Tethys

This imaginative series depicts the changing landscape of Jodhpur over the span of a few hundred million years under the Tethys ocean. The land that is now Jodhpur was once under seawater during the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras. Over millions of years, the landscape has been through many extinction events and subsequent revivals of life.

This imaginative series includes six pieces of work. Each of them is a visual representation of a point in time where life under the Tethys ocean flourishes or, as in an extinction event, is under extreme duress.

But even during these extinction events, Phytoplankton survives, as seeds of life. Slowly evolving into more complex beings so life can once again thrive.

The timeline of the Tethys ocean is so vast, spanning over many millennia, that the artist decided to choose three extinction events and three explosions of life events.

Each extinction event is a cyanotype photograph of present-day Mehrangarh with salt stains representing the phytoplankton present in that era. Each revival event is a cyanotype photograph of Mehrangarh painted with sea creatures of that era.

This series is a artistic representation of the many changes the land where Mehrangarh stands today has been through. It is an amalgamation of life and time under the Tethys.