Hyderabad-based artist Ramani Mylavarapu’s solo exhibition, “Roots to Rivers,” opened on 19 September 2025 at Kalamkaar, Bikaner House, New Delhi, and runs through 23 September. The showcase spans eight years of her socially engaged and feminist photo-performance works, highlighting projects such as Voices of Waves with the Uppada fishing community, Invisible Roots with the Araku tribes, and her pandemic-era piece Mona Lisa with Mask. The culminating section features new performative photo-collages made in collaboration with the Bodo community in Assam’s Manas region, bringing together themes of resilience, memory, and ecological awareness.
The exhibition opened with Mylavarapu’s live performance, Plunge, which addressed the crisis of water pollution. In this act, she portrayed a pilgrim carrying a symbolic bundle (Muta), enacting a river ritual where participants deposited waste that eventually suffocated her—serving as a metaphor for India’s choking rivers. She later cleansed herself, symbolically reclaiming the river’s guardianship. “Plunge is my way of voicing what our rivers endure every day. The suffocation I experienced during the performance is nothing compared to what our rivers face. Through my art, I hope to remind people that protecting water is not optional—it is a duty,” Mylavarapu stated.
The opening was attended by eminent guests of honour from the Indian art world, including Sanjay Roy and Niren Sengupta. Roy, curator and mentor at Triveni Kala Sangam, commented, “Ramani’s work has a rare ability to link personal expression with societal concerns. In her performances, you don’t just witness art—you feel the reflection of society’s challenges.” Sengupta, a leading painter and former Principal of the College of Art, New Delhi, added, “Her art carries a spiritual depth that resonates with the human condition. In Plunge, we experience both pain and hope, reminding us that art is not only about beauty but also about responsibility”.
Open to the public from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. each day, Roots to Rivers invites viewers to consider the intersections of memory, activism, identity, and ecological urgency through layered visual narratives
All images are courtesy of the artist.
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