Provocation on canvas

541 million years ago, it was a carbon molecule that combined with a hydrogen to form an elemental hydrocarbon, the genesis of life, as we know it, on earth.

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Carbon is life. Today, carbon is also death.

And at a time when it has become a dirty word, it is also imperative for us to be reminded that we all are essentially carbon and the element is the backbone of everything that symbolises life and energy. Conceptualised by the Science Gallery in Bengaluru, an exhibit titled Carbon, at Serendipity Arts Festival, immediately pulls a science lover, and enlightens even those who understand little what the fuss is all about.

The ideas in question are of a consumerist society, wasteful consumption, the excessive use of fossil fuels, the ubiquity of plastic, and the inevitability of it all.

Curator Ravi Agarwal says we need to think of science in a political and social context too. "Carbon is the building block of life. But the way we demonise it, making it the big villain, is not nature's fault. How we have exploited carbon is human doing. Carbon did nothing wrong by itself."