Lot 1149: ATUL BHALLA

ATUL BHALLA
(b. 1964)
Piaus - II
signed in Hindi (lower right)
sixteen digital prints on archival paper
40.6 x 30.5 cm. (16 x 12 in.) x 16 pieces
edition 3/5
Executed in 2008

Valencia, Spain, IVAM Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, India Moderna, December 2008 -February, 2009
New York, USA, Sepia International - The Alkazi Collection, Course, March - May 2008

J. Guardiola, ed., India Moderna, exhibition catalogue., IVAM Institut Valencia d'Art Modern, Valencia, Spain, 2008 (another edition illustrated, p. 309)

Atul Bhalla's work engages with the shared environmental and ethical concerns of a new generation. The visual journeys through the streets of Delhi, as seen in his grid-formed photographic series Piaus (public water taps), investigate the treatment of this life-giving source in the challenging environment of urban India, and its symbol as a source for renewal. The city of Delhi is built on the banks of the Yamuna river, whose waters suffer careless pollution from industrial waste as a result of development. Piaus serve as provisions of water to the community throughout the city, maintained by local organisations but connected to sources supplied by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi; a private and public partnership that provides safe drinking water. Bhalla's concerns around the issues of pollution and sustainibility has developed through his exploration of the physical, historical and political associations of water.