Munem Wasif, Dark Water (2019) at Project 88, Mumbai
Project 88 presented a print installation by Bangladesh-born photographer Munem Wasif, whose work lined the outer wall of the booth, with evocative landscapes by Mahesh Baliga and small bronzes by Amol K Patil inside among works by other artists.
Wasif's Dark Water (2019) comprises 14 archival prints installed in two rows, in which the ocean appears along the top across seven ebony sheets. It is difficult to imagine what its expanses conceal until one reads the accompanying excerpts on the pages below, recounting experiences of exile and war.
The work concerns the lives lost and the flow of migration in the Bay of Bengal, which over one million Rohingya people have attempted to cross in successive waves since the 1990s while fleeing persecution in Myanmar. One page dated 2017—when armed clashes broke out—reads: 'Walking through the forests, / Slippery roads, torn sandals. / Nauseating smells from rotting corpses.'
