Art and its creative potential

Reducing, reusing and recyling are three words that have become important in our lives, especially when solid wastes leading to pollution  has become a menace and people are struggling to get rid of them. 

In an attempt to showcase art in a different way and using recycling methods and photography, India International Centre in association with Neel Dongre Awards/Grants for Excellence in Photography; and India Photo Archive Foundation has organised an art exhibition titled- ‘World of Recycle- A visual interpretation of the world of recycle and waste management’ in the national Capital.

Curated by Aditya Arya, the exhibition which is on till April 11, is a unique approach to deal with dumped materials. Featuring nine photographers, the exhibition involves all creative and photographic nuances. 

Artists like Cheena Kapoor, Manu Yadav, Monica Tiwari, Rahul Sharma, Saumya Khandelwal, Shweta Pandey, Sidhhartha Behl, Sreedeep and Swarat Ghosh have devoted their time and participated to showcase their talent. 

The curator said: “I firmly believe that photography in general and photographers, in particular play a seminal role in shifting the scrutiny of society by showcasing and highlighting critical issues. The India Photo Archive Foundation has been facilitating this very process by providing photographers a forum for visual expression. As a young boy growing up in Delhi, one voice which always excited me was that of the Kabadiwallah and one place which always thrilled me was the Sunday Kabadi Bazar at Jama Masjid. India traditionally had a culture of recycling, orchestrated by the quintessential Kabadiwallahs.”    

While the world is celebrating the speed of digital photography, both Shweta and Rahul’s unconventional and creative approach slowed them down, protracting their engagement with their subject. The subjectivity and the objectivity in Shweta’s images have been converged by using the vintage photographic process of Cynotype. Images printed on old newspapers give a special meaning to her project by embedding the faces of her subjects on the very rags they collect. Rahul’s age-old technique of hand coloured images, bridge the gap between fine art and documentary photography.The magnitude and diversity of new urban waste creates new threats and the age-old custom of recycling seems to be fast fading. The production is more and what is being left behind is in the form of ever mushrooming land fills and other dumping sites.  If one moves ahead with such a pace, it is predicted that India is going to be the fastest producer of waste by the year 2050. A city resident generates twice as much waste as its rural counterpart and as urbanisation increases, so will the generation of solid waste.