Elisabetta Marabotto recommends a visit to ‘Walk On: 40 Years of Art Walking’ at the PM Gallery & House in London
London: If you are looking for something interesting to do during the Easter break in London, one of the options is a newly opened exhibition “Walk On: 40 Years of Art Walking” at the PM Gallery & House.
Atul Bhalla, Yamuna Walk, 2010. Image Credit: http://sepiaeye.com/atul-bhalla-s-yamuna-walk
This is the first exhibition revolving around the basic and natural act of walking. This show looks at the different ways artists from all over the world have tackled this theme in the last 40 years. Many different media are involved in the exhibit, and every artist worked in a different setting, some in the countryside, some in the city, but they all shared the act of walking and the experiences and memories around it; ultimately all thinking that walking is a way of freeing their imagination.
Atul Bhalla, Yamuna Walk, 2010. Image Credit: http://www.atulbhalla.com/images/thumb/instthumb/ecoart/1st_text.htm
Atul Bhalla is one of the artists whose work is featured in the exhibition. His work, “Yamuna Walk” made in 2010, is a photographic account of the journey the artist undertook around Delhi along the Yamuna river. Bhalla shows how different the life along the river is, depending on the area, underlining the recurrent paradoxes within India. While some areas are breathtakingly beautiful, others are laid to waste by poverty.
Atul Bhalla, Yamuna Walk, 2010. Image Credit: http://www.atulbhalla.com/images/thumb/instthumb/ecoart/1st_text.htm
Through this work, Bhalla also highlights the paradox of the Yamuna river, considered sacred by Hindus but at the same used for refuse disposal. The artist believes that by doing so we are polluting the city aesthetically but also spiritually.
Atul Bhalla, Yamuna Walk, 2010. Image Credit: http://www.atulbhalla.com/images/thumb/instthumb/ecoart/1st_text.htm
Click here to see the full work by Atul Bhalla, and here for more information about the exhibition.
