A Dock-Art Project
Over the last one month, Sassoon Docks in Colaba was undergoing a beautifcation treatment.
The first thing that hits you when you are in the periphery of Sassoon Docks is the smell of fish. If you decide to make your way through the frowsty chaos, you can witness an an interesting art exhibit happening here.
That is how most people visited the Sassoon Dock Art Project that opened its gate for public viewing just this weekend. Helmed by the St+Art India Foundation, the art exhibit featured artwork by 30 Indian and international artists.
Hanif Kureshi, Arthat Collective, Faizan Khatri, Do & Khatra, Sajid Wajid Shaikh are some of the artists from India while other international artists such as Guido Van Helten (Australia), Tan Zi Xi (Singapore), The Yok & Sheryo (Singapore), Lek (France), and Clemens Behr (Germany) came from different parts of the world. The entire concept of the art exhibit rests on the idea of beautification.
Sassoon Docks is an area that wakes up at three or four in the morning. Working and toiling all day long, the docks shut at around 8 pm, only to reopen the next early morning. The fish caught here meet a majority of the city’s fish consumption. Such is the importance of Sassoon Docks.
But even as the Koli community continues to slowly diminish, the need to bring to light their culture, art and life is now more urgent than ever. The first installation by Indian artist Hanif Kureshi, titled The Idea of Smell, shows little alphabetical paper cutouts stitched atop a fishnet hanging all the way down from the ceiling. On close inspection, you see that each word spells out to be a particular fragrance — mother’s cooking, hardware store, breath, and cough syrup being just a few of the examples. Each fragrance evokes a certain memory in one’s mind.
Going untitled, Austria-based artist Olivier Hoelzl’s installation is made entirely out of stencils. The multimedia artiste uses stencils as a medium to address the intricacies of the context he works in. “What I am really trying to do is to create a sense of ambivalence in the rooms,” he explains. The artist places his creation in the middle of the room, while surrounding it are the issues of globalisation and colonialism.
Several of the exhibits bring to light the issues faced by the community and life and art as a part of the Koli community. Arthat Collective’s Dead Fish had fish bones that resembled skyscrapers. Another installation will have you walking into a blue room that has plastic garbage, collected from around the Sassoon Docks area, suspended from the ceilings. The idea is to make one feel like they are in the sea — struggling to go about as a result of the plastic debris.
Spread across two floors, the exhibit will give one a peek inside the life of the Koli community. One of the last few installations is a collaboration between Do (Nikunj Prajapati) & Khatra (Siddharth Gohil) and Instagram urging people to share only #KindComments.
Remember the fishy smell you cringed at when you first walked in? By the time you walk out, it becomes a part of you.