Mumbai, Artist Chippa Sudhakar in his new solo exhibition at Tao Art Gallery here explores impact of rapid and chaotic urban expansion on natural landscapes, wildlife, and traditional ways of life.
The exhibition, titled “The Collective Memory of Contemporary Change”, draws from the artist’s lived experience of witnessing a rural landscape reshaped into urban sprawl and puts into spotlight the emotional displacement and environmental cost of rapid progress.
“The exhibition reflects the rapid and often chaotic urban expansion seen across growing cities in India. While development promises comfort, opportunity, and security, it simultaneously alters and erases natural landscapes, native vegetation, wildlife, and traditional ways of life. Migration from rural regions brings memories of land, materials, and lived experiences into the city, where they gradually transform, overlap, or fade,” the Hyderabad-based artist said in a statement.
He added that his work seeks to resurface these “shared yet forgotten memories”.
Using materials such as soil, wood, terracotta, and metal, Sudhakar explores migration, shifting demography, and the increasing replacement of living labour by machinery.
“The series reflects on the fragile balance between nature and development and the collective memory shaped by continuous contemporary change,” he said.
Sudhakar, whose practice explores the impact of development and technocratic growth across land, communities, and collective consciousness, catches “DNA-coded memories” in his art, preserving the essence of communities and landscapes erased by urban expansion.
“‘The Collective Memory of Contemporary Change’ is not a nostalgic reflection, but an urgent contemplation of balance. Sudhakar’s works hold space for contradiction-between growth and erosion, tradition and innovation, permanence and fragility. They ask us to pause and consider what is gained, what is lost, and what remains etched in memory as our environments evolve,” Sanjana Shah, curator and creative director, Tao Art Gallery, said.
The exhibition, which opened at Mumbai Art Weekend from January 8-11, will be on view at the gallery till February 12.
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