Pomegranate Prayer

Collaboration with the Rieko Shimizu

Uratan Concalve 2023, Utkal University of Culture

Bhubaneshwar, Orissa 9th to 12th December 

curated by Umesh Nayak

This performance collaboration started with my spontaneous response to the pomegranate Fruit. During conversations with Reiko, she explained she will use 51 pomegranates to represent 51 Shakti peetha that represent (Sati). I love pomegranate fruit as each fragment of the fruit is complete by itself and represents feminine energy. I instantly said yes to work and collaborate with her. We had a brief conversation with Reiko and I brainstormed for one night how I could collaborate with Reiko and laid a plan for action and collaborations on how and where we perform and how we reach the water pond( as one of the elements for performance was to cleanse the stains and ourselves). I could connect to feminine energy, whatever name we like to call it (The famine energy we experience in physical, emotional and spiritual terms). I wanted to collaborate since it engages me with energy and red seed. I wanted to be involved and engage intimately in making physical and spiritual connections to the seeds and performing. Reiko's collaborator had her way of connecting intimately with pomegranates. The performance was intense, forgetting the harsh Sun was concentrating on the mala of pomegranates opening the mala that Reiko had made 12 knots, 51 pomegranates opening to an unknown self.

As I opened one by one opening to its essence, squeezed the juice and the elixir of fruit juice was dripping on my body and soul, soaked in its juice and 12 0 clock-sharp sunlight sweat, each drop of each piece of fruit narrating its intense spiritual connection. I felt lost and immersed in that moment stained white sari lay on the floor. The white saree represented a blank page of my life chapter, getting stains in the process of experiencing the moment the sari was washed in the dirty pond water. Finally, we wrap ourselves in a stained and washed sari and share that moment and a stained and washed Saree together. A journey was to an inner space of identity, a spiritual path, a taste elixir connecting to a collaborating partner for that moment became part of yours.

Dimple B Shah 19th December 2023

Concept note by Reiko Shimizu

柘榴の祈り ~Prayers of Pomegranates

The pomegranate as an emblem of Shakti - the omnipotent power that permeates all existence. Inspired by the scattered remnants of Mother Goddess, Sati, interwoven into a white saree, into 12 knots of pomegranates, uniting and releasing into 51 pomegranates. Two female figures delve into movement, contemplation, action, and interactions, unveiling the essence of Shakti. It penetrates our bodies and souls, every being in the earth and the sky, nurtures and binds all into an interconnected, indivisible whole. Stains on the saree, the marks of life, traces of time are washed away in the pond, an amniotic fluid, the forgotten One - the nurturing expanse of a Mother's womb.