Where are we heading - Art as a medium for protest

After an enriching day of talks on Art and Protest and a day of learning at the conference in Bangalore, I washed my eyes with an art exhibition at the State Art Gallery by Bharath Yadav, who belongs to the cowherd community, displayed an array of exhibits and paintings focusing on buffaloes, pollution, meat shop. What intrigued me was the art installation by this gentleman which was a bullock cart of rusted pipes and a synchronous arrangement of milk cans with a small wooden box with a slit.

How often do we think of buffaloes with a pollution mask? Never, right? And with people with masks around, it was amusing so see so. The artist effectively proves his point on how environmental damage is leading us to the claustrophobic polluted air that we've manufactured for ourselves. 

The past few weeks, I was inundated with good art that have been linked to protest and focus on the margins. And a play titled Mosambi Narangi, a play about two failed junior artists--Rajit Kapoor and Ajeet Singh Palawat who play the titular roles, takes us to the ghats of Benaras, where the men are trying hard to make it big and when Bollywood takes its cameras to zoom on the lives of the people in this small city, the junior artistes go berserk. Ajeet as the leading lady - a half-Russian actress and the bodyguard, Joginder will leave you into splits. What really struck me was the use of only two artistes to portray many characters, minimalist props and subtle use of lighting--the ease with which they slip into dialects, costumes is mesmerizing. The music (performed live) accentuated the plight of these men and they cleverly drove us towards the country’s plight when the protagonist says “Hum Kaagaz Nahi Dikhaenge” when the actress’s manager asks him to show his papers before meeting the actress. The play also elucidates how junior artistes hopelessly try to make it big and their personal lives that intertwine with their dreams. If broken hopes and torn dreams have a human form then its Mosambi Prasad and Narangi Lal, the stars of this play.

Lastly, if you haven’t watched Little Women, the adaptation from the classic by Louis May Alcott, do it at the earliest. The movie is a time travel into the post-Civil War in America where four sisters are trying to twist their fate with their talent. The main protagonist, Jo, is a struggling writer and a teacher in New York; the other sisters with their talents fail to do much. The novel (which I shamelessly admit, hasn’t been read by me, yet), was in a linear narrative form but the movie is non-linear. The movie paints the pages of the novel, beautifully and you are moved by the actors’ brilliant portrayal of the Little Women. Jo is a fierce woman and it shows in her grit to make it as a writer. Burning the midnight oil and her fingers embellished with ink marks will awaken the artist in you to grab that pen or brush. In a man’s world, where marriage is an economic proposition, these little women try to protest in their own way!  

Pictures courtesy - Bharath Yadav