So-called globalization that caters to neoliberal policies today has many critiques. Prominent among them have pointed out the singularities within which such globalization operates, and there are platforms that call for wider, 'real' globalization process. These processes, given their determination and appeal of their strong slogan ("another world is possible"), seem to revere multiplicity. They invite us to think how another worlds exist within the seemingly singular whole.
Of course, when Sanjay Yamgar names his new series of photographs, Garbography - "Faces From The Unknown World", he might have thought of the quest for life elsewhere, as in science fiction. His characters, whose faces we see, looks like cousins of our sci-fi villans and allies. Yet, there comes a moment when these faces of friends and foes seize to look fictitious. They look real, as we see the objects behind them: the plastic bags, the gunny bags made of woven plastic threads, the forms they take, and the reality they represent: The reality of a thriving industry in india - the recycling industry.
'The Faces' are all found objects. Sanjay found these objects at landfills, recycling centers, dumping grounds. The bags filled with litter, near his home at the municipal dumping ground at Mulund, a suburb of Mumbai. He then met many wage - earners in the recycling industry, who would dump the litter only if it is not of any use. These are the people who work behind the scene to keep our cities clean. The non-entity of an object might pave way for its afterlife. Unknown is born when known is dead. The Faces that sanjay wants us to see look amorphous, barbaric, draconian, decorative, strange, eerie...totally unfamiliar, as if from a different world. Yet, they look like faces, of some human - beastly quality. Some of them seem to be looking at us, the spectator with awe or excitement, some others not impressed by us and engrossed in their drizzy, drooling universe.These will be the faces of future world if we do not act accordingly. We are a race that trains itself how to read, and here we read visual signals about ourselves, we read about our race itself.
Here the unknown is seen as a reflection of the known. An attempt to see the world around us differently.
text by Sanjay Yamgar