Fields of Sight

A formal and conceptual dialogue between art and photography, transforming the politics of landscape

A collaboration between Indian photographer Gauri Gill (born 1970) and Indigenous Warli artist Rajesh Vangad (born 1975), Fields of Sight features spare black-and-white landscape photos of the Indian countryside from Gill, overlaid with swirling, tribally inspired illustrations by Vangad. The series began in early 2013 in Ganjad, Dahanu, an Adivasi village in coastal Maharashtra, India. Looking at her contact sheets, Gill saw that although the camera was capturing this distinctive landscape, it was missing vital aspects that were vividly relayed in the mythical stories narrated to her by Vangad. The photographs by Gill, inscribed by drawings by Vangad, reconfigure the photographic site both formally and conceptually; in the act of viewing the landscape through the eyes of Vangad, Gill rekindles the need to challenge the limitations of our perspectives.