For over a decade, Delhi-based artist Deepak Kumar has been reflecting on the disparity of biodiversity between his hometown in rural Bihar and the Delhi Capital Region where he lives. From growing up around birds, insects, and animals, Kumar’s transition to the city met with the harsh realities of their untimely death and extinction. For him, the tunnel vision of urban development leads to an irrecoverable loss and disappearance of many species.
Making these changes to biodiversity visible, Kumar gathers the remains of birds, insects, and animals from abandoned spaces and studies them through drawing. These studies translate into paintings, sculptures, and installations, where he intersperses them with images of concrete buildings, green patches, and blueprints. By creating an archive of extinction through art, Kumar speaks of accountability on all counts for the debilitating impact humans continue to have on this planet. He hopes for a world with collective empathy where all lives matter equally.
Srinivas Aditya Mopidevi
New Delhi, 2023
