A group art show, by 17 artists, in the city paid tribute to labourers on Labour Day
Hardworking folk: Artist Laxman's Aelay's artwork
How many times have you passed a construction site, without noticing the labourers who were toiling around in the heat? How many times have you eaten your food without thinking about the poor farmer who works hard to grow crops? We do this every day, right? To make us stop and think, the ongoing art exhibition, Labour of Love, at Ailamma Art Gallery highlights the work of labourers from different fields.
The group art show has works of 17 artists such as Laxman Aelay, Mahesh P., M. Vasantha, photographer Kandukuri Rameshbabu and many others on display. The concept was very simple explains curator Koeli Mukherjee Ghose, “Each piece of artwork has been picked carefully. We checked how the artist dealt with the concept and how they rendered the artwork through different mediums,” she says. The 35 artworks that have been put up are a mix of paintings, sculptures and photographs and there are some that stand out. Take for instance the mixed art works of artist Mahesh Potabathini that depicts the lives of weavers.
The two artworks showcase a girl with strips of cloth pasted over the painting. “In a weaver’s family, the entire family gets together to do the work, everyone gets involved in the work,” says the artist who comes from a weaver family himself. The work is rightfully titled Colours for whom? and Mahesh explains, “Weavers’ lives are full of colours, but not for themselves, the hard work that they put in is for making colourful clothes for someone else and they are still happy despite how difficult things get, that is what I wanted to depict,” he explains.
Amidst all of the work, you can’t miss artist Laxman Aelay’s paintings, “I come from a village and all my life I have seen people work very hard, that is what I have shown. Since I have seen people in the village work, it is easier to depict them,” he explains.The art show spans various communities. You have farmers, weavers and construction workers among others. Artist M. Vasantha’s work depicts how women labourers work hard and the art work stands out as it has been created with dried leaves. “I have been working with dried leaves since 2004. The work is difficult because when you conceptualise an idea you need to find leaves that suit it. For this art show, since I was mainly depicting women and children, I chose Eucalyptus tree leaves, money-plant leaves and leaves of a few other plants,” she says.
Next Story
