Sanchita Islam, Nomad (Day) (2007)

Medium: Video Painting, Projection, Color and no sound

Dimensions: 36 Scapes | Duration: 3 hours, 31 min., 54 sec.

Collection: Video Painting Solo Series

Edition of 7

Reference: VPSS-SIND07

Nomad (Day) explores the nomadic character of the human. We associate nomadic life with wandering desert characters but Sanchita Islam's series draws attention to the nomadic quality of our lives whether in Western cities or in the developing world.

Sanchita Islam uncovers the shifting nomadic character of the developing world. For this is a space where the primary search for food and shelter is in the process of being transformed into a search for jobs and experience.

A Long Crossing shows groups of Bengalis gathering and loitering [grazing] on a small enclosed area of scrub land with two railway tracks running through it. In the background, behind a wall, a smarter road and area of developed suburbia can be seen traversed by shiny four by fours. The poorer Bengalis come here in search of food, trade, and social interaction. These activities have been forced into this strange space by the expanding development of the surrounding city. As the railway improves they will eventually be forced from this space also.

Sanchita Islam is an artist, writer and film maker. Major exhibitions and screenings in London, New York, Paris, Bangladesh, Jakarta, Kuala Lumpur and Frankfurt. She has filmed in New York, Kuala Lumpur, Jakarta, Nepal, Cambodia, Vietnam, Bangladesh, Barcelona and Miami for Open and the production of her fifteen films to date. Her films and books, which combine text and drawings, have been funded by the Arts Council, BBC and British Council. Eight years ago she founded Pigment Explosion which specializes in international art projects.

Artist in Residence at the Whitechapel (2003-4), Islam was also Artist in Residence at Open Gallery from 2004 - 2008.