"Sons Of Ganga" Opening Night.

Please click on Picture to view full size.

The opening night of Seng Mah’s wonderful exhibition ”Sons of Ganga” was a great success with a bighearted crowd raising over $600 as they participated in a silent auction of selected work generously donated by Seng for the "Our Home Charity" in Kerala India.

Our Home Charity provides homes for abandoned children and orphans.

The Ganges at Varanasi is so heavily polluted that its waters are septic. Undeterred by this, the people of Varanasi continue to bathe in the Ganges and to use her banks and her ghats when praying. Strangely, Ganges water is mysteriously rich in dissolved oxygen – a remarkable phenomenon given its pollution.

Mah responds on a quietly instinctive level to this confusing and complex kaleidoscope of the spiritual and the unsanitary. View “Sons of Ganga” until the 31^st March and enter with Mah the spaces usually occupied only by the people of Varanasi.

Mah is a WA based freelance photographer. His previous exhibitions include underwater portraits in “Under H20”, the WA surf life saving scene in “Sons of Beaches”, and the solitude of the lone traveller in “Chaos and Drama”. Seng is the coordinator of the FotoFreo 2010 Fringe Festival and also runs workshops in Fremantle.

Exhibition will run at Behind the Monkey until 30th March 2010.

www.thesnapshooter.net

Sons Of Ganga - Exhibition Invitation

Sons of Ganga chronicles life unfolding on the banks of the Ganges in the city of Varanasi, India.
In late 2008, WA photographer, Seng Mah, spent a period of time in Varanasi while on a journey through northern India. Drawn by the significance of the city for Hindus and visions of Varanasi from images by the likes of Magnum photographer Michael Ackerman, Mah felt a desire to experience Varanasi himself and to document his experiences in a body of work that forms Sons of Ganga.

The Ganges River is the most holy of rivers in India. She is Ganga, the mother goddess, said to flow from the toe of Vishnu, the Provider.
In Varanasi, the ancient city on the banks of the Ganges, the river is an intrinsic part of spiritual life for Hindus - bathing in the Mother allows one to wash away the sins of lifetimes. The dead are cremated on its ghats, their ashes returned to Mother Ganga, their souls released from moksha, the cycle of rebirth.

There are also more pragmatic purposes to the Ganges - its water is used by countless dhobi wallahs who launder on its banks; boatmen ply its surface taking pilgrims and tourists from ghat to ghat, the locals wash, bathe and swim in her, and, ultimately, she becomes the repository for every piece of refuse, sewage and waste that comes from human and animal habitation of the city.

The Ganges at Varanasi is so heavily polluted that its waters are septic. Data collected reveals that there are 1.5 million faecal coliform bacteria per 100ml of water, where the amount for safe bathing should be less than 500. Undeterred by such facts, the people of Varanasi continue to bathe in the Ganges, to devote their prayers to her, and to use her banks and her ghats in prayer. Mysteriously, Ganges water is mysteriously rich in dissolved oxygen - a remarkable phenomenon given its pollution.

In visiting Varanasi, Mah was immediately struck by its contrasts. The images in Sons of Ganga show these contrasts and explore the seamless intersection of what people in the West often deem to be a division between the religious and secular. In Varanasi, this distinction is blurred, often to the confusion and, sometimes, revulsion, of visitors from the West:
“When you stand on the ghats overlooking the Ganges, a tremendous sense of calm and serenity settles upon you,” he says. “Yet, just metres ahead, men and women splash in the turbid waters of the river, seeking to cleanse themselves of physical and spiritual stains. Behind, large cattle low and defecate on the steps, while touts linger within earshot. The air is heavy with the acrid scent of funeral pyres on the cremation ghats. The hubbub of life by the river is suddenly broken by the ringing of bells and chanting as another corpse, swathed in marigold, is borne towards the pyre, where it will be immersed in the Ganges before it is ceremonially immolated before the burned remains are returned to the river.”

