Nov 30 2022

THESE SEASONS | RAVI AGARWAL: THE SEA OF NEW SANDS

Wed | 7PM

Centering on the fluctuating sands that form landing beaches in the Bay of Bengal, Agarwal’s presentation considers the ever-evolving relations between sea and shore, and how these changes influence the lives of those who inhabit this unstable boundary.

Agarwal writes, “Off the Bay of Bengal, where the ocean meets the land, are sandy slivers of land known as landing beaches. These minuscule strips are the fisher’s lifeline, where they live, work, pray and survive. Here, migrating sand grains, which flow down rivers from the eroding hills to the ocean, ceaselessly submerge and emerge from the waters. They have coexisted with and have borne the weight of these communities, their vessels, their language, cultures, the fish, and their gods, for over two thousand years. But for how long? These shifting edges which have been in constant ebb and flow with the currents of tropical seasons are now changing like never before, irrevocably. Alongside, the rising waters are infested with new anthropogenic materials: concrete and microplastics.”

Driven by an immersive research-based artistic practice spread over four years, the talk focuses on one landing beach to better understand the entangled nature-culture inhabitations and their current planetary significance.