Launch SEE-SAW: WEBSITE LAUNCH

Imagine receiving a letter from an anonymous sender.
Imagine replying to this letter.
An exchange that takes place by India post.
The slow wait begins.
Your phone won't ping, there won't be a notification.
All you can do is sit and wait.
In today's day and age, imagine waiting for a postman.
Imagine the excitement of opening an envelope, imagine reading a handwritten note.
Imagine wondering about this unknown pen-friend.
The things they tell you and the things they don't.
Imagine them, in turn, waiting for your letter.

See-Saw began as an exercise to see how we engage with the idea of the 'other'. An attempt to collectively reflect on themes of identity, prejudice, people and communities. We wanted our artistic exchange to allow for a multi-sensorial experience and to develop a sense of collective reflection while still being apart. Hence, snail mail. This was simply furthered by the Covid-19 pandemic, for we were oversaturated by online communication, and ready for something warmer, more intimate.

This culminated in:

a 10-week artistic exchange between anonymously paired Bangalore-based artists via snail mail.
a website that hopes to provide a deep-dive into everything that emerged, alongside reflections and insights from the team behind the project.

So through this tangible, slow medium, we had a chance to rethink and relish both creation and communication. And we definitely recognised that acknowledging and understanding prejudices, and then bringing them into practice could sometimes take a lifetime (or longer).

The website comprises the 80+ artistic responses, notes and letters that were born from this exchange. It is more than just an archival space, however, as our team has reflected on these artworks and themes deeply, and shared its insights, too. We have also attempted to make the website accessible to people with different kinds of disabilities.

See-Saw is a project of Sandbox Collective and is supported by the Goethe-Institut / Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore. It has been conceived and conceptualised by Karen D’Mello and co-created with Charulatha Dasappa (Project Manager), Suchaita Tennetia (Dramaturg) and Aakriti Chandervanshi (Visual Designer), along with 11 other artists practicing diverse forms and from various social locations.

Check out this new online platform, launching on January 22, 2022!