Artist’s Statement

 

‘Highland Homes: Picturing Dwelling in the Western Himalayas’ curates fifty photographs featuring the natural and cultural heritage of the Western Himalayas in India. Loosely divided into two parts, ‘Viewing’ and ‘Belonging’, the online exhibition primarily considers this vastly variegated terrain in terms of home and dwelling. The Western Himalayas comprise the whole state of Himachal Pradesh and partly the adjacent state of Uttarakhand, both of which have been collectively regarded since centuries as ‘Dev Bhoomi’, the ‘Land of the Gods.’ India being a largely tropical country, the Himalayas exert a special pull on the cultural consciousness of the country (and beyond), kindling impressions of grandeur, intimacy and toughness, all at one and the same time. The idea and practice of dwelling in the hills thus amalgamates all of these aspects, and at an experiential level, invariably lends itself to both realistic and imaginative configurations. Perhaps the most distinguishing feature of this geography is geography itself, that varies anywhere between a few hundred meters to over 7000 metres in altitude, and determines every other aspect of life and culture. 

 

This nature-culture interface via an aesthetic lens also informs the core objective of my two day international workshop ‘Ecology, Aesthetics and Everyday Cultures of Modernity’, to which the display runs parallelly as an affiliate event. I feel deeply grateful to present these selected images of a place I am privileged to call home, and to organize an event under the marvellous aegis of the Käte Hamburger Centre ‘global dis:connect’ in the capacity of a Fellow. 

 

As always, I am thankful to the many inspirations from whom I have learned the art and craft of perceiving the mountains and the world at large, including my family, friends, mentors, and the extraordinary creative visions of Robert Macfarlane, Sanjay Leela Bhansali, and Ludovico Einaudi.

 

Happy Viewing!