In a rapidly changing India, migration and displacement are harsh truths. Social structure is confronting this radical change. For the last two years, Odia artist Prasanta Sahu engages with the questions of migration, displacement and the working class people. He uses different media to approach political subjects. Most of his works are symbolic of the struggle of people from the poor socio-economic background, their quest for identity and their contribution towards development. The result is a series Shram O Shramik (Labour & Labourers).
Through The Pillars, an installation of fibre, plaster and steel he offers a ‘macro’ view of the working class people. It comprises three pairs of feet. Steel armatures arise from them, similar to the iron rods used for the construction of concrete pillars. The bony feet, with raised veins and rough skin, are sculpted to resemble the feet of working class people.
Patches of plaster, which were a part of the moulding and casting process, symbolise the dirt on the feet of construction workers. The upper part of the work resembles a cityscape with incomplete structures which instead of being connected to the ground rise out of the feet. The whole arrangement is displayed on the ground symbolising the role of the working class people in the construction of a new India. “Behind any developing nation as I understand there are two prominent groups. The one which plans, visualises, conceives and the other group which executes. In the process of change, society becomes complex, compartmentalised and is divided into sections. Unfortunately, we never remember the workers who execute and turn the urban concept into reality. For me, both the groups are equally important,” says the artist who is an assistant professor at the Department of Painting, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan.
His Blueprint of A Situation is a piece that interprets the subject most literally, depicting a black-and-white mass of humanity against a wall of bricks with cement, mortar and hammers scattered throughout as symbols of human toil and endeavour. The whole set-up speaks about the experience of labour class, the sweat and the sheer effort they put in building a house. Blueprint of A Situation draws attention to the fact that these very people who make ‘dream houses’ for a privileged class can seldom dream of a house of their own.
“My work is my homage, a salute to the working class, their unrecognised contribution towards building great edifices that stand witness to the times we live in,” says the artist. Recently, Sahu created a piece dealing with the issue of changing social values done in an unusual medium of Sara (clay plate), which is traditionally used for decorative purposes or painting images of gods and goddesses. The work titled ‘Split’ shows a group photograph of a family from rural Odisha. A crack divides the plate vertically in two parts, symbolic of the way a traditional family structure has split in the modern times.
His works are not limited to any particular medium. “I feel certain ideas demand certain mediums, some thoughts are good for a sculptural project and some are good for painting, print, installation,” Sahu says.
In an etching titled LOC, he carves a foot with deep cracks, which on deeper perusal shows itself to be maps of India and Pakistan. The foot represents the inner turmoil that walking the line between two countries, cultures can create. It evokes a sense of dislocation and uncertainty.
Having trained in electrical engineering, Sahu did his BA Fine Arts (painting) from Kala Bhavan, Visva Bharati University, Santiniketan and later completed his MFA (Painting) from Maharaja Sayajirao University, Baroda. “My role as an artist is to work as a mediator between society and art. Thus in my art, I try to execute things as they appear in reality, and give them a different meaning altogether by juxtaposing images from dissimilar areas,” he says.