What keeps them going? How do they survive on a day to day basis in a foreign land, away from their homes? What is their food habit? Do they have an assurance of the availability of food on a daily basis ? How do they feel while standing in groups, waiting for some labor contractor to pick them up in a pickup van or an auto for a construction site or a road building work; so that they could get work for a day! Do they even have some hope or aspirations about their future? How do they raise their children? What are their dreams regarding their future generation?
All these heart churning basic questions about the lives of migrant workers or laborers, particularly of Southern Odisha who go in search of work to different places of the country have disturbed young artist Bhikari Pradhan’s empathetic heart. And in search of the answers, he has tried to reach out to them. To see and feel the stark realities of their world. To meet them; to sit with them; to talk to them; to hold their hands with compassion for a while, when needed. I felt as if I was witnessing their lives with my own eyes while seeing the works of Bhikari. I met this young artist and got the chance to see his amazing works, made with a noble intention in the open house exhibition under the Artists residency program organized by Utsha Foundation.
Bhikari Pradhan’s works consisted of some wooden helmets, a number of ceramic bowls, some photographs he had taken during his project and the miniature wooden replicas of the tools the migrant laborers use on a day to day basis. While interacting with the visitors like us, Bhikari said that, at first when he went to visit their slums for his project the workers and their family members were quite reluctant to tell their stories. So he tried to mingle with their children, who study in different schools through many workshops. He went there frequently, tried to interact with them. He organised art competitions among the children and encouraged them to draw the food items they eat on paper. He told them stories and distributed food among them. Slowly they began to respond to his efforts.
Bhikari said, when the children started to open up (before him) it was like an achievement for him. Then his journey of finding the answers he was seeking became a bit easier. The workers gradually started to open up before him. They began to tell their tales, the problems they face on a daily basis, about their deep and sorrowful feelings of being uprooted from their homes, from their native place, with the compulsion of finding a way out from poverty, in order to find a livelihood. And Bhikari never looked back from there. Rather this journey took him much closer to that class of the society, which remains unnoticed and overlooked by most people. He got to know their food pattern, which might appear too bland to your eyes, mostly consists of water rice (pakhala bhata in Odia) with dry fish fry or boiled mashed potatoes. To make them a little fancy for the tongue, the only option is a mixture of crushed, squished green chilies and salt. So Bhikari tried to recreate their rice bowls through ceramics. And you know what? He had drawn the inspiration from their rangoli patterns to design his bowls.
Here, I would like to introduce a fact to my readers. In Southern Odisha, every morning, you could see some beautiful drawing patterns made from white powder (of rice or crushed stone) in front of almost every household over a circular patch of red mud. These patterns are mostly made by joining some dots arranged in prescribed traditional manners. So Bhikari had used those rangoli designs, collected from different households on his ceramic bowls while doing this project. And he told us that he has the plan to give back those bowls to those particular households from whom he had collected those designs. Then coming to the wooden helmets, Bhikari explained to us that he had made them from teak wood. Though those helmets looked simple in their designs from the outside, the artist had to give a lot of effort in joining very tiny pieces of wood to make them(one can understand why. Because single pieces of wood can’t be bent like metals, if needed). Then came the miniature models of the tools, used by the migrant workers made by the artist. Those were also made from wood. And while showing us those works and explaining to us about them Bhikari said that nowadays he is concentrating on wood works. Means he is exploring more and more options in this medium, these days.
I was surprised by this young artist’s zeal and efforts to dive into a world, about which most of us are unaware. While most of us don’t even bother to think about that class of people who are at the lowest level of the societal hierarchy, Bhikari has not only gone closure to them but his empathetic soul has tried to understand them. He visited the slums several times, where the migrant workers live. He met them personally and tried to know about their agony, the miserable condition in which they have to live; every tit bit of their lives. And through his works he has tried to present their plight to the outside world. Anyone can choose an easier and sophisticated path to present his works before the world. Some fascinating combination of colors can do wonders sometimes. But it takes courage and an empathetic heart to choose the path that Bhikari has chosen. This purity and empathy of this young soul would always have a blaming effect on the wounded hearts of the downtrodden people. Wish good luck for his future.
