For the past five years, a fisherman named S Palayam, in Chennai goes to the beach every day, to collect data on the winds and the waves. And through the process of collecting this data, he says that the climate is changing. Artist Parvathi Nayar has documented the fisherman’s journey and his findings on climate change in her short film Seaspeaker, which is going to be showcased at The Living Ocean exhibition, which she has also curated.
A hybrid art show, which means it’s a cross between a museum show with a very large emphasis on information and infographics, as well as contemporary artwork, couple of films, as well as installations, the exhibition is going to immerse you in a journey like never before, where you not only get to experience the beauty of the ocean, but also come out well informed about what’s really happening to our oceans and what impact this is currently having and will further have on humankind.
Cultural artefacts for the show include a specially commissioned sculpture of Varuna, (Indian god of rain and the ocean) as well as objects connected with ocean and water from the DakshinaChitra collection. “It’s got some of my artwork, my film on Palayam, whom I am also inviting to do an installation of fishing nets and his tools of trade. This is not a contemporary art show, though one of the threads of the show is contemporary art. Almost all the exhibits have been specially created for the show, and they all talk to each other. For example, a story about going fishing for Kola (flying fish) in the film Seaspeaker finds resonance in (the reprint) a watercolour painted in Chennai by Englishwoman Mary Symonds in Colonial times. Then, Hashtag#Collective (an art collective) is doing an installation of lenticular work of endangered coastal birds from South India, the photographs for which come from Rajiv Kalmadi, a bird photographer. The installation is called Hope is a Thing With Feathers. As you walk around this installation, the birds appear and disappear! There are two sound installations by Madhu Viswanathan, one of them is Birdsong, featuring bird calls from the greater coastal area of Chennai,” informs Parvathi.
There is also a data string installation, which is done after talking to people about how aware they are of the ocean. “We have asked questions like: Are you aware that every two breaths that you take, one comes from the ocean? Based on the awareness level, we have made a data string artwork, where we work with tying up thread, like in a wave form to show people’s awareness. It can best be described as a community artwork,” the curator adds.
In Lest We Disappear, you have turning boxes and images of 20 endangered marine animals like the Hawksbill turtle or the Manta Ray. There are four parts to the box. So you can see the image, and then as you turn it, you get the name of the animal, then you turn it again, and you get some facts about the animal and how it is being endangered by climate change and other human activities like deep sea mining, plastic pollution, etc.
There is a section on people who are working to make a difference, like Arun Krishnamurthy, Divya Hegde, Dr Sylvia Earle, Yuvan Aves, Dr Supraja Dharini, and others.
Also, sculptor P Madhukar is doing a series of ghost crabs in upcycled metal called Ghost in the Shell. After talking to climate experts and scientists, the curator and graphic designer, V S Sindhura, have created a huge six-panel art-infographic — The Ocean Is Feeling the Heat — to describe the perils faced by the ocean today due to unregulated human activity creating crises such as global warming and pollution.
Rs 150 (weekdays) & Rs 175 (on weekends).
April 13, 3 pm.
At Moplah House,
DakshinaChitra Museum.
Email: rupam@newindianexpress.com
X: @rupsjain
