Nandita Kumar
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A YEAR OF CONVERSATIONS ABOUT ART AND HEALTH DEKHA UNDEKHA PB 1 Concept and Installation Artist The Dekha Undekha Team Nandita Kumar Textile Artists Administration Cover Photo In the last year, women and men Afreen Priya Agrawal Neville Sukhia from our communities have Zeenat Shibani Bagchi witnessed a unique medium of Mridula Kshitija Kanbur Text Sumaiya Benita Fernando expressing their health concerns and Parveen Turq Documentation spreading health literacy. They have Susie Vickery Benita Fernando Design used art, conversed about health and Saba Chaitanya Modak translated those discussions into Rohini Advisory Board photography, pottery and textiles. Mehzabeen Sheikh David Osrin © 2012 SNEHA Mahananda Wasundhara Joshi (Society for Nutrition, This was a unique exhibition and Monisha Ahmed Education and Health Action) as we now reminisce about this Ceramic Artists R. Sriram 3rd Floor, Urban Health Centre, year’s venture, we hope that similar Ashwin Solanki Jyoti Karmakar Lalwani 60 Feet Rd, Dharavi, Mumbai –400017 exhibitions can be woven into each of Daksha Nitesh Waghela www.snehamumbai.org our health programs. Rashi Jain Supported by dekhaundekha.wordpress.com Parvati Harjichitroda Aparna Patil SNEHA is an organization that Lakshmi Solanki Bhaskar Kakad All rights reserved. No part of this Neha Kudchadkar Nayreen Daruwalla publication may be reproduced, stored or believes in empowering women to transmitted, in any form or in any means; Mamta Solanki Sharmila Kher be catalysts of change in their own electronic, mechanical, photocopying, Anjani Khanna Archana Bagra recording or otherwise, without the prior right and that women’s health is The SNEHA family permission of the publishers. essential to building viable families Photographers DEKHA UNDEKHA: A Year of and communities in urban slums. Rupesh Sable Conversations about Art and Health Asmabi Qasim Through these vibrant articulations, Sudharak Olwe we see a bright future for advocacy Sunita Anthony D’Souza on health. Komal Zarina Khan We believe that Dekha Undekha is a Rohit Pachrane persuasive tool for SNEHA’s health programmes and we hope to use this to intervene in the health issues of many other communities. The exhibition is refreshed every time a discussion is conducted on its art pieces. We dream of even a mobile exhibition that will touch new people, new generations and new venues, in India and abroad. Hidden within these artistic pieces are not answers but deeper questions about our health and well-being. As the exhibition in Dharavi showed us, wherever Ghar Pe travels, it leaves a trail of awakening. Dr Armida Fernandez Founder, SNEHA 2 1 Foreword Textile Artists The idea of Dekha Undekha (Seen enough to live in robust buildings not usually enter an urban slum, Unseen) was a natural progression with good services. Poverty is no and people who would not usually of SNEHA’s work over the last barrier to an interest in art. expect to engage with gallery art. decade. A non-government organ- ization dedicated to improving the Dekha Undekha involved three Ghari/Ghar pe/At Home ran from The youngest of the tailors is Afreen. As a 24 year old mother, Zeenat took At 35, Mridula is a deceptively quiet health and wellbeing of women disciplines: photography, ceram- late February to early March 2012, She loves learning new patterns and up tailoring to pass her time at home. mother. She is fascinated by tailoring stitches. She also loves listening to and their families from Mumbai’s ics, and textile art. In a series of occupying a floor of Dharavi’s Shree She uses her skills to design and stitch and loves making quilts. She loves music and would have liked to make a her daughter’s clothes. She is an excel- watching television and drinking hot disadvantaged majority, SNEHA workshops held over a year, the Ganesh Vidya Mandir Primary career out of it like Shreya Goshal. lent cook of South Indian cuisine. cups of masala chai. collaborates with individuals, participants worked together with School. The reception was over- communities and health systems a multimedia artist to create a whelmingly enthusiastic and more to develop and test new models for collaborative installation. Each than 3000 people came to the exhi- collective intervention. team met regularly and included bition. The media and local people contemporary gallery artists and – residents, the police, schools – got Funded by The Wellcome Trust, artisans. In a series of workshops behind the project in an unprece- Dekha Undekha had four general held over a year, the participants dented show of support and enthusi- aims. First, to foster conversations worked together to create a col- asm for the artworks, each of which 17 year old Sumaiya is a stylish girl Parveen Turq has beautiful heavy Susie Vickery is a textile artist and about urban health between artists, laborative