KOCHI: In one of the photographs displayed at Russian Cultural Centre is the crouched figure of a little shoe-shiner, a childhood lost in dirt and poverty. Here starts a lifetime of luxury at the footpath, it declares. Then comes a spate of others, all belonging to that strata where survival means a haphazard mess of struggle and hardship.
EMGkal Ennal, Chandranandan’s exhibition of paintings and photographs, sketches an honest and not-so-rosy picture of India where the majority leads a life without any privileges.
“EMG stands for those who are weak in English, Maths and grammar, an ever-growing population. They have been here for hundreds of generations,” says the artist.
Zooming his lens to the homeless and the hungry, the artist tries to prove how India becomes the first choice to document every social evil. “Only twenty per cent in India leads a comfortable life. Rest of them become poster boys and girls for everything from epidemics to pollution,” he adds.
There are devout women taking blessings from elephants, malnourished gypsies, men sleeping on washroom floors and frail street vendors. There are collages showing the endless loop where individuals are caught in various forms of adversity and despair.
“Most of them just slave away their lives. Be it urban or rural India, this is our reality. Unless we address and fight this, there will be no future,” adds the artist who travelled across India for the snaps.
While one of the paintings depict an organic food chain, the next one takes us to a rather commercialised version farming. The works also show a yearning to celebrate a peaceful and happy co-existence.
“First we should a strike a balance with mother earth. We can redeem the situation by raising a generation who stays away from violence and exploitation,” he adds.