Amol K Patil: The Shadow of LusterRöda Sten Konsthall, Göteborg, Sweden
In The Shadow of Lustre, Amol K Patil exhibits bronze sculptures, drawings and video works, in the pulsating lights of his poetic installations. The artist explores issues concerning the Indian caste and class system, and the invisibility of the working class in social narratives.
– The idea of the exhibition is based on seeing and experiencing the traces of human history, lives and conversations of different generations behind wall cracks, through layers of paint, across skin and touch. – Amol K Patil
He grew up near the mass housing complexes called ”chawls” in the working-class neighborhoods of his hometown Mumbai. In search of work and a better future, the Dalits, members of the lowest caste, moved from the countryside to the city and settled in chawls like these. The Dalit, commonly known as ”the untouchables”, mainly work as cleaners or factory workers.
Patil is influenced by his grandfather, a Dalit poet, and his father, an avant-garde playwright. Informed by his family archive, he marks a collective experience of working class in the urban and cultural landscape of modern India.
The exhibition warns that the issue of class doesn´t only concern education, work and cultural background. It emphasizes that understanding the basis on which class positions are determined helps to uncover the structures of power and exploitation in our society.
The curator of The Shadow of Lustre is Amila Puzić.
