Recently I had the opportunity to visit the ongoing art festival at the Sassoon docks. This was organized by the St+art India Foundation to throw the spotlight on the rich heritage of this area particularly inhabited by the Kolis who are considered as the original inhabitants of the erstwhile city of Mumbai. Some of the exhibits made an everlasting impression on my mind. I bring forth what I imbibed from them and my personal interpretations loosely based on the descriptions at some of the exhibits.
The picture that says it all...
And yet I will say some more !! --- It is the very embodiment of a fishing district of the Sassoon docks-- that over time got relegated into oblivion where the Kolis continued to live in their own netted world, left to their own devices That a crow should serendipitously fly across with the prized catch of a fish remnant between its beaks at that very instant as I decide to point and shoot with my mobile phone camera-- is a matter of plain fortuitous luck hard to get by otherwise, but just shows how interdependent one species is on the other and how imperative it is for us to preserve, improve and cherish our habitat... And as the curtains fell over the art festival at the Sassoon Docks, I m indeed happy to have been a witness to this rich heritage from upclose...
This picture is the very embodiment of this fishing district . The pulse of 'this' people runs in the fishing net that is the main medium of sustenance and their primary source of livelihood. As one enters the docks, the fishy stench is all pervasive which becomes so to a point that it can curdle the gastric juices. But the exhibit at the outset itself brings to the foyer these idiosyncrasies that hold the thread of a community and captivates through imagery. A fishing net that symbolizes the entire district that should ideally make people reel due to the fishy odour read obnoxious stench for some, does all but do that. Hanif Qureshi's exhibit at the entrance has very commonplace names of various objects that invoke our olfactory senses and challenge our memory, taking our mind away from all this as we read and mull over them. Some of them like Mom's cooking, a new book, fresh clothes, freshly cut grass, ink, a new book or a shoe are among the pleasant ones and among the downright obnoxious ones are the dung, a train toilet, garbage , etc. These are those very smells that have for long been taken for granted but not anymore at this exhibit.
At the exhibit called as 'Plastic Ocean', Singaporean artist Tan Xi Zi uses plastic from our everyday use to create an illusion of an ocean in such a way that highlights the poignant reality that if we aren't careful we may drown in an ocean of plastic refuse of our own making. The effect is thus stark and doom-ridden but drives home the likely hazards hitting rather hard...
Overflow: Shilo Shiv Suleman uses embroidery as an artform on panels made of organza and fiberglass that extend from the ceiling to the floor. Her love poems on them captivate ur heart while the sheer beauty of this art enthrals and overflows!
Oliver Hoelzl creates an illusion of Koli women praying to the Sea Deity or the Samudra Devta . This is not a pic though but a clever juxtaposition of stenciled paper cuts that have been highlighted with halogen lamps. The effect is mesmerizing to say the least .These layers of the stencil cuts are metaphorical for the various layers of urbanization which have hidden the erstwhile historical past of the Kolis who are the original inhabitants of the island of Mumbanagari . In case u miss- that's urs truly silhouetted in the foreground, praying too !
Guido Van Helten is an Australian artist who specializes in black and white portraits. For the SD app, he spent 3days with the locals and finally zeroed in on 3friends all ladies that typify the very pulse of a forgotten people. They were the ones who the artist spent time, shelling prawns. Their ease of manner, unpretentious attitude and affable manner is highlighted by the larger than life murals which the artist has made into facades that make up the walls of the warehouse at the docks.
The Ugly truth is a photonarrative by Artist Sajid Wajid Shaikh who has created an installation using the waste materials used in the landfill at Turbhe. A simple interpretation of a Mickey Mouse beautified by digitalising its lips does not take away from the ugly truth that even if the waste is out of sight and mind it still exists somewhere . This looms over our heads and threatens to be a major cascading catastrophe in the days to come if not addressed..
The Dead Fish An installation by the Arthat Collective wherein young designers use the imagery of a dead fish to bring out the sad truth of what modern unwarranted urbanization often does to habitats that bear the brunt
The Untitled artwork by Aniruddh, uses various pictures taken around the Sassoon Dockyard area and using them with various geometric shapes to form a very complicated collage of sorts that highlights the complexities that engulf our city.(Featuring my daughter, Isha)
Parfum Sassoon This artwork by Sameer Kulavoor is a paradoxical take off on how a product is sold. Here the object of desire being the perfume of the docks an imagery that shows that anything if packaged cleverly and presented can be sold in this city of dreams
Artist Faizan's installation of a Dog relieving itself at regular intervals cannot be escaped. It is a metaphorical take on how we tend to overlook our immediate problems or situations at hand by pissing (metaphor for lackadaisical attitude)
An untitled project by the artist Hanisha Tirumalasetty shows local Koli women working around crates of fish. Their life revolves around the fish, crates, nets and the like. While the starkness of a cloistered life is apparent at first, what caught my eye was also the liveliness of women working together. Can gossip be far behind then . Obviously not! This somewhat decreases the morbidity of their situation. Finding happiness in unlikely situations is how I look at it. That I happened to look like a surreal exhibit myself and it appeared as though these ladies were ogling at my beauteous wonder of the Moirangphee saree is just a matter of fortuitous luck once again . Perhaps I look hideous but I have purposely retained this incidental image as it lightens the mood. But I also want to say that this was no deliberate attempt to belittle the artist's narrative at all..
The ironies that we live in- First we go and decorate with graffiti and then we dirty the place by littering. People let us be mature and make up our minds about what must be done.
The Sassoon Dog at the Sassoon Dock!
