Rina Banerjee, In Mute Witness at the outskirts and out of center she forms a final creased edge of makeshift settlements, a dark and iridescent thorn of horn pierces all home with the hard and the green of unripe fruit, 2015/23. Wood spindles, aluminum cloth, waxed nylon, wood, steel armature, Murano Glass horns, rooster feather, silk tassel, cowry shell, hemp cord, silkscreen print silk cloth, red cotton thread, acrylic paint, tribal jewelry, abacá fibers, gourd, 5 feet 8 inches x 3 feet x 5 feet. Courtesy the artist. © 2024 Rina Banerjee. Photo: Lucia RM Martino, Smithsonian American Art Museum.
Banerjee: Both the materials and the process are important in my creation of assemblages. Numerous ideas factor into developing the work. One idea I’m trying to convey is that identity itself can be considered a kind of assemblage, a collection of different past histories that you choose to inhabit as a person. This is especially true for women for whom, I think, the invention and the visibility that is absent in their histories requires another, deeper layer of search.
