#FaunaOfMirrors: Why Look at animals?

By Archana Hande (IND)

The Golden Feral Trail is Archana's journey that records local and oral histories to trace the relationship between South Asia and Western Australia. The story of trade and migration between the two regions from the early 1800s until the present can essentially be mapped from the Gold rush to Ghost towns of today.

This trail has taken her to cemeteries, abandoned graves, and deserted mining pits, ghost towns, institutional archives and personal photo albums. The Feral Trail, as she calls it, as she sees it, remains beneath the red earth.

This Western Australian horizon tells a story of a nomadic establishment of economy, but also of a loss & an erasure. In respect to all, it would be apt to understand that these are historical photos, showing pictures, telling stories about those who are no longer with us. 

The permission to narrate this story is given to me by the Families and Land. Everyday everything goes back to the earth. Read more

By Manjunath Kamath (IND)

Manjunath Kamath tells stories with his images. His narratives, however, are altered and adjusted constantly, adapting fluidly according to the environment they are narrated in, and resulting in a different meaning each time a story is told.

Through his works Manjunath attempts to bridge the gap between cultures, questioning their hegemony and the need to build walls for preserving and isolating one’s culture. At times, advocating for humor, absurdity and nonsensical behavior in daily life as the only response to the dilemmas of the conflict ridden world. 

The images are often informed by historical and classical cultural iconographies, which are a byproduct of beliefs and rituals.

He is particularly interested in studying the gradual evolution/changes in the iconographies both traditional and contemporary, according to time and diverse influences.

He creates images which are an amalgamation of different cultures and faiths, yet not belonging to any one in particular, in an attempt to subvert them and free them from their historical purpose.  Read more