Chronicle of the Shores Foretold

Gigi Scaria’s Chronicle of the Shores Foretold (2014) is a performance-based sculptural installation that draws together multiple histories and mythologies of labour, religion and maritime trade that lie entwined on the coastline it stands on.

The installation is composed of a large bell hoisted by bamboo poles, which has been converted into a fountain that spouts water from the backwaters nearby. The bell was lifted into its place in a performance by a group of ‘Mappila Khalasis’– traditional dockyard workers from the ancient port town of Beypore located 180 kilometres north of Kochi. Khalasis are carriers of traditional techniques of load-bearing that were once used to launch Arab trading vessels that docked at Beypore, historically a nodal point for sea exchanges between Malabar and Arab regions.

Scaria in this work orchestrates a confrontation between several overlapping episodes from Malabar’s history, such as the arrival of not just traders, but transformative cultural influences such as Islam and Christianity to its shores via the sea. Most coastal regions in Kerala have folklores surrounding bells that point to the colonial origins of local Christian deities; often referring to a European ship bringing a large bell for a church but sunk off the coast due to the weight of the bell. It is believed that annually, during the church festival, the bell emerges from the water and tolls by itself; this ringing acting as a powerful auditory gesture awakening dormant cultural memories of the community. The bell by itself is a universally acknowledged symbol of time and mortality. According to Scaria, by putting holes in it and letting water stream through, he is symbolically puncturing time.