Shifting Terrains: Glacial Debris and Flow in the Garhwal Himalayas, India
Featuring the work of 2024 Howland Fellow, Madhura Vaze
Gallery Talk & Reception - Fri, Nov 1, 12pm (Campbell Corner Gallery)
Howland Travel Fellowship Exhibition (Fri, Oct 25 – Mon, Nov 18)
Having travelled and hiked extensively in the Indian Himalayas, Madhura Vaze (MLA '24) witnessed the changes in glacier melting patterns due to climate change and the substantial impacts of flow and debris cover on mountainous communities. Often called "The Third Pole of the World," the constant flux within the disappearance of Himalayan glaciers has affected mountainous infrastructural systems, community values, ecology, histories, and social constructs through continuous processes of glacial erosion and deposition.
For the 2024 Howland Traveling Fellowship, Vaze travelled to the Garhwal Himalayan region in the Uttarakhand state of India to document debris cover and flow in Mandakini and Alakananda River (tributaries of the Ganges River) watershed basins. Traveling to Kedarnath's Chorabari and Companion glaciers, Joshimath, as well as several other small towns, she questioned the dynamics of glacial retreat and how the processes of glacio-fluvial landscapes erode the relational ethics of the public. The historical traces accompanied by future predictions from the 2013 and 2021 glacial lake outburst floods, presented compelling findings for understanding the relationship between glacial geomorphology and mountainous communities. This exhibition showcases fieldwork and research in the world of glacial-fluvial landscapes by thinking about climate change vertically.