𑂥𑂩𑂯𑂧𑂹
barham:
restless rest
Used pillow, fragments of thinking process
2023
Spent and torn process of thinking hold this promise of rest. To rest is to know. These processes can be traumatic for sudras forbidden to create anything outside the tradition; but even the most abiding traditionalists get restless.
Among many things we hear barham is, we find [folk] practices of making material resting places for something restless from within (psyche), often as mounds of earth raised a bit from the ground; but here, barham is this pillow.
Patriarchal communities worship barham as the place of male-ancestral spirit. Brahmanical hegemony appropriates this place of worship as representation of brahma— the creator-father of casteist theism. Nevertheless, we hear anecdotes of people making rogue and esoteric barhams to rest feelings, sufferings, emotions, and manythings untold.
Note: The concept of ‘barham’ comes from folk-practices of Bihar. Such folk-practices have been historically misappropriated and weaponised againts their own people.
Materialising the mundane as a shrine/art, my decision to work with ‘barham’ as a concept is an assertion for imaginative access; What the colonial and casteist gaze has termed “spiritual”, is actually an emotionally grounded materiality, that is imaginatively accessible to all.
Materialising the mundane as a shrine/art, my decision to work with ‘barham’ as a concept is an assertion for imaginative access; What the colonial and casteist gaze has termed “spiritual”, is actually an emotionally grounded materiality, that is imaginatively accessible to all.
