Art needs space like the sun and the courtyard where it throws a chiaroscuro of shadows. The interpretation of shadows is the artist’s vocation, usually those with contemporary concerns. The Bangalore Creative Circus (BCC) is a 20,000 sq ft arena where art and science come together to champion in real and impactful ways, solutions to sustainability and climate change. At Whitefield Art Collective (WAC) 2020, the River Cauvery by BCC was its own song.
Rahul KP and Nithin Sadhu, the artists behind the installation ‘Namma Tiger of the Cauvery’, say, "We made it with scrap collected from the trash collection drives along the Cauvery River and also Bengaluru."
The river is known for the majestic mahseer, which goes by the sobriquet of ‘Tiger of the Cauvery’. The installation interrogates the future with the pertinent question, ‘Does our development plan for the future accommodate such unique and rare species?”
The work was initially commissioned by the Wildlife Association of South India (WASI) to draw attention to the conservation efforts for the giant fish, which was shown at the fourth edition of the Echoes of Earth show before making its way to WAC.On BCC’s genesis, founder Ajay Raghavan says, “Since May 2019 we have been doing fun things here. BCC is meant to be Bengaluru’s sustainability hub. We are in the middle of many projects to promote the concept and intention” The arthouse resembles a museum for viewers to understand the science behind climate change and view solutions that will allow them to live more sustainably.
At the studio and an art collaborative, different ouvres of art and artists are in the throes of osmosis and creation. “We are collaborating with a bunch of visual artists who use scrap as their medium to build installations,” says Raghavan.
They seek to ensure that the final work is interactive to help the audience to relate to the issue and understand its contours better. For example, the 40X12 ft model at the WAC was an immersive experience with visitors physically entering the installation to interact with a range of content regarding the mahseer’s ecosystem and habitat. “Art can be quite provocative and is a great tool to draw people’s attention to contentious issues. We believe that we will be able to effectively use it to convey several environmental messages,” adds Raghavan.
WAC’s unwritten charter is to connect communities through art. “We try to give artists a platform for their expression so that they get the recognition and exposure they deserve,” says curator Sumi Gupta, WAC. A recent result: the Wearable Art Show curated by the JD Institute of Fashion Technology and interactive events coordinated by Artflute—both reflecting sustainability.
BCC’s rainbow coalition of art includes ‘Preserve the Pride’, inspired by a doorway of a Buddhist shrine in Ajanta Caves, ‘Abandoned in Time’ —an interpretation of Salvador Dali’s ‘Persistence of Memory’, and the Aravani Art Project aimed at creating a collective space for the transgender community by bringing them into the public art mainstream and using other interventions. Here, the mahseer doesn’t need to fish for compliments.
The River’s Giant
For a long time, the Humpback Mahseer went AWOL from its habitat in the ancient river that flows through three states on its way to the Bay of Bengal. Researchers believed that indiscriminate fishing drove it to extinction, until it reappeared in 1977. The giant carp, discovered over 150 years ago and classified as an endangered species only in 2018, can grow up to a mammoth 1.5 metres long and weigh 55 kg.