Vibha Galhotra: Material Gestures

Vibha Galhotra: Material Gestures by Meenakshi Thirukode: Writer/Researcher, Exhibit 320 In his book 1491, author Charles C Mann, infamously argues that the idea of pre-columbian Indians living in a pristine land before the arrival of Columbus, without having manipulated or transformed it to serve the needs of their fast expanding cities, is a myth. Offering a compelling set of pragmatic stories, Mann demands a re-imagining of dominant narratives of our relationship with Nature as understood through the dynamics of Colonizer-Colonized, Oppressor-Oppressed and DestroyerPreserver. He argues that “the Aztec capital of Tenochtitlan, for instance, was a sprawling city, larger than most contemporary European cities, with running water and immaculately clean streets. Mexican cultures created corn in a specialized breeding process that it has been called man’s first feat of genetic engineering. Indians were not living lightly on the land but were landscaping and influencing their world in ways that we are only now beginning to understand.”1 Now the term ‘civilization’ itself is rooted in a very specific binary within the prevailing Historical narrative. It places the colonizer as the harbinger of a systematized state. And by default the colonized or the Other must function in the space that implicitly embodies the percept of ‘natural’, ’untouched’, raw and therefore the romanticized Preserver. Charles Mann evolves that idea further to remind us of, even re-imagine, these ideas by placing the characteristic of the species as an entity. Humankind is implicitly hierarchical, so that there are/were always those who dominate and those who are/will be oppressed. Nature, and its resources are ‘currency’ within these systems, used as a means to yield Power – and in it lies our ultimate fate alongwith that of the planet. Fast forward to our present time, and we find ourselves in the narrative of the Anthropocene that provides a framework, which decidedly places “the collective actions”2 of Man - our species as a whole – as the central figure influencing our planet at every level. The most talked of aspect is our role in climate change. However the legacy we will leave includes innumerable changes including “nutrients from fertilizers wash[ing] off fields and down rivers, creating stretches of sea where nothing grows except vast algal blooms, deforestation means vast quantities of soil being eroded and swept away. Rich grasslands are turning to desert; ancient ice formations are melting away; species everywhere are vanishing.”3 It is in these layered contexts around the relationship between Man and Planet that we begin to understand the complexity of Vibha Galhotra’s artistic practice. Having developed work in varied mediums including photography, animation, found object, performance, installation and sculpture, Galhotra creates satirical iconography, for what, in her words, is a rather depressing state of affairs. In the regurgitative deluge of images within popular culture, we have created many that seemingly provide us a path to redemption, or champion our need to heal this fraught relationship with our environment. For instance the “Ecological American Indian Preserver” is one such image. We consume, use, re-use these in any number of political, social or cultural contexts, without realizing that there are no heroes in this war. And in Galhotras work she not only emphasizes that but she implicates us all. There are two ways to enter into the conversation that Galhotra wants to engage us in. One is in the medium and the materiality of her work. The other is through the performative gestures that are part of her process. In works from her series FLOW, Galhotra uses her now iconic ‘gungroos’, 1

Charles C. Mann, 1491 – New Revelations of the Americas before Colombus (Vintage Books,2006), Online Synopsis, Link: http://www.amazon.com/1491-Revelations-Americas-Before-Columbus/dp/1400032059 2 Website: http://www.anthropocene.info/en/anthropocene 3 Ibid.

stitched together to form a surface in tints and shades of rust brown, forming patterns reminiscent of a swirling landscape – it could be the galaxy, a monotone rendering of a satellite image or perhaps even closer within us – a microscopic peek into our circulatory system. The surface is inviting, glossy and shines but as Galhotra explains, the spectacle of the surface and the familiar references that spring up when we study the ebb and flow of forms, belies the chaos hidden within. FLOW is a series of works in which the artist mapped the Yamuna, a river that passes through her home city - New Delhi. The Yamuna enters into the city transforming from pure to filthy – it changes from clear waters to dark and murky fluid, filled with sewage and devoid of oxygen, as it travels to other parts of the country. Our relationship with the sacred river is still steeped in myth and the spiritual, while also finding its way into our internal systems through edibles we consume. It is a river from which we seek nourishment of the soul and the body. Galhotra’s canvases, in this light, points out to the inherent irony. The strength of Galhotra’s practice comes from the works straddling an in-between space, of objectbased and conceptual art, within the social space. In her series CONCRETE BURDEN, Galhotra shifts from satire to a language that speaks to Man’s vulnerability in this given moment. She is giving us a series of humanity’s ‘self-portraits’, breaking away from the vicious circle of pop-culture rhetoric that finds heroes for a cause. Instead, she works within the frame of what might be called a ‘formal conceptualist’. By combining two opposing theories of analysis – form and the conceptual, she is offering a way to truly see what our relationship to the planet is. She does so by combining nature, sometimes visible - (the fragile branch in CONCRETE BURDEN) and at other times a trace (the fossilized image of a tree in CONCRETE BURDEN 1), with the most ubiquitous man-made element – cement - used to build and thereby destroy our environment. The cement is alternately devouring and preserving the environment. Galhotra speaks to an existential conundrum- the fragility of the branches wrapped by the cold industrial weight of the cement, embodies her need to understand what her part - our part – is in this story. The materiality of her work is strengthened by the ‘artist’s gesture’. In sewing the gungroos with the craftsmen and women of a dying art, to the performative act of throwing ‘muk’ or sediments directly from the Yamuna, onto the pristine canvas (the Series Sediments and The Other Untitled…), Galhotra’s process is also key to understanding her ideology. Material and movement are essential tools to elevate the works, from a place within the social, to that of high ‘art’ as a matter of visibility. And again, the playful awareness of our fraught relationship of Man vs Nature – which extends to every realm be it economic, political, cultural or social – is offered to us “to experience, observe and react accordingly.”