Paranoid Picnic: The Phantom BAME

Paranoid Picnic juxtaposes video footage of Pandhal’s studio with digital animation. Pandhal’s accompanying vocals explore the idea of ‘dissonant heritage’, a term used in heritage studies to describe the way in which identities are subject to conflicting realties that shift over time and place. In this instance references include steampunk aesthetics, popular Victoriana and a drawing by Gaganendranath Tagore (1867 – 1938). Tagore’s drawing, depicting an Orientalist automaton preloaded with speeches, is read as an absurdist and somewhat delusional satire on the way Indian politicians and rulers are able to change their speeches and modulate their voices to suit occasion. Pandhal animates this image to reflect on the ways in which aspects of colonial rule have been inherited and re-administered in post-partition India.