En Masse

32 minutes, 2016

Every year or so, towards the end of the wet season, these grasshoppers arrive en masse. They move in swarms and within days the grass has lost height. This video is an ode to the distinct power of small things en masse.

This video was shot in early 2016 on Gija Country, just outside my home when my son was about 8 months old. And just when the JNU sedition row that emerged from a student poetry reading at my former university commemorated the injustice of India’s execution of Afzal Guru in Tihar Jail. In a similar way to Afzal Guru’s own media trial students from JNU were thrown into the media spotlight, declared anti-national, and arrested. But from this a wave of students movements and a growing political consciousness started to take shape. However, this was met with sweeping state repression impacting universities, imprisoning many and changing the course of people’s lives. Looking at this video in dark times, it’s about trying to hold onto the distinct power of small things en masse.

En Masse is in the collection of Artbank and featured in the exhibition Uncertain Territory, 2019.