Through the Grains
Photography research project on the Port History of Gujarat
April - May 2023
While reading about coastal history of Gujarat I realised how rich but neglected the history is.Starting from Harappan Civilisation a rich history of ports and marine trade existed in Gujarat and five thousand year old Dockyard in lothal exists as the standing witness to it.Geomorphological changes such as earthquakes, change of flow of rivers and the retardation of sea caused major port cities to mere landlocks.
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Landlocked port cities of Gujarat, screenshots from Miro Board
From researching about the landlocked ports I decided to divide the whole of Gujarat into three major sections of land -
Gulf of Kuchchh, Gulf of Khambhat and Saurashtra and its important ports.
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I started my project journey from the Indus valley Port cities of Gujarat. I started my Documentation from the oldest Dockyard existing in the world, Lothal.
What fascinated me in Lothal was the past existence of a sea and how it left out saline patterns in its land till day.
Lothal port city ruins.
I continued exploring old port cities of Gujarat and came across another port city of Harappan civilisation,Dholavira.
Journey through Dholavira made me keen to learn more about port History of Kachchh. Kings of Jadeja initiated building ports on Kachchh , since agriculture was not becoming prosperous due to land topography limitations rulers initiated to flourish sea trade routes and port cities. Since project time was limited to one month I shifted my focus of project to the history of Gulf of Kachchh.
Kachchh Topography Patterns
Kachchh land stored millions of years of history under the layers of Topography, these land patterns talked stories of once existed sea, the waves and salt left otherworldly patterns through its geomorphologic changes.
Studying about Ports of Kachchh led me to the oldest port city of Kachchh, Mandvi and its age old wooden ship craft.
Mandvi used to be a major port city of Kuchchh , and it had connections and trade routes with different continents across the world, Arabia and Africa being the major one. People from different parts of world used to arrive in ships on the coasts of Mandvi and different hostels were build for residing the foreign guests which now exists as abandoned buildings with a past. Rise of Surat and Bombay ports decreased sea trades in Mandvi also silting of sand played a major role in decline of the port.
Shivji Buddha who started Sagar Ship museum at Mandvi to preserve the ship craft of the town.
From the wooden ship craft workshop of Shivji Buddha
Archive of the wooden ships crafted from Sagar museum workshop
Zine and Installation Design
Digital design of Three Zine inside printed boxes installed at the soil background
Prototype Designed for the Zine box.
Zines
Installation at NID Jury, Zines are kept in three boxes representing Lothal, Dholavira and Mandvi immersed under soil to make the visitors immerse their hands in soil before reaching the Zines. Connecting the audience to the Land and its photographs spatially.
Zines installed at NID Annual Design show 2023
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