Indian artist Subodh Kerkar returns to Dubai with his latest body of work titled Anchored Ocean. Through temporary installations on the beaches of Goa, he captures ephemeral poems on the sand, which he then photographs, freezing the images in print.
Marine assortment
Kerkar creates these installations using shells, sand, light and boats. In this new body of work, he works with fishermen and explores their lives and their unity with the ocean.
He emphasises that the installations are a “celebration of this unity of man and the ocean''.
“The ocean is their life. For a fisherman, the waves don't just rise and fall. For him, the ocean breathes. The ocean is the breath of his life!'' Kerkar says.
Kerkar says: “I find the lives of fishermen inseparable from the sea; lives anchored on the seashore. For them, the ocean is a friend, a companion, a teacher, an adversary and the giver — all in one.''
In the work The Shoreline, fishermen form a queue on the shore and wait, like devotees at a place of worship.
Clam creation
The viewer watches as the fishermen create from clam shells a moon-like shape in The Crescent Moon. Later in the series, we watch as the moon is engulfed by the ocean in The Moon and the Tides IV.
Kerkar says: “I use clams to create the shape of the moon. The tide rises gently, taking my moon in her womb. The moon, the creator of tides, is swallowed up by the tide.''
Kerkar adds: “My art erases the boundaries between creator and created — fisherman and fish, boat and boatman — using the magic wand of art.''
Fact sheet
Title
Anchored Ocean
Artist
Subodh Kerkar
Show dates
Until June 6
Venue
The Jamjar
St 17a. Between Habitat & Chevrolet Insportz. Behind Dubai Garden Centre. Exit 39, Shaikh Zayed Road from Dubai. Exit 42, Shaikh Zayed Road towards Dubai.
For more details, visit www.thejamjardubai.com/index1.html
Office hours: Open weekdays from 9am-6pm.
Closed on weekends.
Gallery hours: Open weekdays from 10am-8pm and Fridays from 2-8pm.
