Towards a green world

The International Environmental Art Exhibition, a part of the ongoing RoundGlass Samsara Festival 2017, was inaugurated recently at National Gallery of Modern Art (NGMA).

The exhibition aims at promoting the importance of environmental consciousness and conservation through one of the most powerful medium of expression — art.

Works of celebrated photographers, artists and award-winning filmmakers like Dhritiman Mukherjee, Dhimant Vyas and Meital Rusdia are displayed at the exhibition.

It is hosted by Grammy-award winning music composer Ricky Kej.

Talking about his association with the exhibition Ricky Kej says, “It feels amazing. Art always inspires art, so for me, the way I make music is by looking at my surroundings and make music based on that. It just feels nice when I look at different art forms. It is a special connection to see a fine artist representing the environment just like how I represent it musically.”

According to him, it’s not about ‘creating awareness’ it is about consciousness.

“We need to reach out to people on a conscious level about something that is going wrong.

Art exhibitions are beyond social media posts. Parents should bring their children to such events, they need to be connected to nature too. At the end of the day, it is not about protecting the planet because the planet will keep revolving around the sun, it is about protecting ourselves
from extinction,” says Ricky.

Dhritiman Mukherjee, an award-winning nature photographer who captured the attention of visitors at the exhibition through his stunning photographs taken at places unimaginable, says that visuals are the strongest medium to communicate with people, especially about a sensitive issue like conservation.
“Art exhibitions like this is a bridging programme to help promote nature and its unknown facts to people. For me, art becomes meaningful when it can create some kind of awareness among people.”

Meital Rusdia, a documentary and fine art photographer, opines that it is important for artists to showcase some of the most pressing issues in the world.
“Preserving the environment is one of the critical issues and a challenge for every country and I hope my work is able to highlight the fragile relationship between nature and humans. My pieces of work are a collaboration with Japanese dancers of an avant-garde dance movement called ‘Butoh’. The photographs are taken in various natural locations in Japan. Through each photo has a unique meaning behind it, they as a collection talk about the fragile relationship between humans and the world,” says Meital.