Varsha Nair

Negotiating Routes: Ecologies of the Byways

Mon, 09 Aug 2010 02:56:17 +0700

NR1: Wadhwana Wetlands, Gujarat

Brief background:

Accorded the status of ‘Wetland of National Importance’ (Protected Area Update No.54, April 2005), the man-made reservoir at Wadhwana is a significant site of bio-diversity and attracts both indigenous and migratory species of birds. The Gujarat Government has earmarked the site for development as a tourist destination, and large numbers of people are expected to visit it in the near future. Currently the area around the lake is mostly open, with fields, clumps of vegetation and trees growing in some areas. Some rare species are in decline or have disappeared altogether from the area.

Somtam Nomad

Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:51:17 +0700

A performance by Sakarid Gunkhan and Varsha Nair presented at Asiatopia 11

Bangkok Art and Culture Center, November 2009.

In many a city-centers around the world rare pockets of green spaces are cleared to make way for buildings, impacting in both visible and invisible ways on local people and their way of life. The video footage in this performance presented at Bangkok Art and Culture Center (BACC), is of the site itself when it was a park that offered refuge to the homeless and to other individuals to rest in for a while. Along with their pets, the strays they adopted and cared for, they formed a community at that time. The 2nd component of the video footage is of the start of the construction of the Art Center, which is played backwards, and footage of a projection of a virtual walk-through the gallery spaces that was presented at the launch of BACC before it was built.

How to create a perfect Bonsai

Tue, 29 Sep 2009 09:19:23 +0700

Performance

Yangon, Myanmar, 2009

Every branch and twig of a bonsai is shaped or eliminated until the chosen image is achieved. From then on, the image is maintained and improved by a constant regime of pruning and trimming.