OPPARI PAADAL
Audio installation
Mixed media - Handmade wooden chair, Oil lamp (hanging), Parai instrument (made of cow’s skin)
The deep connection between Oppari songs and me started from my childhood and it still continues. Whenever I happen to listen to those songs, I will be taken to an illusional state of emotion irrespective of the state of my mind or the place I am. Along with it I would be surrounded with a strange fear. When I was a child, I lived with that fear and . But now as an artist I am able to interpret and understand the fear and find the truth it is based upon. These songs raise numerous questions about my existence in the world. The answers of these questions and the truth gives me a sense of a fear which is different from the prior one. It is the Realisation. This Realisation of truth continues to haunt me. This new fear brought me to a clear understanding on many things such as life, birth and death, love, humanity, happiness, hate and the suffering of fellow beings. So I believe these songs convey the same to anyone who is listening to it. Many changes had happened through the ages is because of the reverberation of suffering, loss, sorrow and tears of the fellow beings has been transmitted to other individual. The intention of this audio installation is to take this truth and the realisation of existence to some extent to every individual who listens to this piece of audio.
Music is largely supportive for an individual in expressing his/her emotions. In Tamil culture, Music becomes the integral part of inner expression from a his/her birth to death. A life of an individual has been divided into seven categories in Tamil Folklore Music. One of such categories is Oppari or the lamentation song. It is played at the demise of a person. The meaning of Oppari is ‘no one is comparable to the lost one’.
In the Tamil Folklore culture, Oppari songs are being sung by women. It is also considered as ‘Oral literature’ in the literary world as these songs of mourning are passed through generations by their ancestors orally. Women sing these songs not only to mourn the loss of the person but they do it for consoling themselves for their own emotion of grief and loss.
In past days, these Oppari songs were known and sung by mostly all of the women in the locality. In recent days, only few have known to sing. So the situation has changed like, the family of the lost is approaching a woman in their locality who can sing the songs and they pay her to sing at the ritual. I met eleven such women who were used to sing mourning songs and brought their singing into an artwork.I have tried to transcend the emotion of these mourning songs through my work of art. I have drawn their portrait on “Parai” an ancient framed drum instrument made out of cow's skin. At the house of the lost, the music of Parai is played after the lamentation song. Regionally, the Parai music is called as “Saavu Maelam” (Rhythm of Death).
As this practice of playing Parai music after the lamentation song at the place of lost is a crucial part of the funeral, I had decided to have the singers portraitures to be done on the Parai instrument.
Audio installation
Mixed media - Handmade wooden chair, Oil lamp (hanging), Parai instrument (made of cow’s skin)
The deep connection between Oppari songs and me started from my childhood and it still continues. Whenever I happen to listen to those songs, I will be taken to an illusional state of emotion irrespective of the state of my mind or the place I am. Along with it I would be surrounded with a strange fear. When I was a child, I lived with that fear and . But now as an artist I am able to interpret and understand the fear and find the truth it is based upon. These songs raise numerous questions about my existence in the world. The answers of these questions and the truth gives me a sense of a fear which is different from the prior one. It is the Realisation. This Realisation of truth continues to haunt me. This new fear brought me to a clear understanding on many things such as life, birth and death, love, humanity, happiness, hate and the suffering of fellow beings. So I believe these songs convey the same to anyone who is listening to it. Many changes had happened through the ages is because of the reverberation of suffering, loss, sorrow and tears of the fellow beings has been transmitted to other individual. The intention of this audio installation is to take this truth and the realisation of existence to some extent to every individual who listens to this piece of audio.
Music is largely supportive for an individual in expressing his/her emotions. In Tamil culture, Music becomes the integral part of inner expression from a his/her birth to death. A life of an individual has been divided into seven categories in Tamil Folklore Music. One of such categories is Oppari or the lamentation song. It is played at the demise of a person. The meaning of Oppari is ‘no one is comparable to the lost one’.
In the Tamil Folklore culture, Oppari songs are being sung by women. It is also considered as ‘Oral literature’ in the literary world as these songs of mourning are passed through generations by their ancestors orally. Women sing these songs not only to mourn the loss of the person but they do it for consoling themselves for their own emotion of grief and loss.
In past days, these Oppari songs were known and sung by mostly all of the women in the locality. In recent days, only few have known to sing. So the situation has changed like, the family of the lost is approaching a woman in their locality who can sing the songs and they pay her to sing at the ritual. I met eleven such women who were used to sing mourning songs and brought their singing into an artwork.I have tried to transcend the emotion of these mourning songs through my work of art. I have drawn their portrait on “Parai” an ancient framed drum instrument made out of cow's skin. At the house of the lost, the music of Parai is played after the lamentation song. Regionally, the Parai music is called as “Saavu Maelam” (Rhythm of Death).
As this practice of playing Parai music after the lamentation song at the place of lost is a crucial part of the funeral, I had decided to have the singers portraitures to be done on the Parai instrument.
- Saran Raj
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