This exhibition of installations, models and video art by Neha Choksi, Niti Gourisaria, Kapil Gupta and Ashim Ahluwalia was originally shown at the Venice Biennale for Architecture in 2006. A lot of the work was highly conceptual, and one needed to interact with the artists extensively to understand their work. Luckily this wasn't too much of a problem as I know both Neha and Kapil. However, at the end of the day, the explanations I so eagerly listened to float fuzzily in my mind.
Neha's digital videos, Absent Decay and Found Green, are an exception, and seem to balance the emotional and intellectual realms well, enabling the viewer to connect with the films on a number of levels. The basic idea behind Found Green was to explore areas in the city which were meant to be gardens and playgrounds in government maps, but instead are parts of the concrete dilapidated jungle of Bombay. The actor in the film imagines that he is in the place that is technically meant to be there. For example in a barren piece of land, meant to be a playground, the actor dreams of being a child playing cricket. This video thus comments on how respect for nature and children seems to have been trampled by greed and a lack of city planning. The video awakens in us a longing for a beautiful, green, open and well-planned Bombay.
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