Anti-Caste Artists at India Art Fair 2025

OutlookIndia

At the India Art Fair 2025, Outlook spoke to some of the anti-caste artists who were showcasing their art and art installations. Vikrant Bhise, Yogesh Barve and Bhushan Bhombale speak about the inspiration behind their art and the impact that it has on the social discourses around inclusion.  Reporter: Apeksha Priyadarshini Camera: Vikram Sharma Editor: Sudhanshu  Follow us: Website: https://www.outlookindia.com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Outlookindia Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/outlookindia/ X: https://twitter.com/Outlookindia Whatsapp: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029VaNrF3v0AgWLA6OnJH0R Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@OutlookMagazine Dailymotion: https://www.dailymotion.com/outlookindia  #IndiaArtFair2025 #AntiCasteArt #SocialJustice #Inclusion #ArtForChange #DalitArt #ContemporaryArt #ArtistVoices #CasteDiscrimination

Transcript

00:00Currently, I am here in Delhi, art fair is going on, 2025, in experimental gallery I

00:29have shown three different series of work, one is the small canvas of work, five canvases

00:36I am showing, work is the equality of pillar, so I am showing the Savitribai Phule, Kabir,

00:43then Mahatma Phule and one more is the Ambedkar and Buddha, when I take the Ambedkar then

00:52of course everyday happening something about the Dalit community, so I have worked on them,

01:01I can take the Mahatma Phule, then there is a farmer protest going on, so I have talked

01:09about that, then we can talk about the women, so of course Savitribai Phule also come forward

01:17because she started first school for the women, so of course I am showing there Savitribai

01:22Phule statue and the women standing behind that statue, Ambedkar's father is coming from

01:28Kabir Pantheer, so that is the five works of the equality of pillars I have painted,

01:37then one more series is like, which is taking a particular community to their homes, demolition

01:47is happening, so I have done a speech about that, like in Mumbai there is a Jai Bhim Nagar

01:54area, there also we are working in that movement, I have done on migrant labourers, who are

02:02still in Maharashtra, there are many different castes, who to fill our stomachs, for 6 months,

02:093 months they keep on migrating, these three series I have shown in the experimental, and

02:16one more series I have shown with the Ananta Art Gallery, there is a large piece of canvas,

02:23that is the Sanitary Worker, so Sanitary Worker, of course you can see that Sanitary Worker

02:30is doing a particular society even now, and I connected that with the Maharashtra water

02:36revolution, because we have done the Satyagraha of water, and now in 2027 it has completed

02:43in Satyagraha, still this community is doing the same work, and because of that their

02:50life span is very short, like in 40-50 years they die, and now we are seeing that it is

03:03increasing a lot, so we should pay attention to this also, because of this I am working

03:11with this subject.

03:19What I have done here in India Art Fair is an installation called I am not your Dalit,

03:25which is looking at the whole context of gays, when people see people from marginalized communities,

03:33and the idea they carry of this community, and what I have done here is I have made a

03:40list of 60 units of LED tickers, which we see in day to day life, when we commute in

03:48metro station, train station, or in public spaces such as medical shop, where we see

03:56this kind of setup, and the idea was what if this text coming from anti-caste literature

04:03comes into public existence, to make them aware, what is this whole history of caste

04:10movement, so that is what I am trying to do here, and the text which is running in this

04:16LED ticker is the whole volumes done on Ambedkar, which is like 17 volumes, and then there is

04:25Mahatma Phule, then there is Savitri Mai Phule, and Periyar, so that is what is running in

04:32the ticker, and it is more of the urgency of reading the text, that is why you will

04:37be able to see few words in one ticker, and one has to continuously read to understand

04:44what it is trying to tell us, so that is what is happening in the installation.

04:49There is an impact happening, and the way you start explaining the work to viewers,

04:58they do understand what is it about, and they also place themselves in the context

05:04of what the installation or what the artwork is trying to say, so there is a conversation,

05:10there is an education happening in this kind of conversation with the viewer and the visitor,

05:17so I am sure it is helping, trying to educate people what is happening around them.

05:23The representation part of having accessibility to people coming from marginalised communities

05:30have to be more I feel, and also it shouldn't be like a token system in terms of institutions

05:40just inviting certain people from communities, I think there should be a conscious decision

05:48to have certain artists, but also in great numbers I feel.

06:00This is my artwork, which is made in rubber, because I want to tell you that the business

06:09I have is of tyre puncture, so when I used to work with my father, I worked till 12,

06:19after 12 I shifted to Mumbai, I used to submit some projects in school from West Montreal,

06:24so there was also a collage and all that, later when I came to Mumbai, I saw Art Deco,

06:33I saw Art Deco and I saw a lot of architects with it, so all these things I liked a lot,

06:40that there is such a beautiful architect in our country, so when I used to pass out from painting,

06:49I used to do painting, in that also there were all those shapes, after that there were some shadow based shapes,

06:55so later when I used to see my own painting, I used to feel something was missing, forms and shapes,

07:03so I thought of making something in 3D, then when I made small sculptures in 3D,

07:11when I used rubber material, because thermocol was closed, so after thermocol,

07:18the diva sheet which we used to use, the form sheet of the shoes, so I worked a lot in that,

07:24so with all those materials, I made sculptures with my own material,

07:32I did the collage in the same way, because I feel that whatever work I used to do,

07:39it was my memory, and it comes from somewhere,

07:43and in layering, the work we do, we think a lot, some memories,

07:50so with that, I feel it is a paste, layer by layer,

07:56and last year when I came to Delhi, I visited Jantar Mantar,

08:00so in Jantar Mantar, I saw time, space and architecturally I saw everything,

08:05and I got to know about time, that such a big clock is made in India,

08:11and with that, aesthetically, Jai Singh ji has balanced all the shapes,

08:18so I found it very interesting,

08:20in the same way, I feel that sculptures should also be there,

08:24and in the same way, I made some sculptures, some small sculptures,

08:29and I also saw that with shadow, the layers that were being made, I liked them a lot,

08:38so with that thought, I made these sculptures, and did the balancing,

08:43with that thought, I am working with my old memories,

08:48which are some of my memories, there is some mudguard rubber,

08:51on which I have written names,

08:53they show us those names, like the names of old movies,

08:56the names of that time, so they take us to that time,

09:00and in the same way, I made these sculptures.

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