Rasheed Araeen: Chakras-Bristol

Rasheed Araeen’s Chakras-Bristol, 2024

Written By Dr. Zehra Jumabhoy

21 July 2024, 11-11.45am

Rasheed Araeen, Chakras 1970

Uniting the various themes of Conscious Forms, Rasheed Araeen Chakras, will be re-staged on the Bristol Docks. First performed in 1970 in London’s St. Katherine Docks to high acclaim, the photo-installation of the performance can be seen at the RWA as part of the exhibition. For the work, Araeen invited members of the public to cast one of sixteen discs, each twenty-four inches in diameter and coloured fluorescent red, onto the water. The wind and water carried the disks across and beyond the boundaries of the dock. Located near Araeen studio at the time, the site was woven through with a long and complex histories of maritime exchange, more recent histories of urban redevelopment (the docks were closed in 1968), and the impact of industry on the environment. Restaged several times since, including at Jheel Park, Karachi, and along the Seine in Paris, the work always begins with the same basic premise: discs of identical size and colour are cast into the water by members of the public, highlighting the shared histories of exchange.