ESCAPE: ‘A PLAYGROUND OF EPHEMERALITY’-VISION EXCHANGE | 2018
Medium: Oil on canvas, film and light fixtures
The work at the Alberta museum talks about the “A playground of ephemerality” the project in continuation to their “escape” series which the artists have been continuing since 2007.
The works are the result of a long-term engagement with the subject of migration, farming and how the daily lives of people that have been affected by living
in a perpetual dream of flying to a foreign land as an escape from the situation. Looking into this further as an ‘agricultural arena’, a playground of ephemerality, which addresses the extremely difficult situation of farming in India today. Living in poverty and oppression, with little or no control over their land or livelihood, eventually resulting in taking their own lives.
The work questions ideas of survival, struggle, success, displacement, family values, rituals and daily practices of people living both in the native and abroad. This project aims to interrogate a larger set of political issues through the act and metaphor of wrestling, applying artistic agency to question, but also offer hope.