Brick Workers - Curatorial Notes
Anja worked in the Brick Kilns around Banaras to photograph over 4 years. I always got to hear the stories of her expedition to the sites till I finally got to see the body of work 3 years ago when she wanted to get my opinion on who we could invite to write an essay to accompany her photographs. I was moved by her images and how she subtly captured the various aspects of life around the kiln.
She put the human in the center of her image with the joy, pride, dignity never compromised. The situation at the kiln as we know is not one of dignity, yet she found a dignified way to tell their stories. Black and white images help her eye show us in a poetic language the life around the kiln of the Brick workers.
To create a sense of intimacy with which the photographs were shot, the medium image size of the edition was selected, and we hung it low so as to invite the viewer to come closer. If possible, we hope the viewer would crouch so as to come to the level of the people sitting crouched in the images. Stacking the images in groups of four as if to denote the four bricks that could be carried on anyone’s head as opposed to the eight that are carried by the workers.
A pile of bricks along with the tools required to make them and also carry them were also placed in the space to give the viewer the option to interact with the bricks. One could carry them, feel the weight of the bricks on the head and hold them in their hands.
One of the exciting aspects was to invite the school children to come and visit the exhibition and talk about bricks, urban spaces, and humans that make and live with bricks. This aspect of the exhibition was one of the most fulfilling as we got more than 500 school children over the course of the exhibition. The interactions with them gave us hope that we can address the concerns and lives of the Brick Workers if we can sensitize the young.
As part of the exhibition, we chose a billboard to have one of the images blown 40 feet by 20 feet and hung for a month. Along with this, we got 6 4 feet by 3 feet images that we put in other parts of the city as a wall poster. This bringing the large blown images of the Brick workers portraits on such location gave a sense of being. In a country like India only the rich, powerful and famous get to be on the billboards. This was a way of saying all lives matter and the lives of those who make the most important part that gives us shelter matters.
We hope to make this exhibition travel to other cities in India and have more conversations around it.
Navneet Raman
Curator
Kriti Gallery, Banaras