Of Panorama, 2014

Basel 2016
Of Panorama

Chemould Prescott Road

Video/Film
The watercolor paintings in this video are an ode to the painted backdrops used in early Indian cinema, woven together to create a narrative on Indian urbanism. Part of a collaborative exhibition that traced cinema history in the city of Bombay, this video is also a commentary on the story of migration; of changing landscapes and the resulting change in cultural identities. With every spatial disturbance across a temporal plane, the politics of adjustment are negotiated. Be it how the 19th-century port city of British India (Bombay) becomes the financial nerve center of contemporary India (Mumbai); be it the hand-drawn transmutations of symbols of migratory movement across the globe (birds and wings) or the more modern amenities of travel (cycles, airplanes, and cars), they are all fused together in this poetic story of movement. Inherent is its notion of a future still rooted in its past – colonial, historical, traditional. Archana Hande’s ‘glocal’ understanding of a borderless society and plea for an environment that might learn to slow down is evidenced in the references to her travels across India and the world.