installation. In order was named after a Bollywood movie. who loves designing gowns. She also eyes, is the mother of two children theatrical costumier. She also works health scientists, people living in to push the process and stimulate Students from local schools attended knows a whole lot of beauty tips and and is 32 years of age. She loves doing with handicraft groups in China, challenging conditions in Dharavi decision-making, there was a clear workshops associated with the exhi- becoming a beautician is one of her crotchet and fabric painting. And, of Nepal, India and Gaza, designing and and Santacruz, and the general pub- mandate to produce an exhibition. bition, and visitors were encouraged favourite dreams. course, she loves eating sweets. developing new products. Her new lic. Second, to encourage artistic As the project unfolded, conver- to respond with artworks of their body of work is embroidered, ani- mated ethnography on the working creation in a forum in which pro- sations crystallized around the own. Many – including this resident conditions of garment workers. Susie fessionals and amateurs developed idea of a home. Ghari/Ghar pe/ of AKG Nagar - left comments in the loves cycling and embroidery and has ideas together and communicated At Home was to be an installation visitors’ book: “I am from Dharavi. found the Dekha Undekha project with urban health experts and the greater than the sum of its parts. All that you have shown here is my great fun and very inspiring. public. Third, to democratize the Conceived as a home without walls, life. I continue to suffer violence. I sharing of information on urban it was a museum of health concerns hope that things get better. I hope Beneath her burkha, Saba is a petite Rohini studied tailoring before health. And fourth, to publicly made from everyday furniture many people see it.” girl with a spark. She loves working with marriage and is the proud wife of acknowledge the huge contribution and durables. There were many cotton fabric, velvet and sequins. She has a man who works for the Mumbai of people who live in challenging conversations about where it should David Osrin studied at SNDT University, Mumbai. police. She dislikes household chores conditions to India’s economic and be mounted. At a certain point, She is proud to design her own clothes! and is a dedicated mother. cultural life. however, it became clear that, if the project was really about conver- India is urbanizing rapidly and sations, if it was to take risks, the urban health is becoming a major most ambitious and challenging concern. More than half of Mum- course would be to mount a large, bai’s people live in zopadpattis, professional exhibition in Dharavi. bastis, chawls, or informal settle- This was logistically formidable ments, vibrant localities described and - perhaps more importantly - it Mehzabeen Sheikh is a 23 old Mahananda works as a tailoring by the loaded word slum. People was the purest test of the project’s B.Com. graduate from L.S. Raheja teacher at the school that she studied who live in challenging conditions vision of its potential audience: College, Mumbai. She is passionate in. Her job is the perfect combination build and service the city and are as people who would not usually go about tailoring and is very skilled of the things dear to her – teaching engaged in the project of urban mo- to an exhibition, people who would at embroidery. One of her favourite and tailoring. She loves travelling and dernity as people who are fortunate pastimes is glass painting. meeting her relatives. 2 3 Ceramic Artists Photographers Ashwin Solanki held jobs as a recov- Daksha Nitesh Waghela is a 24 Rashi Jain has been nominated for Like every other 22 year old, Rupesh Asmabi Qasim does not intend to Sudharak Olwe has exhibited work on ery agent at banks and was even involved year old mother who works as a house art awards, exhibited nationwide and Sable is a young man of varied interests. marry any time soon. At 31, she is a great various social issues in India, Bangladesh, in diamond cutting at Surat. At 25, he cleaner. Ceramic art is a new-found participated in international shows, While he hopes to become a cost account- fan of Hrithik Roshan. She works in an Sweden, Portugal and the United States. has returned to his ancestral craft and love apart from which she has enrolled festivals, workshops and art camps. She ant soon, he is a regular performer at export line cutting unit in Dharavi. She In 1999-2000 he was the recipient of the believes that pottery has instilled in him herself in a tailoring class. She loves to co-founded and organises The Studio plays that are staged at various mandals once looked with envy at the many for- National Foundation Media Fellowship. In independence and ownership of his busi- cook dosas, idlis and non-vegetarian Potter’s Market at the Kala Ghoda Arts during Ganesh Chaturthi.