This slow-motion video captures the manual cleaning of a rug originally installed at a palace in Junagagh. The ornate textile with its geometric floral pattern was initially produced in the late 1800’s by inmates imprisoned for their role as freedom fighters in the struggle for independence from colonial Great Britain. A surprising amount of dust is exhumed in this beating process creating billowingsmoke-like plumes that envelop the scene, the laborers and this cultural artifact. The work alludes to the sediment of time and a release of that which is embedded underneath the surface of our dominant narrative. The sound is slightly off register with the action creating an echoing effect not unlike that of mortars discharging in the distance while the image of the dust clouds calls to mind a city under aerial bombardment (carpet bombing). This act of cleaning or cleansing creates an association to the violent and destructive conflicts places such as Iraq, Afghanistan and Syria.

Interference was made in partnership with the Junagagh Museum in Gujarat, India.
Special thanks to the Junagadh Museum; Varia Kiran, Videography ;Vandita Jain, sound engineer; and Bhanu Pratap Sing.