“Resource Wars” @ Sundaram Tagore Gallery
Rohin Guha
July 31, 2008
While consumption, environmentalism, sexuality, globalization and politics are enjoying their moment as the current hot buttons of the art world, one abstract that's managed to flourish without the pomp and noise is the contemporary diaspora -- a poetic term given to the upheaval and consequent relocation of people from one land to another. Basically, think of, well, any short story by Jhumpa Lahiri, and you'll find yourself with an excellent handle on the type of art that the Sundaram Tagore Gallery specializes in and advocates throughout its four locations.
It’s hard to pick a favorite show from the three simultaneously exhibiting (the other two are in New York and Hong Kong), but there’s something quietly mystical about Subhankar Bannerjee’s “Resource Wars”—a collection of photos that examines environmentalism through a cultural lens. Showing in Beverly Hills, “Resource Wars” presents ecological tropes like the effects of global warming and the fight for natural resources through the lens of a photographer looking to bridge geographical and cultural divides. Unmarred by man-made developments, these snapshots of the Alaskan Arctic (some are as large as 68x86"), though beautiful in their minimalism, tell the story of a the region facing the same threats as anywhere else in the world—from the sun-parched stretches of the PCH to a crowded Calcutta fish markets. “Resource Wars” wraps it run on August 17. And while global warming sees fit to obliterate our climate, Bannerjee’s art continues to be part of group shows at NYC’s Deutsche Bank Art Gallery and Salem, MA’s Peabody Essex Museum’s “Polar Attractions”.
Posted by mg on Fri Aug 1, 2008 at 07.30 pm
fabulous photography! wish there were more.