'Goa: A Time That Was': A photo exhibition that celebrates the past with the future

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'Goa: A Time That Was': A photo exhibition that celebrates the past with the future

'Goa: A Time That Was': A photo exhibition that celebrates the past with the future

Arti Das • October 25, 2021, 08:54:42 IST

A photo exhibition currently being held at the Sunaparanta Goa Centre for the Arts in Panaji features works by noted artists Waswo X Waswo, Ipshita Maitra and Vishvesh Prabhakar Kandolkar. This exhibition, running from 8 September to 20 November, visits three different phases in Goa’s history and invites a reflection into the cultural identity of a place which is holding on to its past while charting its path for the future. Take a tour of the works here

Photographer and writer Waswo X Waswo uses black and white for this image from his ‘Remembrance’ series where he was invited into a Goan home. “This particular shot I love because it shows how the hippie movement influenced the interiors of many local Goan homes. There is the large printed cloth with the hippie sun and stars and moons, and also Sai Baba. The daughter holding the plastic gun adds some tension to the image because it is not readily apparent if the gun is just a toy or real. This, coupled with the upward gaze of my partner, makes for an interesting composition that suggests the merging of Indian and Western culture, and offers up the possibilities of all kinds of narratives.” Image courtesy Waswo X Waswo

For his Remembrance series, Waswo collaborated with miniaturist, R Vijay. He has added figures representing Waswo and his partner, Tommy, in some of his old black and white photos. Waswo recollects that during his stay in Goa in 2001, with his partner, they used to take long walks around the village and experience the village life. “The image in question was taken during one of those walks. It is a fond memory of watching the field. There was always the privilege we had as people who did not have to do everyday work, and if I waded into the mud of the field to take a photo, I’d become even more aware of that privilege.” Image Courtesy: Waswo X Waswo

In his other series, titled ‘Longtimers’, Waswo has worked with Rajesh Soni to imitate vintage studio shots by photographing the hippies who have made Goa their home in the village called Arambol, in the year 2015. Rajesh Soni, a photo hand-colourist from Udaipur has added colour by paint and brush to these digitally printed black and white images of the ‘Longtimers’ series. This is Sri Ram, who is actually of Indian descent but hails from Trinidad. “Not all of the Longtimers were Europeans! He was also a part of the hippie movement and was constantly writing on his long books of poetry and philosophy. I doubt that any of his writings were ever published. I’m not sure if he is still with us. A few of these people have drifted from our lives.” Image Courtesy: Waswo X Waswo

An associate professor of architecture at Goa College of Architecture, Vishvesh Kandolkar in his work titled, ‘This is not the Basilica!’, which is a part of his ongoing research on the afterlife of the 16th-century church Basilica of Bom Jesus, at Old Goa, looks at how the church actually was, around 70 years ago, with a part of it covered with white plaster in this digitally manipulated image. This church is now part of Goan identity, secular culture, that houses the relics of St Francis Xavier (1506-1552) and a religious building that is still in use. With this installation, Kandolkar is arguing that the transformation that this church faced in the 1950s under the Portuguese rule that removed its external plaster, resulted in its current exposed laterite look. Due to this, it is now facing the vagaries of nature. He says, “Considering the adverse effects of climate change on built heritage, architectural conservation in Goa cannot be merely about preserving cosmetic appearances, but rather must involve safeguarding monuments against major structural damage. By redoing the lime-based render, that is, returning to the way it always looked, will ensure that the damage being witnessed now could possibly be reversed.” Image Courtesy Vishvesh Kandolkar

Artist Ipshita Maitra who has made Goa her home in these 6 years looks at the forgotten corners of Goa — it could be an old chai shop or the derelict but beautiful Goan houses. Her collections ‘Lost Addresses’ and ‘Once was home’ are linked to legacy, identity, and the passing of a time. It is also about love and loss. She says, “They [the structures] are deeply linked to the historic identity of a place — so the works became a way of finding access to a time that is both irreplaceable and irretrievable. This image titled, ‘Longing’ is about a suspended memory — frozen and objectified through an ornate household photo frame holder.” Image Courtesy: Ipshita Maitra

Maitra has used old techniques like cyanotype and Vandyke Brown chemistry processes in her works. She informs that as an artist she is going back to the traditional processes. That also goes with the theme of this work. She says, “Cyanotype prints were actually the first type of photographic print so it’s also a historic reference. The rich blue of the cyanotype prints is also linked to association and memory. This image titled ‘Miriam’ according to Maitra is about a feeling of stewardship with the home one inhabits and it inhabiting us in an inextricable manner. “When the home is no more where will Miriam hang and what will she look up on: it takes portraiture which was integral to the culture at that time and uses its lyrical form to extend to a living presence that dwells within places where time has been held as continuous unbroken chasm.” Image Courtesy: Ipshita Maitra