2015
single channel, digital video projection
duration: 10 min. 43 sec.
Edition 2 of 3, with 1 APs
“Manthan is based on my personal mourning and cleansing of the Yamuna river, which runs through Delhi. The title invokes a tale from Hindu mythology [Samudra Manthan or 'to churn the ocean' to obtain the Amrita (nectar of immorality)]. The film examines the prospects of mitigating the catastrophe of ecology, of the river life force and contrives a situation of the process of churning the deleterious out of the river through a romanticized, performative picturesque space. Manthan is my refusal to give up hope that we can find a way to turn things around before it’s too late." -Vibha Galhotra
The piece has been shown as part of a group show entitled The Future is Female at the 21C Museums in Louisville and Cincinnati, and has also been screened at Fairfield University in Connecticut. I think the ArtPlay could be a great platform to bring the work to next, as it speaks quite directly to the ecological damage caused by climate change in India and is nicely linked to Vibha’s current participation in the Asia Society Triennial.
