Vaishu Ilankamban
Vaishnavi (Vaishu) Ilankamban is a New York-based woodworker and visual artist working primarily in sculpture and installation. Originally from southeast Michigan, she worked as an engineer, furniture designer and woodworker for 8 years prior to shifting to the arts. Her recent work is a layering of the real & imagined memories found in the built environment — recollections and physical traces of family narratives layered with her own. She received her MFA at CUNY Hunter college, and has participated in residencies (all in Maine ~) at the Ellis-Beauregaurd Foundation, the Center for Furniture Craftsmanship and the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture. She previously served as a craftsperson and senior designer at George Nakashima Woodworkers in New Hope, PA and currently teaches woodworking and sculpture to undergraduates and enthusiasts in the community of all ages.
Artworks
Project rendering for If you stand here you will hear, 2027
If you stand here you will hear her is a sculptural work that consists of a series of concrete drainage stones with polished flat surfaces that subtly reflect the sky. It references an ancient drainage system and alludes to Sunswick Creek’s prior existence in the park and its submergence into pipes underground. The channels of the sculpture represent the function of moving, draining, or inviting water. In the context of the park, these “stones” are meant to collect, hold, and move physical traces and debris from visitors and elements of the natural environment.
Around the sculptural installation, visitors of various ages are invited to play “Mancala,” meaning to move, in an artist-organized community activity and performance titled Mancala played in a field with seeds will grow. Participants are asked to respond to a poem and given play pieces and time to find material in the park to play the game with. They are then asked to be guided by their own sensory memory, to take in how the play pieces feel between their hands, and dig pits into the ground without gloves. In turn, visitors will invent what the board looks like, and invent the rules. Traces of this community activity will remain visible or sown into the ground.