Overview

A folk tale from the Upper Siang region of Arunachal Pradesh (India),as recorded by Verrier Elwin (1902- 1964), the great English Anthropologist.

Pedong Nane (Pedong = rain, Nane = female elder) gave birth to a malformed baby boy. Afriad that the child would be ostracized, Pedong Nane abandoned him on a large rock, in a clearing deep within the forest.

Abotani ( Abo = father, Tani =human) who was out hunting and gathering in the forest, heard a sound through the wilderness so he raised his bow and aimed in the direction of the sound, expecting it to be a kill. A closer investigation revealed that Abotani’s arrow had found its way to Pedong Nane’s malformed offspring, piercing the baby’s side. The Wind was released and that was how the wind was born.

For her first solo show in three years, Apang has worked with both ink-on-paper and printing techniques. The resulting suite expands upon a long-standing interest in the points of intersection between the world of myth and her own personal lexicon of mark making.

The works tantalise us with their almost there-ness. Like stories on the tip of the tongue, the imagery seems to suggest a narrative without ever submitting to a narrow reading. Moving on from previous series, Death in a Rainforest cannot be geographically located but, instead, embraces a sense of the universal.