TRANSIT: Where do we go from here?
Curated by Lina Vincent
Date: 7th - 17th Oct., 2021
The social history of planet Earth, and the rise and fall of civilisations is perhaps more deeply related to the act of transit than we might generally assume. Migration, both voluntary and forced, has defined the occupation and/or abandonment of continents and nations, shaping cultures and producing localised and mixed lineages. As a race, human beings leave residues of their interaction with the land, marking it with different aspects of ownership and control – whether they remain in one place, or shift several times during a lifetime. Human are profoundly bound by notions of belonging and ancestry, proving their ties to place through written and oral histories, through various sorts of documentation, and material attributes. A part of this lies in the built world – the villages, towns and cities; conglomerations of structures in every shape and size, to accommodate the vastly growing populations. The legacy of material culture in every part of the world, left behind by previous generations, stands as silent witness to past times, even as the ugly side of urban excess overshadows and consumes it all. This human-made urban detritus has been inching its way into the natural world, producing irreversible conflict and destruction.
Contemporary times have made mobility – of goods and persons – a mundane and taken-for-granted aspect of life, and until the current period of forced isolation, the vast cumulative carbon footprint generated by society and industry was fast reaching a dangerous point of no return. The complexity and precarity of our situation was brought home by the swift change in atmospheric conditions, the sudden clearing of skies with the reduction of pollution, the singing of birds and the free behaviour of animals, who strayed into city streets that were deserted of human presence. This pause in the regular functioning of the globe, however is short-lived; soon the workings of the Anthropocene will resume with renewed fervour, throwing existence headlong into the unknown future. In a cycle of consumption and neglect, the earth has been intrinsically altered, and all but squeezed out of its natural abundance; and as the current climate crises demonstrates – we don’t have much time.
The artists in the exhibition address the varied meanings and contexts of the notion of Transit – there are personal memories and visceral connections to land and home; metaphorical narratives of escape, loss and acceptance…as well as commentaries on the incapacity of our burgeoning cities and towns to contain anymore; the inability of the earth to sustain her natural rhythms under constant pressure. Some works draw attention to the undying beauty of natural elements and their resilience, but also the fragility of existence itself - not only for humans but all species. Artists, like everyone else, but perhaps with a recourse to art as a means of dialogue and catharsis - navigate the many questions and concerns personally and collectively.
How do we take responsibility for a fragile and crumbling ecosystem? This moment in time, when the very possibility of movement is curtailed by a virus – what does transit mean? This earth is the one and only home we have -so where do we go from here?
Artists:
Victor Hazra
V.G. Venugopal
Shilkar Nilesh Yashwant
Sarika Bajaj
Samir Mohanty
Manisha Agarwal
Harsha Vardhan Durugadda
Bhartti Verma
Ashish Kushwaha
Anoop Panicker
