The Chilika Lake is one of the largest brackish water lagoons. It is a popular visiting spot for several species of migratory birds and is also known for its population of flamingos. The lake supports a variety of flora and fauna, including dolphins, turtles, birds, and fish.
The artist’s work incorporates reality and surrealistic imagery to represent the current local environmental situation. This is a “Butterfly effect” of a global ecological crisis involving rising temperatures, floods, and other complex situations that directly or indirectly affect these fragile zones. There is a struggle with migratory birds that come from far-off countries to roost and take flight. Migration involves long and challenging journeys of thousands of kilometres across continents to find suitable conditions for feeding, breeding and raising their young.
With the visible impact of climate change on us, we hear about the decline of bird populations as the wetlands have become vulnerable and challenge avian biodiversity. The seasonal flights of migratory birds are a barometer to detect fragile environments, and the changes in their flight paths indicate the environments. The flocks of birds not only migrate towards warmer and more abundant aquatic creatures for food and sustenance.
Sitikantha is an environmentally conscious artist who has explored his identity and ancestry with agrarian connections. His ability to juggle different mediums of site-specific works and installations using local materials emphasizes his context. His use of local artisanal skills like palm leaf paintings and the incorporation of materials like paper pulp has added another dimension to his works. The artist creates visions of dystopia, with the threat to migratory birds and ecosystems threatened by human greed and urban interventions. He depicts the state of the local fisherman community and the collapse and recovery of the lagoon ecosystem, and the artist has articulated his visual response to restore the delicate balance of this ecosystem.
Sitikantha Samantsinghar
I am from a rural village Chilika, in Odisha, from a farming community. My works have always been influenced by the social and ecological realities surrounding me from the formative years of my college. I have been addressing the issues of social disparities and power structures in the farming sector and concern for conflict and change in the rural environment. My early inspiration comes from the ‘Bhaga Chashi Andolan’– a 1953 peasant movement in rural Odisha led by my grandfather Dr. Nrusingha Samantasinghar. The killing of a poor farmer named Sania triggered this movement. The land owners had long been depriving the farmers of the wages and the profits earned from agricultural production. I want to create a visual dialogue that aims to work with the politics of sustainability, and my philosophy is based on the spirit of compassion and understanding.
Nowadays, I have been addressing such issues of the ecology and conflicts of migration. I have been always influenced by Chilika lake next door, here migration is a gamble, and birds and fishes have to deal with all kindsof dangers on the way – from bad weather and hungry predators to exhaustion and starvation.
I metaphorically introduce certain imagery in my paintings to address these issues. I work in multimedia merging such realities with surrealist imageries in order to lend a new voice to these issues. In my process of drawing/painting/installations, I often experiment with materials and surfaces by incorporating organic materials such as tealeaves or smoke burns, paper pulp, and neon lights in my images. I have also been experimenting with text-based installations recently.
Living with social constraints can be restrictive and tiring, but they push me towards a deeper understanding and humanity. I engage with my rural context and the history of nature to make it visible through my paintings and installations.
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