Throughout history, people across the globe have been fighting against the annihilation of humanity, just as we are fighting today.
And archiving these years of activism and showcasing the spirit of citizen protest is the exhibition Family is Plural, by the Delhi-based artist-activist Probir Gupta at the Bikaner House.
His multimedia works of art are layered with activist and political overtones, exploring various issues, from critiquing militarism and bureaucracy to migration and more, reminding the single thread, that is humanity, which binds us all. “I’m constantly observing and interacting with people.
"Fifty per cent of my work happens in the studio and the rest, outside, based on my engagements with people from different communities,” says the artist, who has been engaged in community work since 1996.
He has been actively working towards sensitising people and young adults towards various social issues and about people facing discrimination. “When I say ‘Family is Plural’, it has nothing to do with blood relations.
"Rather it is about looking at people, observing them, their situations, the environment around us and a lot of other things that focus on human rights. It is also about being aware and sensitive towards people and society, distinguishing between right and wrong, and where you should take a stand. For me, a family is a plural in the sense that there is absolutely no space for ego-centric practice.”
One of the works that is both fascinating and disturbing is the 9x12ft The Indian Tempest – ensemble of an ornate chandelier with a phantasmal collection of inverted and headless figures, including a child being trodden upon and a gas mask that emerges from the striking flash of colours and lines used by the artist.
“In 2009, I was in Paris for several months when the youth uprising in Egypt took place and soon spread to North African countries and also to Gulf countries.
"This series of conflicts came to be known as the Arab Spring. It was against the dictatorial powers, imperialism and aristocracy... the kind of rulers all these respected places had. And then in 2012, for the first time in Delhi, I noticed people pouring into the streets as Nirbhaya was battling for life. So, The Indian Tempest talks about the kind of the uprising which took place after the brutal rape of Nirbhaya and the youth movement, that is ongoing even now.”
Another thought-provoking piece, titled Sacred Cows and Surrogate Mother’s in a Scrap Market, has photographs of people at scrap markets which crop up in different localities on different days. “These are not shop-oriented markets, and are out in the street.
The people who go to buy there are basically who belong to the lower middle class and working class.
And surrogacy is a new form of labour which not many of us want to know exactly how it functions. It is an intricate form of exploitation of a woman’s body, who is underpaid to carry somebody else’s child.”
Music is integral to Gupta’s work and he listens to Jazz and the Blues along with Bauls from West Bengal.
“Music is a crucial component in my work. Also socially, both Blacks and Dalits have a lot in common in terms of facing discrimination over the years. My work, Iconising Blacks and Dalits is an icon, a style of painting that uses a lot of gold, expensive pearls and stones. It would be normally of religious figures but here I’m iconising the youths of the Dalit community and the Blacks.”
Made using political posters, rubber stamps and a magnified helmet covering a headless child, his work Indian Boat offers a critique of militarism and bureaucracy, and makes a powerful statement about oppression and control.
For Gupta, above everything else is humanity; visual art being his medium as a language of protest. This idea, he says, was inculcated since childhood and the also because of the schools he had been to.
“Born in Kolkata in 1960, there was always thrust on culture and society. I would have always been observing the society and pondering about working on an area which is about people and humanity,” concludes Gupta.
ON: Bikaner House
TILL: December 29