kite is also viewed as a symbol for social and political freedom for the common man, reflecting of the struggle and political pressure a culture faces after colonisation. What we witnessed in India shed light on the underlying political symbolism associated when one flies a kite, and the possible significance of such an act. This prompted a reminder of the spiritual and political impoverishment in the everydayness of our own culture.

Although the political underlies our lives in a wider sense, today’s climate of individual and material comfort, offers a freedom from the necessity to engage politically, we endeavour to de-politicise. In India however life is less comfortable. The everyday is overtly politicised as people struggle for their basic needs and remember the recent historical struggle for autonomism.

address
Inflight Elizabeth Street
237 Elizabeth St, Hobart TAS 7000
artists
Astrid Joyce – Artist
Amanda Shone – Artist