Words & ideologies

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SEP 26 -

The concept of ‘writing’ dates back as far as to the sixth millennium BC. The growth of human civilization led to the idea of trade and administration that required a definite form of information transfer and record keeping. Except academically, the eminence of writing today is almost never comprehended but a minute’s glance around the streets of almost any city in the world makes you realise the stream of information that is transmitted through words. Exploring the relation between wordings and their camouflaged role in directing city lives, through the art of photography, is the photo exhibition Texts and the City. The photography exhibition by freelance writer and photographer Satish Sharma is his attempt to display the role of “eye-candied texts” in the construction of the routine of day to day modern lives.

“I like to read, but reading a city is much more interesting than reading a book. This is what inspired the compilation”, says Sharma. Words are unknowingly driving our city lives. Advertisements, information, directions, texts play a big role in the ever-modernising global life. Photographer Sharma believes that globalisation is creating a single universal culture which may be destructive in that the cultural variation and diversity present globally is lost. His photographs are a symbolism of such ideologies. One of such photos shows the statue of Gautam Buddha, in all its cultural mightiness but with an advertisement of MasterCard in the same view. Another of his snapshots shows a school in the valley with the words “English Speaking Zone”, “Pepsi”, “Admission Open” and a kulfi-wala with his “Lovely Kulfi” cart, all in the same frame. The photographer says how the words Lovely Kufli written both in Nepali and English echoes his understanding of unified cultural dynamics.

From wordings on t-shirts to shops, advertisement boards and religious gears, Texts and the City provides the onlooker a unique view on globalisation and in the artists’ words, “The texts create a subtext and in large a meta-text of modernity is shaped.” Many of the snapshots are also satiric and ironic in terms of the texts written and the images represented. Images from Kathmandu, Delhi and Australia are included in the collection.

A total of forty six images are on display at the Siddartha Art Gallery, Baber Mahal. Also on sale, the pictures range from 15,000-30,000 according to their sizes.

The exhibition will be open till Oct. 17.v