When Reena Kallat was invited to the Goteborg International Biennale of Contemporary Art in 2011, she created a giant world map using multi-coloured electric wires to trace the movement of travellers, migrants and indentured labour across the world, but little did she know that her site-specific installation, ‘Woven Chronicle’ would also be responding to refugee crisis that the world was going to witness three years later.
So, when the New York Museum of Modern Art selected this work as part of a 2016 exhibition titled ‘Insecurities: Tracing Displacement and Shelter’, which explored how art responded to the complex circumstances brought about by forced displacement, the installation was viewed with a new meaning. “The work was conceived with electric wires to form a drawing, that suggests migration patterns globally, where multitude of actors interact without knowledge of the overall situation. But today, it has got a new life and can be re-contextualised keeping the refugee crisis in mind,” says Reena.
This installation, displayed in the Capital for the first time at India Art Fair, also used various sound effects such as deep-sea ambient sounds, ship horns, and electric pulses to recreate the environment of the sea voyages migrants across the globe have been taking over centuries. “The electric wires act as both conduits and barriers, simultaneously referring to global networks of communication and commerce as well as to barbed wires or fences,” she says.
Responding to the refugee crisis, which is presently confronting the world, were artworks at the ninth edition of the annual art event, but they were few and far between, as the most preferred form of medium — paintings, in different mediums, dominated the fair. And those who did respond to the crisis used interesting mediums to convey their message.
Concept of identity
Baroda-based artist, Girjesh Kumar Singh used bricks with mortar, collected from several demolished sites, to create busts of people from different religion and ethnicity for his work, ‘Laga Chunari Mein Daag’ (The stained robe), which is inspired by Kabir’s couplet. In this work, the artist associates the stains to the prejudices and bias that we all carry. “I am trying to address the concept of identity, which I believe is creating a lot of problems around the world,” says Girjesh, represented by Rukshaan art gallery.
“Brick and Mortar” by Girjesh Kumar Singh
And by using bricks from a demolished site, he examined the idea of identity and how it always travels with us, no matter where and under which circumstances people migrate to different countries or continents. “When we say that we all are humans, then shouldn’t everyone be getting equal rights? Why are we discriminating against people of certain identities? Why some are being welcomed everywhere and some are not?” he asks.
Seeped in nostalgia
As heart-warming images of men, women, and children fleeing from war, conflict or persecution crossing the Mediterranean Sea to enter Europe played across several mediums, the world anxiously watched their perilous journey. Sharmi Choudhary too was one of them. However, the Baroda-based artist decided to respond to the crisis and created ‘River’ a sculpture made from paper, paper pulp and stone colour.
Sharmi Choudhary’s “River”
“For centuries people have been using the sea to migrate. It offers an illegal route that the land doesn’t. But, this was the first time when one witnessed how, despite being a dangerous journey, people undertook this route. So, I wanted to recreate that experience of vulnerability, and the paper was the best medium to represent the concept of fluidity,” says Sharmi whose works mostly deal with the concept of migration.
Born in Kolkata, Sharmi was always surrounded by stories that were seeped in nostalgia and carried forward the pain of displacement. “My grandfather had come to India from Bangladesh. So, basically, he was a refugee and hence always carried with him a longing for home.” But, once she moved to Baroda for her MA in Fine Arts, she realised that even migrating within cities could bring a sense of loneliness and insecurity. “Even if I am living in India, but not in the city which is my home, there is always a sense of insecurity. I feel it, and that is what I have always tried to convey through my works,” she says.
The choice of the mediums, these artists have used to represent their chain of thoughts, correspond beautifully with their ideas and act as a binder to build the narrative. “Different mediums are part of an inherent vocabulary that an artist develops over time and then he or she chooses a particular medium that best fits in the concept. Over the years, I have learnt to deal with wires and they often reoccur in my works in other forms,” says Reena.
