Coal Power Plant
An abandoned coal power plant offers a glimpse into the story of India after Independence. This power station, commissioned in 1954, was part of a new technology-driven trajectory for India. The ecological consequences of coal-fired power led to the closure of this site in 2014, when it was torn down for scraps. This series of photographs created by artist and curator Ravi Agarwal laid bare the crisis and negotiations between development, technology, and climate change—asking if we can imagine a life without coal.
Medium: Photographic Series
Year: 2014
Team
Ravi Agarwal
Curator
Ravi Agarwal has an inter-disciplinary practice as an artist, photographer, environmental campaigner, writer and curator. His work explores key contemporary questions of ecology, society, urban space and capital. His prime medium has been photography for over four decades, which has expanded over time to include video, public art, installations, and printmaking.
His key projects have long engagements for several years, and are often accompanied by published diaries and writings. His work has been shown widely including at the Yinchuan Biennial (2018), Kochi Biennial (2016), the Sharjah Biennial (2013), Documenta XI (2002) amongst others. He co-curated the Yamuna-Elbe project, Indo German twin city public art and ecology project (2011), and Embrace our Rivers an Indo- European project in Chennai (2018), and has been appointed photography curator for the Serendipity Arts Festival (Goa, India, 2018). His work is in several private and public collections, and he has served on several art juries and committees.
Agarwal is also the founder director of the environmental NGO Toxics Link and has pioneered work in waste and chemicals in India.
