UP Gallery is proud to present Marvels of Humans: Sameer Tawde’s solo exhibition for the gallery’s final exhibition of 2018. The exhibition consists of works from 2016-2018 and marks the turning point of Tawde’s artistic practice. A slight turn from pure documentary, Tawde has begun to explore the possibilities of a contemporary approach in photography. Dialogues of an Introvert and Holy Boulevard have been exhibited together for the first time to demonstrate the artist’s ability to delve into subject matters with a unique approach. The former work explores the social context, political power, surreal daydreams, and personal feelings through props and staged angles. These complex themes that surround the human mind are dissected under the artist’s photographs and presented in a manner foreign to the eye and our instincts. The latter work, which is the artist’s most recent creations includes both photographs and moving images. A method more akin to staged photography,

Tawde installs expanded polystyrene (eps) packaging material that he actively collects from large-scale trash centers in Dharavi, Mumbai onto ocean surfaces and allows them to drift along with the tide. The seemingly calm and picturesque scenes are in fact representing “artificial monuments” creating a contradiction in the mind of the viewer as this highly toxic and non-biodegradable waste in the form of a utopian scene draws out the problems of consumerism and its relationship with our current environment. These ongoing themes are the main focus of artists today; yet under Tawde’s unconventional approach, humour and beauty are extracted and depicted through these works. They provide a new perspective for us humans to marvel at what can be viewed as creations of our own making.