Sujay Sanan's Ecological Art Merges Scientific Observation With Artistic Meditation

Did you know that the drastic decline of vultures in India triggered a public health crisis? In the early 1990s, Indian farmers began using diclofenac, a painkiller for cattle. When the cattle died, vultures fed on their carcasses, unknowingly ingesting the drug. Even in tiny doses, diclofenac caused fatal kidney failure in vultures, leading to a staggering 99% population decline by the early 2000s. With these natural scavengers gone, animal landfills with carcasses rotting in the open, attracted feral dogs and rats. As their population surged, so did the alarming rise in rabies and other zoonotic diseases contributing to over 100,000 human deaths annually.

This crisis serves as a stark reminder of how every species plays a crucial role in maintaining balance, and how human actions can unknowingly disrupt entire ecosystems. It is this delicate web of interconnectedness that Sujay Sanan explores in his work, where no species exists in isolation, and every ecological shift sends ripples through the world. Through his intricate, meditative drawings, Sanan documents vanishing biodiversity and offers a reflection on what we stand to lose and a plea for a more mindful coexistence.

Born in India and now based in Cape Town, Sanan is an artist who has turned slow observation into an act of devotion. For over a decade, he has immersed himself in the landscapes of the southernmost tip of Africa, home to the world’s smallest biome. It is a region defined by its rarity and an ecosystem so intricate and specific, that it teeters between resilience and fragility. And it is in this delicate balance that Sujay finds his inspiration.

Sanan’s practice is rooted in patience This deliberate way of working mirrors his philosophy of slow living, a counterpoint to the speed and detachment of the modern world. His art asks us to pause, to look closer, to consider what we stand to lose in our relentless march forward.

'A Place I Know', for example, is a body of work born out of thousands of kilometers walked, of moments spent in the company of fleeting creatures. Here, the animals don’t just inhabit their landscapes, they dissolve into them, their forms absorbing the textures and contours of their surroundings. A leopard’s rosettes are superimposed with the dappled light of the underbrush; an orca’s sleek body carries the waves of the sea. These works are visual metaphors for the inextricable link between life and land.

His project 'Imagine a Forest', on the other hand, takes a different approach, one grounded in rigorous scientific research. here, the paintings highlight the unseen relationships in nature; like the way a single fly, living for just twenty-four hours, can influence the survival of a black rhino. These connections, often invisible to the casual observer, become the very essence of his compositions. For Sujay, drawing is a way of documenting, of making sense of the hidden architectures that sustain life. He combs through research papers, tracking nutrient exchanges and predator-prey dynamics with the eye of a detective. Even the contents of animal scat become valuable clues, revealing the elaborate web of dependencies that weave together an ecosystem.

Mesmerism is a series that is more speculative in nature. Here, insects are reimaged as a version of cultural figures from mythology and folklore. Take the Yamantaka Beetle, for example with the face of the wrathful Tibetan Buddhist deity Yamantaka, the destroyer of death. Or the Atlas Barong Moth, featuring a protective spirit from Balinese folklore symbolizing both transformation and guardianship. The Ko-omote Kabutomushi, which merges the Japanese Noh theater mask of a young woman (Ko-omote) with a rhinoceros beetle. The Pwo Fertility Moth, inspired by the Pwo masks of the Chokwe people in Central Africa, intertwines ideas of femininity, initiation, and continuity with the fleeting yet crucial role of moths in ecosystems. The series contains 34 such hybrids reflecting the artist’s of a world where insects, aware of their own decline, evolve to mimic the sacred symbols of the human cultures they live among.

Sujay Sanan’s work embodies ecological posthumanism, dissolving the boundaries between human and non-human life to reveal deep interconnections within ecosystems. His meticulous drawings serve as both an act of witnessing and a form of resistance against the erasure of biodiversity, capturing species on the brink of disappearance. By merging scientific observation with artistic meditation, he challenges anthropocentric narratives, positioning nature not as a backdrop to human existence but as an autonomous, entangled force that must be respected.

Follow Sujay here. You can also purchase his prints here.

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