HYDERABAD: “Do Din”, a two-day community driven urban techno-arts event at Vidyaranya high school Hyderabad was anchored by Hyderabad Urban Lab. The event featured several workshops, talks, round tables, film screenings and art installations. A few of the events were, ‘Discovering Khairatabad’ by Srinivas Murthy and Tauqeer Ahmed, ‘Informal cities,’ a discussion on contemporary urban life by Anant Maringanti and Gautam Bha. A special discussion on, ‘Working women in the city’ by Kinnera Murthy brought forth the security concerns about women in the city who are hired domestic workers, sanitation workers, vendors, cleaners, government employees, corporate employees, etc.
The event also included art installations curated by Avani Rao Gandra and photo exhibitions curated by Aditya Mopur and Harsha Vadlamani. The series of photographs taken by Vedya Rao Gandra explore the streets of the slum dwelling, Jawahar Nagar with an eye for different types of motor vehicles. The interesting intrusion of abandoned cars and bikes into the locality makes for overtly allegorical scenes. Vedya tells more about his photographs, “The fancy fleet of automobiles on the main roads of this locality assume a different role, form, meaning in this slum-the spoils of accidents , the chained vehicles that speak insecurity, the pride of owners shown in the ornament ion of two wheelers and autos. These vehicles speak so much about the stark inequality in the city life, even within a radius of couple of kilometers “
Four artists had presented installations based on the topic, City Address, where the artist’s portrayed city related issues in their works. The installation by Avani Rao Gandra, titled, ‘Food on my plate’ recreated the reform in food habits in the city, where the traditional food items have been replaced by the subtle but sure invasion of food habits from the other parts of the world. The artist made use of many earthen pots to emphasize upon the fragmented nature of food culture and habits, some pots are empty, some half full and few full with rice husk.
Installation by artist Nirmala Biluka makes for an interesting experience for the viewers, where they can be a part of the installation and enter into a pleasant trance. The installation includes strings of green bangles that hang on a ring and form a hollow space in between where a person can stand and experience the magic of the bangles shining all around. Green bangles are considered as symbol of tradition and culture and are worn to celebrate many religious and other special occasions. In the installation they symbolize the fragility of womanhood and the many dangers that the womenfolk face in the urban society in day to day life.
The installation by Pavan Kumar stressed upon the fast forward life of the city where there is an absence of contemplation and observation on many aspects of life and existence. The artist conveyed his concept by making a shadow of a tree with the help of various materials, the shadow of the tree which gets missed by many engrossed in day to day chores, gets creatively stressed upon in the installation so that it gets noticed.
A very interesting sound installation was presented by artist Ravi Kumar. The artist here had clubbed, amalgamated and overlapped the noises particular to an active city. The deafening noise of traffic, construction in progress , etc., overpower and dwarf the soft whispers of mothers and children, such sound pollution gets expressed in the installation.
The group of artists here have explored and come up with personal perspectives of looking at their city. They have worked on ideas and concepts that are varied but unanimously crisp and strong.