Project Jal : Water : Paani

I live in a part of the world where there is both extreme hot and cold season due to my geographical location. My work shares agency with the seasons by way of what I am able to achieve from one season to the next. My working methodology has been giving me time to ponder about the disappearing water bodies and the immediacy of climate change we are all facing. 

During the summer solstice of 2022, I have embarked on a project based on the theme of water, through which I will be attempting to address concerns around water as a resource. With a large number of waterbodies shrinking or disappearing due to human activity and climate change, this series of works are based around this concern, by closely interacting with the environment where they are created. Each work is geotagged while making and the day's weather conditions noted and recorded. I hope this will help to capture the subtler aspects of climate change and raise awareness about the beauty and deterioration of this delicate resource.

This project acts as a sustained form of inquiry, posing questions and using the power of art to drive change. How can we consciously understand what is happening with this resource, in order to build an alternate narrative towards water for any kind of transformation? Is water the next big humanitarian crisis? I seek answers to such questions through my work.

I am also interested in water and the idea of evidence and memory. When water evaporates, it leaves behind subtle evidence. In a way all my paintings are such evidence. On a micro level while I observe this in my paintings every day, I also wonder about the rivers that changed courses, dried up and changing the landscape of that part of the planet. So much of what we see on earth is such evidence to be observed, a mystery to be discovered. When tears dry up, emotion is released from our bodies, leaving behind a beauty in the human being. I am interested in this connect between water, us and the evidences of it once having been there. I am also fascinated by the idea of memory of water. Water is spirit, water is the flow of consciousness that must be preserved and allowed to flow freely.