MONOCULTURE | A Recent History

N S Harsha makes large-scale painted installations that relate to the issue of the liberalisation of the agricultural sector in India and the difficulties farmers have had to face as a consequence.

Reflecting the rural-urban divide, the installation Sensual, like many of N. S. Harsha’s works, takes from the pictorial language of traditional miniature painting in South Asia, and develops it into a spatial practice. We see firstly a painting of a person resembling a businessman, laid flat on the floor, on top of which are traditional wooden tools for working the land. On the wall is a painting of a falling head. Harsha has created several artworks relating to the issue of the liberalisation of the agricultural sector in India, and the difficulties farmers and rural farming communities have had to face as a consequence. In particular, the adoption of monocultural agricultural techniques along with the sale of genetically modified seeds by multinational corporations, which in contrast to the so-called green revolution's boasts, have, in fact, led to spiralling debt and mass suicides among farmers. It has also led to the destruction of traditional community life and to the erasure of local agricultural knowledge.