CITY TALES

crisis care catharsis

ATUL BHALLA

Mumbai Walk, 2007 Digital print on Hahnemuhle paper

Mumbai Walk takes notice of the ordinary, something very much out there in the city streets, the idiosyncrasies of the architectural landscape but oblivious to the eye of the passer-by. Atul Bhalla maps an aerial view of sewerage drains covering a promenade of 3.6 kilometers along the Netaji Subhash Chandra road in South Mumbai, popularly known as the Marine Drive, inviting curiosity of the onlookers as he walks the area. This digitally composed print carefully creates a grid that accentuates photographic abstraction. The work provides an up-close view of an overlooked urban infrastructure, but when viewed from a distance, the formation mimics air conditioning window units cluttered in community apartments. The invisible yet conspicuous sewage water drains in these images refer to many things at once: the deceptive flatness of architectural abstraction and urban planning, the prevalent water politics and the dark underbelly of a city.