City lights

“Movement plays a very important role in my photos as do traffic signals. While traveling around India,Central Asia and Europe during art camps,we artists usually carry a camera to document our trip. I wanted to experiment with a new medium and photography attracted me because of its immediacy,” says the 34-year-old.

The attempt is to move beyond banal picture and capture a metaphor,symbolic of urban life. “Often when we leave home rushing to our destinations,intent on completing our tasks,the traffic light gives us a moment to reflect on our crazy lives. Sometimes life- altering decisions are made at the traffic light because suddenly we have had a moment to think,to consider our decisions and evaluate situations. It has happened to me,” says Sai who shoots on a Digital SLR Canon camera.

The photographs—some of which are composites of two or three different views have been framed in a simple black frame,and the show is presented in a sequential,orderly manner.

Post globalisation,traffic islands across the world have gained uniformity as some of their local characteristics give way to a more ‘universal’ signal,an import from the ‘West’. Consequently even though Sai has shot the images at traffic signals across the world the viewer has to struggle sometimes to place the location of the traffic light,skyscraper or the ubiquitous crane that builds and destroys cities overnight.

“In one of his performance based documentation series titled Ochophobia,Satya painted a zebra crossing on a roll of canvas,which he took to the cluttered streets of Delhi and unrolled it across the roads wherever the stipulated zebra crossings were absent,” says Johny ML whose text accompanies Sai’s solo.

Another drama that plays itself out at the signal is the practice of jumping the red light,something every driving Delhiite can relate to. Sai has subtly put across the theory of what people are willing to do to get ‘ahead’. It could be seen as a challenge of state power. Interestingly,the most wayward traffic lights belong to Asian countries.

The show continues till January 2.

For queries call 011-41516056