Gurnaaz Kaur
Photographs can capture more than just surface appearance. The features encapsulated are real to the extent that no art can produce. It’s the right application of this medium that makes all the difference.
Putting it to use for showcasing the working class of Punjab is Jaspal Kamana. He has displayed his work at the Punjab Kala Bhawan under the Punjab Lalit Kala Akademi initiative to promote extraordinary art projects of upcoming artists. Titled Kamey Des Punjab De (Workers of Punjab), his photography offers a deep insight into the lives of labourers in the Land of Five Rivers. If there is one wall that reflects the various steps of growing wheat, there is another showing cultivation of rice, cattle grazing, then another dedicated to the stages of brick making, of old men tailoring, and making jutti. But these are not about beautiful fields; these are about the toiling population of the state, which goes unnoticed.
A special focus is given on the involvement of women in all these jobs. In fact, Jaspal is of the opinion that more women than men do manual labour. They even train their children about things like making cow dung cakes and its stacks, the preparation of haystack, etc. Adding to these photographs are installations which make it look all the more alive; for instance, the wall that gives a close up of brick-kilns has images of kneading clay, pressing it into a mould, setting, drying and firing it, loading it on horse carts has adobe bricks lying all around. Four spray pumps highlight the use of chemicals and pesticides and stuck on them are images of old men performing the act.
Another installation that signifies the dying art of pottery and lamps, piggy banks, broken pots strewn in a room and there are also pots the mouths of which are covered with pictures of muddy hands that have spent their lives moulding clay. A peculiar feature of the life captured through Jaspal’s lens is it is all monochromatic and his reason, he says is, “See, I’ve used black and white thematically. Because I am showing the lives of the working class of Punjab, the truth is there are hardly any colours in their appearance or for that matter in their lives.”
An assistant professor by profession, Jaspal took to photography because he wanted to do something creative. “I tried my hand at painting some 15 years back only to know I was no good at that. Next to painting for me was photography that is constructed on the basis of light and angle and reveals the subject true to its essence.”
What he has decided to reveal is the exploitation of Punjab’s backward class—economically, culturally, religiously and for that matter even physically, he says they are exploited at all the possible levels. He has grown up seeing that, and teaches that as a Punjabi literature professor. So bringing it out visually was a natural inclination. Another way to look at these images is to find an artist in everyone, no matter how menial his job is. And he questions, “Cutting leather or fabric and sewing it in the right shape is an art; making a cow dung stack is a sculpture; knowing the gap between two seeds while sowing them is art and creating a language with their animals to graze them is also art.” One just needs the eye to recognise art and beauty in what’s considered mundane.
gurnaaz@tribunemail.com
from The Tribune http://bit.ly/2Uslg6C
via Today’s News Headlines
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