Indrapramit Roy

Sometime in 2019 I went to see a cactus garden. They wanted us to create a mural there that will accommodate both a stylised representation of the cacti and a realistic one of our political masters on the same wall! An idea replete with unacknowledged ironies. I took a good look and documented some of the specimens on display of these strange looking, hardy, adaptive plants known to survive in harsh conditions where little else can. These cacti come in all shapes and sizes and often display perfect geometry and stunning patterns of form that invites touch but for the visible hostility the spikey thorns! ‘Spine’ is what these thorns are called technically and touch you must not! The attraction and repulsion, the lure laced with danger that resides even in the smallest specimens is hard to overlook.

Then the pandemic hit us with its full force and stopped life, as we knew it. Initially it all seemed like a temporary short term measure but as the days rolled into weeks, weeks into months, several new words quickly entered into our ever-expanding vocabulary, a realisation dawned that perhaps some things are going to change for good. There are so many imponderables but one thing is certain that there is no certainty worth talking about! It perhaps allows for a pause, a dot in time to reflect and even a possibility to hit the reset button – nobody knows. Things presumed to be normal are liable to change with a very short notice in the new normal. The images in this set chose to come tumbling out at that moment, almost on their own and that is all there is!