Artistes focus on sustainable development through installations

From a wooden boat projected with the images of Odisha's cultural diversity to a book narrating tales of one of the oldest crusaders of 'chipko' movement, an ongoing exhibition is focusing on finding an alternative road map for sustainable development.
Titled "Evidence Room: A retrospective of Negotiating Routes", the group show by Khoj International Studios, incorporates site-specific installations by 12 artists who are engaged with ecology and sustainable development.
Through a mixed-media installation consisting of a 6-feet-long wooden boat and video projection, Odisha-based artist Jyoti Ranjan Jena is using indigenous art form called "Ravan Chhaya" (shadow puppetry dance) to re-imagine Chilika Lake and its depleting natural ecosystem.

"I have recreated the characters form Chilika's history, weaving in diverse stories which talk about the present situation of the lake. The deteriorating condition is not only impacting the ecosystem but has worsened the living conditions of several fishermen who survived through fishing in the lake," says Jena.
The projects are spanned across semi-urban and rural areas such as Chamba in Uttarakhand, Chungthang in Sikkim and Wadhwana Wetlands in Gujarat to Jakkur Lake in Bangalore, Chilika Lake in Odisha and Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh.
Delhi-based artist Sunandita Mehrotra is revisiting the 'Chipko' movement through tales of one of its oldest crusaders Sudesha Devi, who recalls the inception of the movement and ideas that can be used even today.

"The project was part of a longer intervention process at activist sites in Garhwal which took me to the forests which are depleting at a faster rate. Sudesha devoted her life to protect the trees back in 1970's and till date sees the same situation where forests are being wiped out to build factories," says Mehrotra.

For the show she has created a 12-page graphic comic book.
Photographic prints and audio at another hall, chronicles the drastic changes that have been taking place at Jakkur Lake in Bangalore.
Surekha, whose relationship with the lake began years ago when she documented two parallel narratives- the transformation of lake from a natural geological form to an artificially 'enhanced' entity and the impact of this transformation in the lives of the local community, through the photographs.

"The lifestyle of people around the lake experienced a forced shift from being a farming community to becoming something uncertain, after the farming land around the lake was acquired for the purpose of urban development. The lake is presently a site of peculiar internal diaspora," says Surekha.
A textile artist, Priya Ravish Mehra visited Najibabad, an unheard shawl repair centre, in Uttar Pradesh in 2012 to document the lives of 'rafoogars' of the area.
The project -- "Making the Invisible Visible" -- looks at the conservation of the traditional skill of darning at a time when easy reproduction has taken over the practise of preservation.

The artist is showcasing a huge installation of colourful textile patches done using rafoogari.
"To acknowledge the important role of the Rafoogar in the context of sustainability, I want to introspect on the revival of traditional practises. It is an old art which is diminishing in the present times," says Mehra.
The exhibition is set to continue till March 15.