Material Light

Drawings and photographs transferred to scrap metal discs using digital negatives and liquid photographic emulsion

Relics of Kishkinda combines drawings and photographs from two sites in South India using digital negatives and liquid emulsion, printed onto metal discs in the darkroom. The drawings created by the artists come from the story of Vali and Sugreeva, a part of the Ramayana, much of which is said to have taken place at Hampi, a world heritage site  in Karnataka, South India. The photographic images are from the Vijayanagar steelworks, 30 kilometres distant and one of the largest and most technologically advanced of such sites in India. Hampi was also the centre of the Vijayanagar empire from the 14th – 16th Centuries, and consequently the ghosts of mythological characters rub shoulders with those of historical ones at this spectacular location.
The Vijayanagar Steelworks (JSW), from where the metal discs originate, also supports the restoration of parts of the Hampi site. This work directs our attention to the sometimes uneasy relationship between art, culture, heritage and big business.

Natasha Ranganath & Nandini Bhotika are graduates of  Srishti College of Art and Design in Bangalore and created this work during an artists residency in 2014.