Proof of Mumbai’s colonial previous may be discovered within the metropolis’s chawls, rickety tenement flats stacked upon one another like miserable LEGO blocks.
The constructions sprung up across the metropolis to accommodate the poor working class, such because the laborers who toiled for the success of the East India Firm by means of the 1800s. Chawls have been usually crowded, unsanitary and structurally perilous – in fact, the British retailers themselves lived in large bungalows out of sight of such issues.
Immediately in Mumbai you possibly can nonetheless discover chawls in poorer areas of town. It’s also possible to discover their affect in an enchanting new exhibit on the Berkeley Artwork Museum and Pacific Movie Archive. India-born artist Amol Ok. Patil has altered the museum partitions to look tough and weathered, mimicking the layers of previous paint in chawls. Hanging all through are work and unusual sculptures of blobby, natural lots, constituted of clay forged in bronze, with fingers and toes jutting out as if in protest.
Via such alien but acquainted artwork, the museum writes, Patil “shines light on the social and political injustices these communities face and the dignity, creativity and resourcefulness with which they continue to fight for their rights.”
Particulars: Present is open 11 a.m.-7 p.m. Wednesday-Sunday from January 18-April 27 at 2155 Heart St., Berkeley; $18 basic admission, bampfa.org.
