Immersion
Kalanjay Dhir
As children, when our pets died, we would take their bodies behind the old ‘70s factories, to the artificial banks of the river. Imitating our father, my siblings and I would send our pets’ empty vessels down the river and pray. For us, the polluted Parramatta River emulated the polluted Ganga Mata or Ganges. It was only when I reached my teenage years that I realised the river we live next to was not ours, nor was it the Ganges.
Immersion is a step in problematising my relationship to the Parramatta River, gamifying the spiritual dissonance of what it means for a settler-migrant family to project stories onto Dharug waters and lands that we do not have claim to. Swimming in the river became a way of immersing myself in its immediate material conditions, a result of pollutants of industry and colonisation, while also considering its future under immense urban redevelopment.
In 2017, the Whanganui River in Aotearoa was granted legal personhood. This granting process, described as a “170-year battle”, could be interpreted as a law that emulates or reverts to an ancient value system. For example, the Ganges are revered as a mother. In many ways, deification or animism can be understood as a technology of granting personhood or agency to nonhuman entities. This got me thinking: how might the Parramatta River feel today?
There’s an irony living next to an ancient body of water and not being able to swim in it.
Immersion was made on the unceded lands, skies and waters of the Burramattagal people of the Dharug nation. I pay my respect to Elders past and present and all First Nations peoples.
Credits:
Edited & Performed by Kalanjay Dhir
Mentored by Dara Gill
Videography: Murli Dhir, Rob Milazzo and Nick Pavlakis
Logo & UX Elements: Alexander Tanazefti
3D Elements: Patrick Mikha
3D/AR Consultation: Alexandra Chalmers-Braithwaite
Sound Design and Score by DJ Atro: Tracks are ‘Yama’, ‘Panthalassan Dream’, & ‘Kal’s Kalimba’.
Kalanjay Dhir is an artist and musician based in Western Sydney on unceded Dharug Land. He has made work about urban development, space technology, rivers, myth, social media, progress and time. He enjoys thinking about what the rest of our world would look like if things were built with a devotion similar to churches, masjids, mandirs and gardens. Alongside Kilimi, Kalanjay hosts FBi Radio’s Wednesday sunset slot as ‘2K’ spotlighting artists from the area. Under Slim Set he gigged for a bit with bf DJ Atro. He is a co-founder of Pari, an artist-run space in Parramatta and has worked from Parramatta Artists Studios since 2017. In his spare time he likes to drink Milo, read Wikipedia and manga.