Mah found himself responding on a quietly instinctive level to this confusing and complex kaleidoscope of the spiritual and unsanitary. As a visitor and tourist, it was impossible for him to understand the centuries of cultural and religious tradition that normalised life on the banks of the Ganges. Instead, driven by a desire to create his own understanding of life on the Ganges, Mah found himself entering spaces usually occupied by the people of Varanasi:
“I walked the ghats and explored the alleyways of the old city. I sat down, waited and was invited to photograph inside akharas (wrestling arenas/gyms) on the banks of the river. I conversed with a retired banker on an evening stroll by the river, a boatman who lived in a shack on the ghat, children who wanted to be photograph and then asked for baksheesh (donation) in recompense, Shaivites who prayed and bathed in the river and a band of young men who washed in the river, exercised in the akhara before heading out to their work in various IT and business companies in the city.”
Mah’s photographs in Sons of Ganga show his exploration of these spaces.
Sons of Ganga is a FotoFreo 2010 Fringe Festival exhibition (www.fotofreo.com)


Exhibition will run at Behind the Monkey from 13th March - 30th March 2010.

Fables & Nocturnes - Photographic Exhibition

Opening Night was a great success, but if you weren't one of the huge crowd who made the opening there's still a chance to see the wonderful work of PIP - Photographers in Perth.
The exhibition runs in the Cracked gallery until 31st May 2009.

Photographs by David Savage/Alison Holt

Nick Palasin's work was voted Best In Show, judged by Photographer Louise Mann

Photograph by Seng Mah

The recipient of The Cracked Gallery Choice Award, selected by Team Monkey was Steve Humpleby. Steve won a $100 Gift Voucher from Behind The Monkey.

Photograph by Seng Mah

Fables & Nocturnes - Photographic Exhibition

View this link for a larger version of the flyer

Exhibition Launch: Sunday 17th May. 5pm - 7 pm
Exhibition runs from Saturday 16th May to Sunday 31st May 2009.
Exhibition curated by Seng Mah

Last Night.................................

The Monkey would like to say a big THANK YOU to Yolanda Stapleton for putting together an amazing evening opening to the Super Super Sampler exhibition. There was a wonderful turnout and a very appreciative audience for the exhibition. Congratulations Yolanda and also for having the most fantastic Dad! Ron, worked so hard all night helping everything to run smoothly. “Yeh Ron!!!” (Monkey screams!)

A big congratulations to Lloyd Hughes who won the Best In Show award for his unique approach to using the supersampler camera. Prizes courtesy of exhibition sponsors Fitzgerald Photo Imaging, Pigeonhole and Lomography Australia. Well done Lloyd and indeed to all exhibitors – Flexhaus, Gav Fielding, Nathan Martella, Russell Winter & Yolanda Stapleton. (Monkey claps loudly!).

The People’s Choice award is still open and votes are being taken during the duration of the exhibition, so make sure you put yours in! (Monkey offers pen!)

If you didn’t make it last night the exhibition runs daily until January 25th so do make sure you check it out! (Monkey wags fingers!)

Sunday Times Magazine 25.01.09:

Super Super Sampler

Behind The Monkey thanks all clients and friends for their support over 2008 and trusts this New Year will bring many special moments and be filled with wonderful abundancies!!

Chaos & Drama

Selected pics from the Chaos & Drama Book & Exhibition Launch on 19th September featuring the work of photographer Seng Mah.

Photographs by Brett Dorron and David Savage









_______________________________________________________________________________

Exhibition running until 12th October 2008 in the Cracked Gallery.


THE 2008 STORY - CHAPTER 7 - "CHAOS AND DRAMA''

"Monkey's don't live in Greece" sighed Keeper.
"So". said the Monkey
"Seng Mah tells me that Greece is a place where nothing is as it seems".

“I, THE MONKEY, want to go there - expose myself to an environment which is wonderfully and richly unfamiliar".

Keeper thought to herself that she exposed herself each day to an environment which was also wonderfully and richly unfamiliar - try working in a store with a Monkey!

"Talk about Chaos and Drama" she muttered out loud.

"That's what I'm talking about Keeper - Chaos and Drama - Seng's photographic exhibition and exploration of the rich, chaotic tapestry of Greek life. Photographs that are less about the external landscape of Greece and more about his internal feelings of isolation and loneliness while traveling solo and how he reacted to these travel experiences. Seng has a way of revealing the unexpected in his images and it looks so different............"

"the individual stories, characters and landscapes that he has drawn out in these images show the powerful emotions that emerge from traveling around Athens, Crete and the Cycladic Islands - it reveals a different side to this land - and - I, THE MONKEY –

-want to experience it too......"

(……and I, the Keeper will enjoy a drink on opening night – see attached invitation and I’m about to RSVP now to Seng! Phew!)