Migration and Climate Change in the “Nomad Century”
Journey of the Monarchs 24″ x 36″
Butterflies are a symbol of New Beginnings. The painting draws attention to the dangers the Monarch butterfly face in their migration especially as the climate changes; it also tries to draw a correlation with the perils and difficulties that the migrants face who leave their homes in search of New Beginnings. The butterfly wings have images of hope, kindness and resilience. The drawing of mother Teresa on the wing depict kindness and the trees resilience during drought and wildfire depicts the resilience of all living beings. The painting has two hand drawn maps correlating the journey of the monarchs and the other pointing to the location of deaths of the migrants crossing the Sonoran desert near the us Mexico border. The net stuck to the painting depicts the obstacles but the butterfly still emerges from the holes and continues it’s migration and cycle of life.
The lives of the Tiger- Widows offer a glimpse of a unique relationship between environment, climate change, culture, women’s rights and mental health.
Water color on Paper . The hand drawn Maps of the Sundarbans that morph into the ‘Sundari’ mangrove trees in painting are copied from Google Aerial Maps.
Exodus of Migrant Workers is a collage of separate small sketches of migrant workers leaving Mumbai in 2020 on a painted background of map of Mumbai and the skyscrapers of the city. While the fortunate like me could retreat in their houses/apartments during the lockdown, millions of the workers tried to return to their villages as there were no jobs and food for them in the city. Painting the migrants made me introspect and start painting a series on my personal migration story in context to the broader migration crisis in today’s world of xenophobia. Their story inspired me to give my time to an NGO that helps integrate Refugees with Art. It changed the way I think of Migration.