Mrinal Kanty Das

"Mother Nature"

 

"My images capture the quintessential maternity embedded in Nature. Since the beginning of time, the oldest civilisations have all documented their creativity depicting the eternal mother-image of the female body in Nature in all its multi-dimensionality, no better manifested than in the thousand statues of goddesses spread all across the globe over millennia. Spread across continents, idolatrous tribes have paid homage to countless goddesses, as in the ancient Greek and Indian myths – bold, unapologetic and proud. The maternity of Nature is a symbol of her eternal tolerance and benevolence. In the face of being subjected to crude violations and battered by ruthless exploitation by her children, she is the stoic who bears all with a smile. In their pride of reigning supreme in the intellectual hierarchy, humans have mauled Nature in the name of luxury and ownership over it, severing the umbilical ties that have bound them since the creation of time - as though Nature were to bow in servitude to the extent of its own destruction. Such acts of atrocity have brought Nature close to destruction. Humans however forget that Nature is beyond destruction - she adapts, gives birth and regenerates eternally. If Humans don’t negotiate their relationship with Mother Nature, they fill fall victim to their own extinction, out of their hubris. Nature is, has been and will be forever. Nature survives without humans; humans cannot survive without Mother Nature. As Wordsworth put: “Nature never did betray the heart that loved her”. Therefore, “If you cannot be in awe of Mother Nature, there’s something wrong with you” (Alex Trebek). In my images I see and show Nature as expectant mother, brave warrior, lover, the eternal lore-loving female. My hope is that through these images viewers will rediscover how close we are to Nature and renegotiate how we interact with Nature, in harmony, in peace and in eternal life-sustaining symbiosis." 

 

- Mrinal Kanty Das