At its mouth, the river regurgitates all the waste dumped into it.

I chose this as my key sentence based on a series of photographs I took in mid-2016 at the mouth of the Kelani river, in Mutwal, where the river falls into the Indian Ocean.

Human beings keep throwing all manner of things in the river, but at the end of it’s journey, the river rejects and discards a significant amount of such accumulated matter: bottles, nets, styrofoam, tangled plastics, and cloth.

In this installation, the photographs start the discussion. From the surface of the print, the actual, physical waste material begins to spill out—breaking the frame and cascading onto the gallery floor in an uncontrolled overflow.

This overflow mirrors how pollution does not stay contained in photographs but leaks into our physical reality. The viewer cannot remain a detached observer. By forcing viewers to physically step over and around the waste, the installation transforms passive observation into active navigation—mimicking the uncomfortable reality of living alongside pollution. This piece refuses to let waste disappear downstream; instead, it forces it back into view, just as the river regurgitates it at the mouth.