Rutvik Sankhe

I dwell deep into communities to understand their know-hows. I am from Boisar- one of the 24 villages that Vanjaris settled down around the coast of Arabia. Graduated as an architect from Savitribai Phule Pune University, in 2021.

I have worked with different chapters of INTACH in the due course helping me navigate and pose questions associated with changing times and developmental crisis. Working with INTACH was centering enough to find value in architecture more broadly; experiences of working in Uttarakhand; on wellbeing and craft heritage with Ar. Falguni Desai near Surat; guided by Shama Pawar while navigating through mythical forests of Kishkinda, documenting a port town Rander with 70 different types of mosques, in the process found a connection with women in Surat around practices of stitching and making clothes. Coming from a nomad/ Vanjari family and connecting with women elders, expression of self through clothing was a personal and professional shift : producing a personal archive (Blend: of motifs, ideologies, fabrics + Reclaim) + UG thesis on “Aruna” involving trans communities in Tamil Nadu.

Dr.Padmini and Dr.Kush helped me around making a plural archive and questioning how an anti- colonial,anti-caste, and anti-capitalist resistance of building an archive involve, specifically centering the matter and material histories of clothing and its meaning for diverse sexuality and gender expression? And also, Srivi Kalyan and discussions around KALA, motifs, has always been an unending journey around the rivers.

Note:

Graduated from D.Y.Patil School of Architecture, Ambi Pune - Graduated in year 2021.

With around 3 years of academic experience in teaching at a vocational training center in Surat.

Pursued Post Graduate diploma from Srishti Manipal Institute of Art Design and Technology, Bangalore.

Currently associated with INTACH Dahanu Chapter, understanding the developmental effects of port at Vadhvan and resistance of the community towards the same.

Research

The labyrinth that you are going to dive in begins with the basic and simple ideas that underline that which is more complex. Emphasizes the intuitive grasp of ideas and using those basic ideas in the early teaching of any subject. Revisit the basic ideas repeatedly. Enables continual deepening of understanding by facilitating the use of basic ideas in progressively more complex forms. Through reading this abstract try exploring how your thoughts create mental labyrinths each as unique, and sit with the question of who led to construct these labyrinths? Was it through fears, beliefs or our biases are the silent architects representing infinite possibilities. By juxtaposition of thoughts we see an idea and get invited to contemplate our own minds as mirrors of the labyrinthine.

Disclaimer: Read only if you are ready to be first exposed to a stimulus, which elicits a response, and the response is then reinforced by antecedent and consequence.

It was always about not understanding what, where, how and when to start. But you know what, I found a map which led me to the lush green forests of jackfruits, on the hillock there lived a being who would wander around with Tandas (nomad wandering groups). Where they took me to multiple places to collect fabrics and embellish them. At times to collect or deliver grains and seeds with the cattle. On days, they would get into the caves, which were abandoned. Where they tried finding meaning in the IDEA behind its existence. Rumors says, “Dark painted volumes spoke details, where one gets to relate with their version of experiences by communicating with those volumes.” On days, they would try getting away from the forest and meet people back at home, where every individual would start relating their life experiences, which lead everyone towards different topics. Which then turns into a celebration before departing for individual destinations.