Redemption/ Homage (2023)
Series of 6 digital prints, each 61 cm width ; video performance; 1 gum oil print stained with cocoa powder (57cm x 45cm).
Fieldwork documentation (photographs and video interview)
Ravi Agarwal explored cacao growing stated in South India, Kerela, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka, with the aim of understanding the alternative model of development implemented by smaller independent cocoa producers. As an ecological activist, the Indian artist focuses on exploring the local dynamics of human interaction with nature. For this exhibition, he delved into the political history of cocoa cultivation in India, as well as its recent economic growth driven by the demand from British company Cadbury. During his fieldtrip, he visited two distinct locations. The first was Bon Fiction in Rajahmundry, Andhra Pradesh, which encompassed a processing facility and a farm dedicated to the growth, sorting, fermentation, and drying of cocoa beans (tree to bar). The second site, Subko, situated in Mumbai, operated as a boutique processing facility that purchased cacao beans (bean to bar).
Through his research, Agarwal discovered vintage postcards and images depicting colonial histories of cacao, and its subsequent commodification. He repurposed and incorporated these as collages within his photographs. Additionally, the artist performed a series of dance movements, rooted in and reinterpreting the traditional Indian Aarti, or ritulasitic prayer performed with an oil lamp, to symbolically pay homage to cacao- as nature, since it has been desecrated by man.
Redemption/ Homage (2023) refers to the metamorphosis of the cocoa seed, from an ecological entity to a symbolic species, extracted from its original landscape and purpose. Initially revered and held in high regard in ancient Amerindian societies, the cocoa seed underwent a transformation into a coveted commodity associated with sensuality, virility and desire, once transported to new transatlantic environments. The works signify an act of homage and seeking redemption for our continuing colonisation of nature.