As an environmental activist whose works usually make use of his own body, Atul Bhalla attempts to bring public awareness to the eco-political significance of water. For the past two decades, Bhalla has been concerned with the ecological implications of urbanization processes in India, and with the reciprocal relations between the growth of metropolitan areas and the pollution of rivers. In many of his works, Bhalla returns repeatedly to the sacred Yamuna River, Delhi's main source of water, and documents the industrial waste and sewage poured into it from numerous factories. Bhalla's focus on the symbolism of water as a source of life, purity and cleanliness that preserves historical memory and knowledge enables him to call public attention to those responsible for polluting it. The series "I Was Not Waving But Drowning," which includes the diptych Submerged Again, documents the artist's gradual submersion in the river until only the crown of his head remains above water. The title of this series alludes to the British poet Stevie Smith's Not Waving But Drowning (1957) – a poem about a drowning man whom observers mistakenly perceive to be simply waving to them. This work was photographed in the Lagatpuri area in the vicinity of Delhi, one of the most polluted areas of the river. The act of submersion in the polluted water, which may prove lethal, underscores the fate shared by man and nature, and points to the inextricable connection between the concepts of purity and impurity.
(Tel-Aviv Museum of Art, June 2012)