Artists

Kutch Desert Kollektiv

Desert Rose, Veji Bai, Ratanpar, Khadir i-land, Kutch, India, 2021
(c) Kutch Desert Kollektiv

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Goutam Ghosh, and Charmy Sadhana Jayesh are an artist collective that explores the desert as an ecosystem marked by scarcity and sparseness, but that gives rise to manifold life forms nevertheless. With a view to man-made climate change and the ecological challenges it poses, the collective devises speculative designs for life in the future. A key motif is the image of the desert planet, a scenario initially established in the genre of science fiction that, against the backdrop of worldwide desertification, is becoming increasingly real. Rather than mentally prepare for an exodus to another planet, Chattopadhyay, Ghosh and Jayesh ask what potential these supposedly hostile places hold. The Rann of Kachchh, a vast salt marsh in northwestern India, serves as their physical-real starting point. Called The Desert Lab, the collective - whose members come from such diverse fields as fine arts, philosophy, and science fiction - investigates both the geology of the site and the myths that surround it.
Where the Rain Stops is a set-like fragment that sets an atmospheric scene: The focus is on a barren thorn bush where a large amount of outgoing quicksand comes to rest. The natural rampart serves as shelter for the family of a saint who has celebrated a feast under the full moon the night before. They have stopped to rest with their camels in the blazing heat of the afternoon, when the daytime temperatures reach their peak. The visual adaptation of the scenario for the 15th Fellbach Triennial for Small Sculpture foregrounds the natural spectacle of the thorn bush casting sawblade-like shadows on the dry desert floor. Here, the ornamental pattern of the shadows falls on a geometric form: waterways, roots, and traces of animals, all of which give clues to the existence of life in the desert. Their hardiness illustrates the resilience but also the interaction of humans, animals and supposedly inanimate matter in this inhospitable ecosystem, offering hope for a possible future on a desert planet.

Text: Sebastian Schneider; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

Bodhisattva Chattopadhyay, Goutam Ghosh, and Charmy Sadhana Jayesh are an artist collective that explores the desert as an ecosystem marked by scarcity and sparseness, but that gives rise to manifold life forms nevertheless. With a view to man-made climate change and the ecological challenges it poses, the collective devises speculative designs for life in the future. A key motif is the image of the desert planet, a scenario initially established in the genre of science fiction that, against the backdrop of worldwide desertification, is becoming increasingly real. Rather than mentally prepare for an exodus to another planet, Chattopadhyay, Ghosh and Jayesh ask what potential these supposedly hostile places hold. The Rann of Kachchh, a vast salt marsh in northwestern India, serves as their physical-real starting point. Called The Desert Lab, the collective - whose members come from such diverse fields as fine arts, philosophy, and science fiction - investigates both the geology of the site and the myths that surround it.
Where the Rain Stops is a set-like fragment that sets an atmospheric scene: The focus is on a barren thorn bush where a large amount of outgoing quicksand comes to rest. The natural rampart serves as shelter for the family of a saint who has celebrated a feast under the full moon the night before. They have stopped to rest with their camels in the blazing heat of the afternoon, when the daytime temperatures reach their peak. The visual adaptation of the scenario for the 15th Fellbach Triennial for Small Sculpture foregrounds the natural spectacle of the thorn bush casting sawblade-like shadows on the dry desert floor. Here, the ornamental pattern of the shadows falls on a geometric form: waterways, roots, and traces of animals, all of which give clues to the existence of life in the desert. Their hardiness illustrates the resilience but also the interaction of humans, animals and supposedly inanimate matter in this inhospitable ecosystem, offering hope for a possible future on a desert planet.

Text: Sebastian Schneider; englische Übersetzung: Amy Patton

Desert Rose, Veji Bai, Ratanpar, Khadir i-land, Kutch, India, 2021
(c) Kutch Desert Kollektiv