While there is much talk of Bangalore and its changing nature, photographs featured at two photography exhibitions at Vismaya and Chaya galleries along the M G Road Boulevard speak volumes of different aspects of the city we live in.
Bangalore Dreams, by four shutterbugs, is a collage of what has caught their attention in the humdrum of life in Bangalore.
For B S Shivappa or ‘Cop Shiva’ as he prefers to call himself, living in Bangalore, with its large migrant population, is a nostalgic as well as an alienating experience. He juxtaposes the people against the backdrop of wall art, for example, people standing in front of movie posters stuck to paan and urine stained walls, a person in a green-coloured Hanuman costume posing against the painting of a mosque, a Muslim couple in front of Basava, the bull, and many more.
Pradeep K S, a photographer with an online portal for art, culture and entertainment found his subject in Garadi Mane, wrestling pits that are used by those who still practise kushti, their daily rituals and lives. Clare Arni, a photographer hailing from the UK based in Bangalore, has captured candid moments at circuses - acrobats, jokers and girls - and Selvaprkash L’s frames reflect the life of those migrants who get absorbed as construction labour.
The other exhibition, Namma Ooru Namma Neeru, tells tales of water and community involvement to revive sources in and around Bangalore, from the perspective of 13 amateur photographers.
“There are enough campaigns for water and water conservation in Bangalore,” says S Vishwanath, who has curated Namma Ooru Namma Neeru with his city-based photographer friend Vivek Muthuramalingam. “What we want to do is involve a new community - that of the photographers,” he says.
Vishwanath, who is the founder of Rainwater Harvesting Club, adds that this exhibition is an extension of one that the two friends had put out a year ago focusing on open wells.
“This time it’s about water and people’s interaction with it,” he adds. The subjects vary from revival of lakes and open wells to how Arkavathi, a river that has almost gone dry, still lives on in memories of people. The pictures on display at the exhibition, which premiered at Max Mueller Bhavan and the water expert hopes to take to government schools, have been captured by professional and amateur photographers Hansika Jethani, Pradeep K S, Perumal Venkatesh, Gopal Katwal Chetri, Lakshmi Venkatesha, Rashmi Nayar, Hari Ganapathi, Sharanya Ramprakash, Sivaram Kuppachi, Arati Rao, Adarsh Bhardwaj, Ameen Ahmed and Biju Cherayanth.
Speaking for the gallery, curator of Rangoli Art Centre says, “Here, there’s a footfall of about 2000 people everyday, we look for not just entertainment value but also something that is also informative. One is a documentation of various aspects of the city and its life and the other of water and people’s relationship with it.”
Both exhibitions along with another exhibition displaying letters written by citizens addressed to Gandhi, have a combined entry fee of `10.
All the exhibitions are on display till December 22, from 11 am to 7.30 pm.