The Art Of Preservation

Though her heritage interpretation and design consultancy, Sarita Sundar is working at keeping memories alive…in the process satisfying both the researcher and designer in her

- Sarita Sundar

How did you become passionate about heritage?

SS: I’ve always had a fascination for folk performances. At my ancestral village in Kerala I was often a spectator and sometimes a participant on the periphery of many such events during the summer holidays. However, it was possibly an epiphanic incident in 2008 that made me question the issues and dichotomies that exist in the heritage space. I had gone to attend a shadow puppet performance as part of a larger project to collate an institutional archive in rural Andhra Pradesh. Very soon the shadows on the screen transported all gathered there to a mythical land of monkeys and gods. While I got caught up in the story of the Ramayana that was being played out on the stretched cloth screen, I was as fascinated by the people who were creating this wonderful scene from inside the tent, and also by the audience and their reactions. I like to think that moment shifted many absolutes under my feet, and I felt an urgency to understand the many conflicting issues that surround this space. I then shifted focus within my research and design practice to understand and create narratives that facilitate memory keeping, which is really what heritage is all about.

What role has formal design education played in your career?