There is a collective called Raqs Media Collective which has three members: Jeebesh Bagchi, Shuddhabrata Sengupta and Monica Narula.
They created a large artwork called ‘Trishna/Thirst’.
The word Trishna means ‘thirst’ in Sanskrit.
Monica explains about this project, which I am now translating into BSL.
In different parts of the Indian subcontinent, there are stepwells built underground to collect and store rainwater.
Stepwells can vary massively in size.
Even in small villages, you'll find tiny ones, but some larger ones are spectacular.
Spectacular and terrifying because they’re so deep.
They are often built in a square spiral, descending step by step to the water below.
At this stop, the work includes sculptural and digital elements, designed to remind you of a stepwell.
At the back are three large wall panels.
Projected onto them is a blue sky, as if you are looking up from the bottom of the stepwell.
The black outlines of planes occasionally pass overhead.
You’ll also see five screens.
Four screens show different footage, offering different perspectives of stepwells.
One is a favourite of mine – a stepwell with a square and circle design.
The fifth screen shows black-and-white architectural drawings of stepwells, with snippets of written poetry appearing occasionally on screen.
The overall effect may be dizzying at first, but these fragments form a larger whole.
As one descends towards the water, desiring or needing it, you share the experience with many others who have walked these steps before.
Stepwells are also reservoirs of memory, marked by watermarks on stone.
We created this artwork to explore thirst as a trans-temporal experience – examining the sensations it causes, and how humans have responded to them through history.
Everything alive – humans, animals, plants – knows the same tasteless taste: the taste of water.
Thirst is both desire and need.
You cannot imagine life without water.
Many stepwells are now dead, or treated as vestiges for people to visit.
In Delhi, they are often dry, covered over and uncared for.
This makes us think: if we don’t care for these stepwells – and more importantly, water itself – what does that say about how we value water that we need to survive?
In the future, water will be the oil of the future.
Imagine living in a desert where water is scarce, and you’re always thinking about wasting it.
Imagine being thirsty, feeling the dust and the heat.
How would you live like that?
How do we care for the environment and water supply so we have enough to survive – now and in the future?
Where does this take your thoughts?