The name Kashmir translates to “land desiccated from water”, referring to the valleyʼs initial life as a high altitude lake. Kashmirʼs landscape is famous for containing most of the worldʼs tallest mountains and serving as a confluence of dessert and the oasis of the valleyʼs fertile ground. Due to its allure, Kashmir has long stood as a battleground, and is currently unaccounted for, remaining a territory in conflict between India, Pakistan and China.

Siachen glacier, a triangular piece of landing where thePakistan-India line of control ends, is bordered by a different country on each of its sides. It is the central zone for Kashmirʼs ongoing conflict. It is the worldʼs highest battleground and fastest melting glacier, as if marking the impending return of the land to its life previous to human settlement.

The earliest conficts in this region date back to Indiaʼs pre-hindu caste system where the warrior class hailed from one of two tribes: the Suryavanshi (Sun Worshipers) and Chandravanshi (Moon Worshipers). The project is thusly conceived of as sanctuary for worship relating across a series of timescales measured by the movement of the sun and moon,  and invoking various elements of the landscape within the refuge.

The sanctuary itself is a single sheet that has been distorted to create volumes with specific alignments and varying degrees of shelter. Each volume establishes a connection to the cosmos and landscape, and each experiences a wave of light unraveling at a different speed and intensity depending on the day.

Included here are a variety of paper, plexi-glass and plaster models studying the movement of light within curved and unraveling spaces.

‍

‍