Fields Aflutter

Begun during the COVID-19 pandemic, Fields Aflutter is part of Shashank Peshawaria’s ongoing photographic meditation on the landscape of his home state, Punjab. It foregrounds the flux in Punjab’s farmlands, which are witnessing sweeping economic change and migration as people leave in ever larger numbers for places in North America, the United Kingdom, Australia and beyond in search of more productive livelihoods. The photographs typify the transitions of agrarian lives, as mirrored in the regional landscape. Shot in analogue with a medium format camera, they exude a deep quietude that obscures this frenetic and irrevocable transformation of a land and its people. The photographs are accompanied by a digital video titled Flights, in which kites collected by Peshawaria from various parts of Punjab swim and flutter in the sky. These looping kites are like rhyming verses, conjuring up the visual lyricism of movement.

Shashank Peshawaria is based in Amritsar, India. His work spans photography and film. Oscillating between frames of stillness and motion, his images embody cultural dislocations and contradictions. They study architecture and landscape to trace aesthetic, social and cultural patterns. Peshawaria holds an MA in Contemporary Art Practice (Moving Image) from the Royal College of Art, London. His work has been presented at the Bishopsgate Institute, London; BFI Southbank, London; Conflictorium, Ahmedabad; The Reach Gallery Museum, Abbotsford; Cork Photo Festival, Cork; South Kilburn Studios, London; and Doomed Gallery, London. It has also been published by Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and The Guardian. He has worked in film productions, including Camera Threat (Bernd Lützeler, 2017). He is a recipient of the Creative Interruptions AHRC U.K. artist residency at Preet Nagar, Punjab (2018), and the Space118 Fine Art Grant (2021-22).