In Chennai’s DakshinaChitra, art meets engineering at a show on climate change

This Chennai art exhibition merges art and science to demonstrate the effects of climate change

As you enter, you first hear the waves. “There is a point at which the sound builds up, till you are almost overwhelmed... then it recedes,” says Parvathi Nayar, artist and curator of The Living Ocean, a hybrid art exhibition created for the new Moplah house at Chennai’s DakshinaChitra Museum.

Describing the exhibition as a “jewel box,” Parvathi explains how art, science and engineering combine for maximum impact, with the help of multiple artists.

“It all began with a film I made on an Urur Olcott Kuppam fisherman, S Palayam. Every day for the past five years, he has been going to the beach to record the wind, waves and ocean conditions. He has got reams and reams of information, and while he does not use the word ‘climate change’ he says things are changing,” says Parvathi, adding, “I made the film to remind people that there is so much artisanal knowledge that we tend to ignore. And that people who work with the sea are critically important.”

While discussing the film with Deborah Thiagarajan, the director of DakshinaChitra, they began to envision a show on the ocean. “We discussed what the form should be — they wanted something permanent, something for their visitors, who are often tourists and a lot of students,” says Parvathi.

The show — spread over four rooms — explores climate change and its cascading effects on the ocean and related water bodies with a lot of infographics, says Parvathi, adding “When something is visually attractive it is easier to transmit information.” 

While it does deal with environmental challenges, the exhibition is hopeful and laced together with cheery energy. 

For example, the Hashtag#Collective (an art collective) has an interactive installation of endangered coastal birds from South India titled Hope Is A Thing With Feathers. As you walk around this installation, birds such as the black headed ibis, greater flamingo and marsh sandpiper appear and disappear. It is juxtaposed with the Birdsong sound installations by Madhu Viswanathan, featuring bird calls from the greater coastal area of Chennai. And Mary Symonds’ reprinted watercolours, which offer an insight into the fish seen in Chennai waters in colonial times. Sculptor P Madhukar has also created a series of ghost crabs in upcycled metal titled Ghost in the Shell.