Exhibition Links Mining Scars and Urban Gardens
A photography exhibition at the Sector 17 Underpass Gallery in Chandigarh presents damaged landscapes and thriving gardens as interconnected narratives. Titled Dreaming an Ideal Nature, the show features works by Chandigarh-born, New York-based artist Vasudev Vashisht. It pairs images from the open-pit mines of Cerro de Pasco, Peru, with scenes from community gardens in New York, arguing that both are sites where people and land negotiate a relationship of care.
Artist's Vision of Landscapes as Collaborators
Vashisht does not present the two locations as opposites. Instead, he treats them as connected sites where people and land respond to one another. One image in the show, Compost Backdrop, depicts a stained cloth hung to dry against a wall of ivy, offering a quiet study in decay giving way to growth. According to Vashisht, 'Collaboration usually makes us think about working with other people. But I see landscapes as collaborators too. Every place carries its own history, chemistry and agency.'
Ecological Acts Through Children's Workshop
This idea plays out vividly in a set of images from a children's workshop in Cerro de Pasco. In one photograph, a group of children release balloons packed with native seeds into the sky, transforming a simple gesture of play into an ecological act. Related frames from the same session show children rolling and throwing clay seed balls across barren ground, part of a project Vashisht ran with a local non-profit and area schools.
Beyond Environmental Damage to Stories of Resilience
While the scars of extraction are visible throughout the show, they are never allowed to be its final word. Vashisht said he wanted the exhibition to move beyond images of environmental damage alone. 'Environmental challenges are certainly present in the work, but so are gardens, composting initiatives and people who continue to imagine different futures,' he said. 'Those stories of resilience feel just as important to tell.'
Debut Solo Show and Recognition
The exhibition marks Vashisht's debut solo show and comes the same year he was named the only Indian-origin artist among 17 selected worldwide for NYFA's Immigrant Artist Program. Organised by the Chandigarh Lalit Kala Akademi with the Chandigarh Photographers Association, the exhibition concludes on July 13.
