SHREYA DE SOUZA
“When thinking about Utopias, I found myself wanting to create renders of a well. I couldn't help but think of a well as being a point to share resources, while at the same time being a place of exclusion when it came to who could have access to these resources. Simultaneously I was imagining the landscape of a Khazan, which are rice farming lands in Goa, inundated with a mix of sea and fresh water. This is a 3,500 year old farming system, developed by indigenous Goan people, upon which saline resistent varieties of rice are grown. I wanted to place the well in this landscape, a nod to the richness of this indigenous farming method. At a time of neoliberal individualism, rising sea levels, food insecurity, climate catastrophies, I began to think about this landscape. Placed in this fertile swamp land, I wanted the well to serve as a point of collection, simultaneously turning into a sort of fountain, as an open invitation to be consumed and shared.”
author
Shreya de Souza (Goa,1995, She/They pronouns) graduated from the Gerrit Rietveld Academie Amsterdam (Bachelor of Fine Arts, Photography) in 2020. Their thesis 'Queerness' and 'Growing Pains' was nominated for the thesis prize. Upon graduation they worked as the Artist in Residence for the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences for 2020-2021. Six images from this series 'Falter/Altar! have been taken into the permanent collection of the University. In their work, they are interested in and work with knowledge production and sharing, community building, & the wild spaces, disobedience and inclusivity offered by queer modalities of being. Trained as a photographer they are fascinated by, and sensitive to, the quality of representation and truth telling that photography entails – that can be both limited, and have the potential for multiple parallel realities. They are always in search of ways to tell stories, using different mediums such as video, print making, drawing & CGI in addition to photography. It allows for the molding of a wider landscape of visuals and information to be offered to the viewer.
Utopian Thinking in the dark times – Season 2: Autumn/Winter 2022 – Research Capsule by Neo-Metabolism – Editors: Georgia Kareola, Lynn Gommes, Oskar Johanson – Contributors: Damian Borovsky, Olly Bromham, Camila Chebez, Shreya De Souza, Torben Koerschkes, Max Kuwertz, Christopher Michael, Liminal Vision, Zach Whitworth, Rue Yi – Paintings: Eric L. Chen – Design: Clint Soren, dolor~puritan, Ghikhan – Published: October 2022