Horizon and Beyond
Bheeshma Sharma’s practice has consistently maintained interest in human-made and industrial disasters from World War II onwards. Growing up, he was surrounded by material remnants such as hollow bombshells from the bombing of Imphal by Japanese forces during World War II, following his family’s migration from Rajasthan to Manipur, which led to his grandfather’s displacement from his home. This event, popularly known as the Battle of Imphal in 1944 was an attempt by the Axis focus operating from Burma. They were defeated and pushed back by Indian soldiers fighting on behalf of the British Empire. What started as an effort to understand the larger historical contexts that impacted his family history, turned into studies on the effects of large scale human-made interventions for Sharma, which also included Chernobyl and other nuclear disasters. During the pandemic-related lockdown in 2021, Sharma travelled to the village of Umrah in Varanasi with his Grandfather and spent several weeks there.
During this time he interacted with the farmers in the village as well as their children, and also observed, informed by his ongoing research, the precarious state that anthropogenic ecological crises have left the agricultural industry in. This experience led to his latest body of work on view here. He digitally manipulated and enhanced his photographs of the village landscape to highlight the effects of climate change, overproduction and deforestation. In his works, the villages are wrapped in smog—the result of the industrial activity in nearby areas—cutting off the sunlight that is vital to the survival of agricultural crops. Produce is vulnerable to untimely rainfall during harvest season, lightning, poor quality water supplied by the municipal council, and lack of availability of seeds, pesticide and farming equipment. Faced with potential harm from these multiple, varied sources, there is no assurance that the yield will match the hardwork and effort committed to the land by the farming community. Without required support from the state and increasingly unpredictable climatic conditions especially compound the uncertainty faced by farmers each year. The ourboratic relationship between climate change and industrial activity continues to threaten their livelihood, not to mention landlords who lease land to them in return for half of their produce, further depleting them of the result of their hard labour. The body of work presented here is an affective response by the artist to this situation.
Bheeshma Sharma born in Imphal (Manipur) to a Rajasthani family in a state that was already suffering from terrorism and intrusion. Mass shootings, bomb blasts, and kidnappings were a common occurrence. Such occurrences made him perceptible of the reality at a very early age.
The unfavorable circumstances and lack of opportunities made it very hard for him to continue studies there, he had to move out at an early age away from his home and family which was very difficult and heartbreaking. His past made him very sensitive towards events like War, destruction, climate change, and calamities (both natural and human-made). The inclination towards these subjects are rather personal that give him an edge. He does not deliberately drag these subjects in his art or the materials he uses, yet these keep repeating through visuals and ideas. His practice has drastically changed over these last two years since he started experimenting with new materials and learning few skills. Previously the foundation of his works was focused on sculpting in an academically-oriented and conceptually challenging environment. Because of the work environment, other options were not explored and looked upon as an alternative to sculptures which made him realize things need to be much more pleasant to make sense, generate curiosity and question while keeping in mind the fundamentals of visual art.
Moving back to his hometown, revisiting old places made him wonder the extent to which things have been deteriorating over there. The forest area faces the heat of urbanization, which once had an average rainfall of around 1990 cms annually currently faces water shortage. Deforestation is evident as the demand for wood, highways, agricultural land and commercial buildings is rising. The increasing number of vehicles, factories, and air traffic resulting in pollution has put him on a quest to put these issues in his work and in a way that reflects his practice and sensitivity towards these subjects.
As a sculpture student, his first choice of art-making is always form-based using conventional mediums. Though, he finds it hard to keep up with the cost of renting a studio and creating sculptures in the current scenario without any financial support. Considering these circumstances, he tried experimenting with paintings and digital works. The gradual shift in dimensions made it extremely frustrating at first, he had to start from scratch. After about a year of trial and error, he now feel confident sharing his work.
