Atul Bhalla (B. 1964)

Atul Bhalla's work engages with the shared environmental and ethical concerns of a new generation. The visual journeys through the streets of Delhi, as seen in his grid-formed photographic series MCD Taps (part of the public water taps system), investigate the treatment of this life-giving source in the challenging environment of urban India, and its symbol as a source for renewal. The city of Delhi is built on the banks of the Yamuna river, whose waters suffer careless pollution from industrial waste as a result of development. These taps serve as provisions of water to the community throughout the city, maintained by local organisations but connected to sources supplied by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi; a private and public partnership that provides safe drinking water. Bhalla's concern on issues of pollution and sustainability has developed through his exploration of the physical, historical and political associations of water.