KOCHI: Presented by the famed Emami Art gallery of Kolkata, a satellite exhibition of the Kochi-Muziris Biennale – works of contemporary Bengali artist Prasanta Sahu and Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam – have been drawing scores of art lovers to Mocha Art Café, tucked inside the quiet Synagogue Lane at Jew Town in Mattancherry.
Prasanta’s ‘Anatomy of a Vegetable — Ruminations on fragile ecosystems’ is a chronicle of the Indian hinterland. Hailing from an agrarian background, he was the first in his family to complete a university education. He studied electrical engineering before finding his way into art.
‘Mapping Craters’, Prasanta’s installation with moulds and models of various kinds of vegetables kept on the table, is the result of a three-year bond he forged with a landless farmer named Lakhi Ram of Amdahara village near Santiniketan.
In the background, one can find his artworks on paper and found objects, arranged carefully as part of his ‘The Drumstick Tree & Other Stories’ installation. It depicts the symbiotic relationship between humans, plants, animals, vegetables, farming equipment, animals, etc.
Next up is a photography series by photojournalist and champion of human rights Shahidul Alam, who was the Time Magazine Person of the Year in 2018. Curated by Ina Puri, the exhibition offers a glimpse into the common lives during the time of political unrest, and natural disasters that ravaged Bangladesh.
With selected works from his archive in Dhaka, the exhibition, titled ‘Singed But Not Burned’, consists of his experiments with the camera. Shahidul’s political images elicit anger, while his frames on calamities brim with pathos. All his images are in black and white, and artistically crafted. They leave a lasting imprint.