KOCHI: “We do not inherit the earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.”
Planet Earth is precious. It’s the only place we have to call home. We write countless songs in praise of it, worship the ground as our mother, mythologies stem from her being, endowing every force with physical attributes and a name, we decorate our walls with canvases of serene landscapes and yet, without a second thought, we abuse, rape, destroy and murder this very planet at our will. Hypocrisy defines the times we live in.
Art history has always been replete with representations of the physical world. Illustrations of flora and fauna have brightened many Palaeolithic caves in prehistoric times.
Our ancient sculptures personified nature. Artists of yore celebrated the beauty of their surroundings with chisels and brushes, bringing alive charming meadows, fields and terrifying storms.
Tribal communities like the Gond tribe of Madhya Pradesh which has a recorded history of 1,400 years decorated their houses with the motifs of trees and animals in the belief that it would ring in prosperity. The traditional art form of Madhubani from Bihar also primarily focuses on nature and our relationship with it.
The passage of time has, however, ensured the context in which the environment has been incorporated into art has changed from being an expression of beauty to a loud plea to pay heed to Mother Earth’s suffocating lungs. The 20th Century has produced art that voiced concerns about climate change, pollution and ecological disasters and with the Earth’s health deteriorating, these voices have only become louder.
As we mark yet another World Environment Day on June 5, here are some Indian artists who have gone beyond the mandatory tree-planting photo-op drives and incessantly visually brought forth the destructive effects to the universe due to insensitive human actions.
Ravi Agarwal
Delhi-based Ravi Agarwal wears many hats — artist, writer, curator and is also a well-known environmental activist and the founder of the environmental NGO Toxics Link. His innumerable works on environmental issues, often centred on the Yamuna river, seek to highlight the influence of human-nature relationships on our ecosystems. He has photographed the mighty river since the ‘90’s, studying all her ebbs and flows in the course of time. Starting from his first series ‘Alien Waters’ with images of filth that the river carried, he went on to showcasing a multitude of perspectives of the river as a source of livelihood for communities. The artist set up a public art festival, with installations, boat rides, discussions and walks, to allow people to experience the glory of the river. Exploring the dangers lurking within these fast changing natural environments is not just part of his artistic practice but also his way of life.
Arunkumar HG
Born into a farming family in Karnataka, Arunkumar’s shift to the city in his later years made him acutely aware of ecological issues created by consumerism. Addressing these concerns through his art using materials like industrial wastes, he merely desires to present the truth on a visual platter. In his body of work called ‘Con-struction’, he raises questions about the abuse of our natural resources. “We often have knowledge about far-off things, but know nothing about the tree that is right in front of us.” With that thought, the artist set about transforming some forest land next to his family farm, while simultaneously organising environmental awareness programmes which eventually evolved into a centre for Knowledge and Environment. Dividing his time between Delhi and his native village, Arunkumar hopes to spread the importance of putting an end to the ravages we unleash onto this world.
Sonia Mehra Chawla
Sonia Mehra Chawla minces no words when she remarks, “It is our arrogance that lets us believe that humanity is more significant.” Core to the artistic practice of this Delhi-based multidisciplinary artist are her concerns about the environment, climate change, sustainability and conservation. A visit to the Sundarbans years ago was perhaps the turning point. Travelling these forests for years now, this fragile ecosystem greatly influences her practice. In her work titled ‘Residue’ for the Yinchuan Biennale in 2016, decay was the keyword.
Images of mangrove forests on the threshold of ruin, decomposing branches and cracked patches of soil envelop the viewer, presenting degeneration bleakly with the pronounced absence of the human species. The vision of this gloomy future would hopefully stir us into constructive action. In her ‘Universe in Details’ series made between 2016-2018, she looks at the role of microbes in mangrove ecosystems. In yet another work, a photograph of oil-stained feet presents a subtle reminder of the oil spill that wrecked the Sundarbans in 2004.
Pranay Dutta
The youngest artist to be featured in this edition of the Kochi Muziris Biennale, Pranay Dutta uses computer-generated imagery to create an apocalyptic vision of tomorrow. His visual vocabulary is a gloomy representation of ecological disasters. In his video, ‘Beneath a Steel Sky’, he navigates another future with the colonisation of the ocean. With glacial melting, unpredictable climate changes, he envisions nature brought indoors and made to thrive in artificial climates under controlled conditions. Mountain ranges float on the sea within chambers. Humans are nowhere in this imagined scenario - a frightening one indeed. His work at the Kochi Biennale on the other hand, drew attention to the global water crisis and the urgent need for better water management. He created virtual landscapes where water was the means of trade enabling the purchase of goods and services. It was his attempt at creating an awareness of the perils of water scarcity and what an essential role water conservation plays in the future of our world.
Somnath Hore
Somnath Hore’s (1921-2006) portrayals of The Bengal Famine of 1943 still remain as stark reminders of the devastating consequences of humanitarian disasters. Greatly affected by the human suffering he witnessed during the man-made famine that killed millions, he documented the emaciated, starving human forms which continue to tug at our collective emotional chords.
Subodh Gupta
Subodh Gupta, best known for his monumental installations made of kitchen utensils, sounds a serious alarm for the planet in his ‘Lonely City’ series of paintings. His works on forest fires are eerie harbingers of natural disasters. As his landscapes disintegrate into unidentifiable forms, it almost feels like the flames consume not just the frames of the canvas but the soul of the planet too. Angered and saddened by the photographs of the fires in the Amazon caused by deforestation, Subodh created this series not just as a register of his reaction but to ignite the discussion of the way forward.
Parvathi Nayar
City-based multi-disciplinary artist, Parvathi Nayar, invited Chennai residents to drop off blue and white household plastic trash as part of her art project. As the bins she placed in the collection centres spilled over with contributions of trash, she used them to recreate Japanese artist Hokusai’s ‘Great Wave’, by building a giant wave of plastic waste. Parvathi wanted to make this a talking point to discuss the environmental crisis that is continuously drowning us while we go about existing in ignorance. Parvathi’s art consistently talks about different engagements with our environment and specifically with water as a contested resource. She had earlier worked on an installation made out of refuse collected from the Adyar river.
By bringing attention to our natural world, conveying the impact of altering our ecosystem and providing the impetus to rethink our callous attitude to the damage we inflict on the well-being of this planet, art has persistently played its part in trying to restore and repair this planet. It has been said, ”The greatest threat to our planet is the belief that someone else will save it.” The greatest truth that we must accept, however, is that no one else can save it, but us.