Imdad Barbhuyan's 'I Watched My Mother Cry' Meditates on Maternal and Ecological Grief
Indian visual artist and writer Imdad Barbhuyan (born 1993 in Assam) presents 'I Watched My Mother Cry', a photographic series that intertwines intimate portraits of his mother with landscapes of Assam. The work explores the body as a landscape and archive, reflecting on care, loss, and resilience. Barbhuyan's multidisciplinary practice—spanning photography, sculpture, writing, and performance—often addresses femininity, belonging, and environmental fragility. In this project, maternal grief becomes a metaphor for the Earth's cycles of destruction and renewal. Images merge the corporeal and natural: skin, earth, and memory blur. The artist invites viewers to recognize care, nourishment, and impermanence not only in his mother's tears but in rivers, monsoons, and the planet's wounds. The series continues Barbhuyan's broader aim of using personal narrative to rethink humanity's relationship with the climate crisis, suggesting that healing begins by seeing ourselves in the planet and the planet in those we love most.
Key facts
- Imdad Barbhuyan is an Indian visual artist and writer born in 1993 in Assam.
- His series 'I Watched My Mother Cry' combines intimate photographs of his mother with Assam landscapes.
- The work meditates on shared grief between mothers and the Earth.
- Barbhuyan's practice includes photography, sculpture, writing, and performance.
- Themes include femininity, belonging, and environmental fragility.
- Maternal grief is presented as both burden and bridge, mirroring planetary cycles of destruction and renewal.
- The project aims to use personal narrative to address the climate crisis.
- The series was published on collater.al.
Entities
Artists
- Imdad Barbhuyan
Institutions
- collater.al
Locations
- Assam
- India