The Empire Strikes Back

Their travels led them across Sri Lanka,Indonesia and India and the couple will showcase the result of their travels in three video installations of 10 minutes each at the Khoj Artists Association in Saket on Friday. Setting off from New York in 2009,their initial research led them to Colombo,where they met a colony of Dutch descendents,the Burghers,who live in an old age home on the outskirts of the city. “We are drawn towards gender and religious subjects and people who live on the fringes of society,” adds Jongsma,who graduated from Arts School in Amsterdam. The couple lived in the old age home,filming activities of the residents.

Last month,they landed in Bangalore with the intention of shooting at a quaint 17th century Dutch cemetery in Kerala,but changed their plans. “The Dutch cemetery in Kochi was popular among tourists. So we thought of filming at another lesser-known 17th century cemetery in Ahmedabad,” explains O’Neill,31. The cemetery,located on the banks of Kankaria lake in Ahmedabad,lies neglected and is the haunt of couples. “We wanted to document a moment in time at the cemetery,before the restoration work began. The couples who visited the cemetery were unaware of the history,” he explains.

After shooting at the cemetery,the couple returned to Karnataka to film at the state’s granite quarries. From here,granite was transported to factories in Tamil Nadu where it was sculpted into custom made tombstones to be shipped to Nehtherlands and Europe. “We learnt about this factory in Tamil Nadu purely by chance. We saw how they made exotic tombstones with designs of hearts and teddy bears,” explains Jongsma.

The couple has been working as a team for three years collaborating on projects for Dutch TV network,VPRO. They plan to complete the remaining part of the “Empire Project”,travelling to South Africa and Ghana,next month. “These two African nations are significant because they were the birthplace of Apartheid,” says O’Neill,who travels to Rotterdam with this project next.