A fisherman in the Bay of Bengal has for years witnessed changes in the ocean and documented them. A Chennai artist is helping him raise awareness of the problem of climate change and its impact on the fishing community.
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00:00Palayam Anna comes out here to the beach every day. He's a fisherman. But here on the coast
00:09of Tamil Nadu, people can barely make a living from what they catch at sea. Palayam always
00:15has his smartphone with him on the boat. He's been using it to note down everything he observes
00:21out here for six years now. The fish's habitat has been steadily declining and he knows from
00:27environmentalists that climate change is a likely cause. I look at the sea, winds,
00:37skies, rains, temperatures, whether or not the sun's visible, if there was a red early
00:42morning sky, a rainbow, lightning, thunder. We take data for up to 47 categories like
00:49this. He records all his data in big tables so that none of his observations can go missing.
01:01Parvati Nair is an artist. She tries to make scientific topics accessible through her work,
01:10including climate change. She met Palayam during her research. I thought this was something
01:17that needed to be recorded for posterity in one sense. And I also thought it would
01:23be wonderful to use his knowledge, his artisanal knowledge of the ocean, to talk about the
01:31ocean. It was literally the ocean being given a voice through the person of Palayam Anna.
01:38She tells Palayam's story in a film that features in her exhibition, The Living Ocean.
01:49Through this film, we explain to people that the climate is changing. We tell them about
01:54how people of the past used to live, how times have changed, how the climate has changed.
02:00We explain all of this through this film. The artistic film encourages the viewer to
02:06reflect for themselves on the impacts of climate change.
02:11Art doesn't sort of hit you on the head and sort of make you feel defensive. Art doesn't
02:17instruct, it proposes. And then the viewer can take away an idea, a thought, a piece
02:24of information, and hopefully act on it to make a bit of a difference.
02:29In its exhibition, the Dakshina Chitra Heritage Museum in Chennai shows how human activity
02:35is impacting our oceans. Pollution, noise, and rising sea temperatures affect sea creatures.
02:41Alongside Parvati, other artists have also dedicated their works to the various facets
02:47of climate change.
02:48There are two works called Reef and Ocean's Forest, which are by the Hashtag Collective.
02:56And as you move around these works, the works themselves change. So on the one side, you
03:03see what a healthy mangrove looks like or what a healthy coral bed looks like. But as
03:08you move around it, you see what happens when they get degraded. So in this way, we are
03:13also trying to show the impact. It's a visceral moment when you see what can happen.
03:21Palayam has also taken on his very first work of art for the project, an installation with
03:27fishing nets.
03:32We mostly buy these nets for our work. I made this piece for the Dakshina Chitra Museum
03:37because of Parvati. This is the first time I have done anything like this. It turned
03:42out really well, even on the first attempt. She is pleased, and I'm happy with it too.
03:50Palayam, the fisherman, and Parvati, the artist, people from very different walks of life,
03:59got united in their shared desire to make a difference and draw attention to climate
04:04change and what it means for us humans.