Celebrating the relation of artistes and their tools

Nagpur: “Everyone admires great cities, art and music but they see through the beauty that lies in the tool and its relation with the man, who uses it, to create great things,” said Bhagwati Prasad, a Delhi based artist-researcher. Prasad is currently working on a project named ‘Silence and clamour of tools’, wherein he is working on a graphic narrative and series of performances on the untold stories of labourers and their tools.Prasad, who started this project six months back, was in the city for the grant showcase and interactive session, on Friday. The session was organized by the local NGO Alag Angle in collaboration with India Foundation of Arts (IFA), at Chitnavis centre. “There is a lot of life in my artwork because they are born from the everyday life around us and are based on something the mass could relate with,” said Prasad.
Being a political science student, Prasad made a bold leap and became an artist. He said, “In 2000 I realized that if it’s not about art, I won’t be able to have the freedom to express my ideas. Among the projects I had worked in my past, I had touched issues like media piracy and water scarcity.”
The 18 month long project supported by IFA, who gave him the financial help and platform, is in the middle stage and Prasad has been going around places, researching on labours and their tools. “Within the circumference of this project, I meet a variety of labourers from various locations. At some place they work on glass, while at a location like this, they are working under coal mines. They all have a different story to tell me,” he said and added that he plans to cover places like Haryana, as well as cities in Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
In the end, Prasad will be showcasing this work in libraries and creating a graphic book by compiling the entire work done under this project.
Clearing all the misconception about his project he said, “With the labourers, I am not trying to emphasize only on the poor class working on daily wage under bright sunlight with their chisel and hammer. A writer also uses a pen and a housewife uses a rolling pin to make chapatis. These are their tools.”
Outlining the importance of his choice of subject, Prasad said, “Without developing a relationship with their tool, none can excel in whatever they are doing. I started this project to put some light on that relationship and appreciate it. I have simply kept my eyes open and documenting the different types of relations shared between various kinds of artistes and their tools. By meeting different kinds of labours I am able to unfold different angles every single day.”