 extra ORDINARY Images of ordinary things Photography Exhibition by Navin Joshi 12-28 November Park Gallery, Pulchok www.parkgallery.com |
Nepal is no exception, and the pace of rapid urbanisation in Kathmandu sweeps everyone along in its relentless flow. The migration of people to the Valley during the conflict and people drawn in for jobs has made the capital a melting pot, heterogeneous and rootless. Our neighborhoods have changed, the people are transient, and the sense of community is gone.
Navin Joshi has been intrigued by the need to strike a visual balance between the harmonious cultural past and the chaotic, vibrant newness of Kathmandu. He was trained as an artist, and says the artist's eye sees this dramatic collision in everyday things like architecture, the street-level activity, hoarding boards, the political and the media landscape.
"It is difficult to make judgments about what is good in the old and bad in the new, what needs to stay and what needs to stay away," says Joshi, "our own behaviors, sensibilities and attitudes are changing. The rituals and festivals are the same but the ways they are celebrated have changed."
He says what is true is that inherent, understated beauty of our city has been covered by a banal veneer of fashionable glitter. The functional symbiosis we had with nature has been replaced with a creeping alienation.
Marshall McLuhan said we "march backwards into the future", and perhaps these images will allow us to assess our past and preserve its presence in our futures.
And Joshi tries to do the same. He says: "As a photographer, I have tried to capture this dynamic with a non-judgmental eye."
 |
 |
 |
Read also:
Change is constant
