SOUTH ASIAN STUDIES South Asian Studies ROUTLEDGE Routled Taylor & Francis BASAS ISSN: 0266-6030 (Print) 2153-2699 (Online) Journal homepage: https://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rsas20 The Afterlives of Monuments Deborah Cherry To cite this article: Deborah Cherry (2013) The Afterlives of Monuments, South Asian Studies, 29:1, 1-14, DOI: 10.1080/02666030.2013.772800 To link to this article: https://doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2013.772800 Published online: 23 Apr 2013. Submit your article to this journal Article views: 1031 Q View related articles C Citing articles: 3 View citing articles Full Terms & Conditions of access and use can be found at https://www.tandfonline.com/action/journalInformation?journalCode=rsas20
South Asian Studies, 2013 Vol. 29, No. 1, 1-14, http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/02666030.2013.772800 ROUTLEDGE Routledge Taylor & Francis Group The Afterlives of Monuments Deborah Cherry* University of the Arts London and University of Amsterdam This initial essay proposes that monuments have afterlives. The study of the afterlives of monuments encompasses how, where, when and why monuments have been re-modelled, re-used, re-sited, re-made, cast aside, destroyed or abandoned to accommodate changing political and social climates; how they survive through re-invention and transfor- mations. Afterlives accrue through material alteration and they accumulate in representation. The diverse ways in which monuments survive, it is argued, depends on definitions and listings of monuments, practices of monument-making past and present and recent debates over history and memory. The concept is proposed to capture afterlives that co-exist as well as those occur sequentially, and to suggest a model of greater complexity and plurality than a linear or quasi- biographical trajectory. Conflicts over monuments especially over their survival, it is suggested, are as much concerned with projections of a future, as with reconstructions of the past or mnemonic recollection. Monuments - ancient, modern and contemporary - have taken centre stage as different and competing South-Asian communities claim a stake in the making of national, religious, cultural and local histories and identities. In their varied afterlives, monuments emerge as extraordinarily mobile, marked by material change, put to new uses and interpretations, and travelling through image-banks, archives, collections and exhibitions. Their afterlives, like monuments themselves, are multi-media. Keywords: afterlives; monument; memorials; modernity; replication; conservation Two massive sculptures, resplendent and statuesque, appear as if moving in a river. Their golden garlands adorned with bank notes catch the light, glittering against the moist greys of the river and its distant bank. Birds flit overhead and skim the waterline. Beyond, a train goes by, construction traffic passes, dogs run along the water's edge. Pylons, a bridge, and overhead electric cables bestride the scene (Figure 1). This is Sleepwalkers' Caravan (Prologue), (2008), an eleven-minute single screen video by leading artists Raqs Media Collective. According to the artists, it features 'the wandering figures of a Yaksha and a Yakshi, mythic male and female guardians of treasure and keepers of riddles in different Indic traditions'. They continue: 'The Yaksha and the Yakshi provide a crepuscular subjectivity to a landscape, their gaze passing, leaving open the question whether the guardians of wealth are leaving the city or entering it'. The film is compelling in its ambiguity, posing unanswered questions, unsolved riddles.