About the artwork:

The initial image portrays a Hindu priest blowing into a conch shell on an altar dedicated to Shiva in Trinidad and Tobago.
How has the Hindu religion arrived in T&T, given that it is about 14,000 km from India? It was in 1845. The British government allowed the colonists to import labor from India. Despite they got 33% of the island’s population, they have always been considered second-class citizens.

Shiva is one of the important gods in Hinduism, capable of creating or destroying whatever. Shiva represents destruction and transformation because has the ability to recreate from death. Destruction is therefore the state prior to and necessary for regeneration. This concept is what I tried to represent in my work.

These are the steps I made to create my work:
• Creation of a digital collage with the magazine’s image and a set of flowers images belonging to my Florilegio series: https://www.photosatriani.com/Concept/Florilegio/. I have thus recreated what happens in a Hindu ceremony in which the altar is flooded with candles, flowers, incense, songs, music.
• I have printed this collage on photographic paper and frozen it under a subtle stage of water.
• I deliberately took the frozen photo abruptly to cause some breakages.
• I put the photo still frozen on a light table and I have photographed that ephemeral moment in which the melting of the ice created a sensation of return to life and therefore of transformation

The result is a 60cmx46cm image printed in Hahnemulhe Photorag 310grs