Earth, Water, Air, Life.
MANAGING HOPE

The Gallery UNDER THE MANGO TREE proudly presents its 50^th exhibition by the acclaimed Indian Photographer, Amit Pasricha.

The exhibition Earth, Water, Air, Life. MANAGING HOPE surveys the past 20 or more years of Amit Pasricha’s compelling panoramic photography practice of India as a society, including a series of focused works on his heritage project India Lost and Found. Moving between the visible surfaces and their inherent spirit, Pasricha’s work asserts seeing always the far-reaching picture; so the panorama frames, cover the larger story. Returning time and again to stitching the passages of time within a frame, Amits practice involves both intellectual and emotional characteristics- intimate and perceptible, extending themselves away from mere documentation to compositional storytelling, his photographs can be both dramatic in scale and granular in focus. He uses his frames to restore his belief in the environment and society.

In his magnificent photographs, the Indian panoramist Amit Pasricha documents the stunning, breathtaking, and rich diversity of people and places of India. His aesthetically impressive, large-format photographic series -is the result of his travels across the subcontinent for years.

While the panorama positions everything in a frame within the artist’s sustained experimentation with discourses of memorialization and endurance as established through his practice, it also emphasizes a further address to Climate change in the wake of the traumatic events of rising sea levels, destruction of the habitat, and displacement.

As debris, at the seashore, the fallen construction marks a terminal point in its existence; something now becomes on the verge of disappearance. Centuries-old construction of the Chola temple lies broken, a part of history at the end of its journey, damaged, the structures themselves appear as survivors of an unnamed event- at the same time awaiting its disappearance with perhaps no possibility of its return. Yet, as an artwork though, it still addresses the viewer from the point of this destruction. With a slender male figure, barefoot, standing atop this destruction, looking into the vastness of the landscape of the region, it transports the imagination to an alternate space- to the space of relentless respect for nature, hope for action that might resist further destruction; of nature, of hope, of life.

Rendering the Gallery as a symbolic space for discussion, the exhibition comprises the artist´s address to nature, human-sensitive content, and the environment created around it all.  Matheran, which means „forest on the forehead“ (of the mountains) in Marathi, is an eco-sensitive region, close to Mumbai, India and It is Asia’s only automobile-free hill station; here materialized as evidence of care, Pasricha´s frame construes the present in terms of its historical continuity; a reminder of all that we can (still) have while staying connected to nature.

„When I swept my lens across India, I saw that there was no place where worship had not left its imprint. The sacred was ( is ) everywhere, and history, geography, politics, industry and the pursuit of wealth, culture, science–all of these were run through the same sacred thread”- Amit Pasricha as quoted in Forbes Asia, 2016. ‘India at Home’ showcases the domestic sphere of the nation -it goes beyond individual narratives to give you a collective spirit of the country embodied in each home. Look closely at the photographs: from sitting postures, bare feet, drinking water stored in earthen and brass pots, weaves and tapestries, wall paintings, classical instruments to unstitched garments – in each work, the observed is also the observer. What breathes in Pasricha´s diverse and frequently living accounts of his frames is a contentedness – an anticipation of an effectual self.

India as one of the world’s largest, oldest, and richest civilizations is known for its abundance of built heritage. With 35,000 to 7,00,000 structures lying unprotected, Amit draws focus to the project India Lost and Found through his large repository. On display are also some of these works to inspire collection and conversation and create awareness about these monumental yet neglected relics, especially by mobilizing the youth. „One needs to redefine the meaning of our heritage, our environment and view it as a living eco-system that it once was.“- Amit Pasricha

Amit Pasricha´s practice, his panoramic frames are brought together with a consideration of managing hope, in an attempt to bring the complex, the ignored, and the unobtrusive across multiple realities of the sub-continent.

Born in a family of Photographers, Pasricha is one of the world’s celebrated panoramic photographers. He is well-published and believes that photography, as the most powerful modern language of today, must be used to draw attention to those aspects that stand neglected. He works and lives in New Delhi, India.

Opening Hours:
Mo-Fr 11:30-14:00 / 15:30-18:30
Sa/So 13:00 – 16:30