Context (Display)
'Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia' 07/03/2017 - 22/04/2018 MAA exhibition label text reads:
Ocean of Blood
This sculpture by Gond artist Bokli Nageshwar Rao draws on the form of the Gond memorial pillar to ancestors, the urasgatta. It commemorates the deaths of young Adivasis in the Salwa Judum (’purification hunt’ in Gondi), an anti-insurgency against Maoist Naxalite guerillas in the Gond lands. Militias of young Adivasis, poorly trained and poorly armed, were sent against Naxalites in 2005, resulting in the deaths of many fighters.

Adivasis have long been caught between the state and the rebels. This tension is evoked in the work’s title, alluding to the episode in Hindu mythology, the churning of the milk ocean, when gods and demons united to raise the nectar of immortality (amrita) from the bottom of the ocean of milk. The snake Vasuki coiled around a mountain that would act as a churning rod. Gods pulling one end of the snake and demons the other, they released the amrita but also a terrible poison.

Ocean of Blood
The monument is constructed entirely from scrap metal. Gear wheels, motorcycle chains and broken pieces of other things are aggressively visible throughout. The material, salvaged from the detritus of industrialisation that has impacted on Adivasis and others, stands in contrast to the wooden pillar opposite.

Made by Bokli Nageshwar Rao, 2016 Gond. Godavari District, Chhattisgarh Commissioned with Art Fund support 2017.11
Event Date 22/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Exhibition (Li Ka Shing Gallery)
EXH.2017.2 | Another India: Explorations and Expressions of Indigenous South Asia
Event Date 8/3/2017
Author: Remke Velden

Context (Display)
One of the figures (2017.11.2) at the base was detached on arrival at MAA. It was subsequently lent to CRASHH (Centre for Research in the Arts Social Sciences and Humanities) from 1 June 5 June 2017 as part of a display in the foyer of the Alison Richards building for the conference, Putting Dirt in Its Place: The Contemporary Politics of Waste, 2 June 2017 - 3 June 2017.
Event Date 18/3/2021
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
Metal sculpture 'Ocean of Blood', 1016, by Gond artist Bokli Nageshwar Rao. Constructed entirely from scrap metal, gear wheels, motorcycle chains and broken pieces of other salvaged things.
It draws on the form of the Gond memorial pillar to ancestors, the urasgatta and commemorates the deaths of young Adivasis in the Salwa Judum (’purification hunt’ in Gondi), an anti-insurgency against Maoist Naxalite guerillas in the Gond lands.
Event Date 18/3/2021
Author: rachel hand

Description (Physical description)
'Ocean of Blood' metal sculpture commemorating the Salwa Judum by Bokli Nageshwar Rao, 2016. Square pillar with human and animal figures inside; central shaft with funnel at top; made from scrap metal including gears, springs and chains; painted red. A figure sat on a swing in the top section is secured with springs and is flexible.
Event Date 21/3/2023
Author: Katrina Dring