The Hindu : New Delhi News : The price of contemporary urbanisation

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Thursday, Sep 25, 2008
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New Delhi

The price of contemporary urbanisation

Madhur Tankha

Residue of the past: A photo from the series ‘Mechanical Man II by Ravi Agarwal.

NEW DELHI: A three-week solo exhibition of photographs and a video installation by environmentalist-lensman Ravi Agarwal opens at Gallery Espace in New Friends Colony here on October 1.

Titled “An Other Place”, the photographs depict hope and despair on Delhi’s changing landscape. In his latest works of diverse photographs and a video shot over the past two years, Ravi has given a different perspective to each of his four series of composite images titled “Urbanscapes”, “Mechanical Man”, “Machine Man” and “Ecology of Desire”. His video has been titled “Oil is not Water”.

The documentary and images speak of dislocation, the alienation of the self and the loss contained in uninhibited contemporary urban development. Delhi, the city that Ravi inhabits, seems eager to shed its past in its urgent pursuit of the future. As the city’s richly layered histories are replaced by a temperamental commercial plasticity, Ravi’s images serve as a residue of that which will soon be lost forever. However, the vibrant colours of the natural world seep into these photographs of desolate spaces and abandoned debris converting them into images of hope rather than loss.

The title suggests an alternative space, a site that yearns to re-establish relationships with the organic, with that which is less ephemeral, a place where there is the possibility of rediscovering a personal ecology.

Trained as an engineer, Ravi works as an environmentalist in the non-government sector.

“As an independent artist I use photography as a medium to express my creativity. I started wielding camera at the age of 13 and since then it has been a faithful companion. My engagement with the movement against ecological and environmental depletion added a new dimension to my photographs,” says Ravi, who represented India at the 11th Documenta, Kassel, Germany, in 2002.

Stating that photography has always been a sustaining and meaningful activity for him, Ravi says it became a medium in itself to further his interest in environment. Ravi is also the author of a critically acclaimed book, “Immersion, Emergence”, that showcases the artist’s love for the dying Yamuna and contains photographs taken in and around the grand old river. Besides his activities as a social worker, Ravi captures the visuals from the areas he passes through. They become aesthetic tools to convey his activist ideas to a different plane.

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