Sassoon Dock Art Project

Every place has a feeling. In today's fast world, who is listening to it. Last evening I had gone to Sasson Dock for the Street Art Project. It was the last day and we finally managed to reach. A young gentleman who has worked with Julia, the curator,  was showing us around. This was not like an art gallery with paintings or sculptures or some new age modern stuff. This was real as real could get. Each artist and I think there were about 30 of them, got connected to the soul of Sassoon Dock. The art made you realise what the Metropolis was doing to your mind and soul. This was not the cynical liberal Art, which just criticises what is. This was Art with passion and love for the place. Panditji, to whom I go for Bhagwadgeeta Satsang and Ramcharitmanas, uses a word called "Sakaratmak Bhaav". Loosely translated it means positive feeling but it means also not negating what is and going beyond that with a trust in the universal design. This St+Art was all about that. Karan who showed us around did it with the same zeal. He got us so involved with the space, the urban art, the people, the pigeons, the damp walls and the whole spirit of Sassoon Dock. He took us through the journey of how the artist reacted when he was first asked if he or she would like to be a part of it, the kind of music they played while working and the kind of work that went in by the volunteers and the 'Kolis' who helped this work come alive. 

An abandoned godown in the 142 year old Sassoon Dock was given by the Bombay Port Trust to the  St+Art . The place had pigeons, cats, dogs and filth. It was cleaned up. Some walls repaired. Some were left like that to let you know how it was. The roof had gaping holes where transparent asbestos sheets were put to allow the sunlight. An installation is made of iron mesh of a dog peeing. The fishing nets were used with stencilled tissue paper fabric with words which we associate with smell like mother's cooking, brown paper to cover books, new bag etc. The smell plays a role in another place which is selling perfume of Sassoon Dock with the fishy smell. It says that anything packaged well, will sell.

 Shivo, an artist, loves Nammalvar's poems which are love poems for Vishnu Bhagwan. Organza and pearl, silk threads, net, tissue created the man and woman with Intricate embroidery by Mushtaq from Dharavi. One artist worked with bamboos, tubelights and the cloth used by the Koli men and women. The installation looked haphazard and then from a distance looked like one piece. The naked tubelights did not hurt the eye. The painting on the terrace wall with pillars which merged into the painting when seen from a distance, was awesome. Of course, it had elements of the Sassoon Dock hidden in it. 

The Singapore artist,Tan Zi Xi, came with plastic sheets from Singapore and then realised India really recycles plastic. She made an ocean of plastic and how a fish must be seeing it. It was insane as you sat on the flat in a room full of plastic making a ceiling on you. The artist went to Dharavi and chose the variety of scrap she wanted to use. The plastic sheets were washed, dried and sanitised and dried again. A cat gave her litter on the plastic sheets. And again the washing and sanitising had to be done. The volunteers plus 8 Koli women helped string the plastic bottles. The artist had the vision of how the ceiling should look like a sea of plastic.

One artist known as Livil, did work on Stencils in Austria and flew in with it. The Airline lost the bag of stencils and how they all went berserk. Luckily it was found within a day. The Stencil had Koli women with their children praying to the Sea God and offering coconut. It was a huge installation. The lighting behind had an aluminium sheet as Aluminium reflects light. Behind it was a two wall right angled Art which showed how Colonisation led to Westernisation and yet the front Stencil showed that it could not take away the culture of the place.

There was one room with a narrow opening under the staircase. We had to really bend down and go in through pipes and plastic sheets. Two artists worked on it. One with plastic and the other with the iron rods and bamboo installation. The way it was amalagamated to give us the urban feel where the city life is closing in on us and our consciousness. It is the most inorganic thing happening in an organic way.

The top floor had artists working with beautiful colours. They made a museum of a fish called 'Shunya' which was made with baskets woven in Dharavi. The eyes, the fins, the tooth all as museum artifacts. The walls colours were superb. This room would be a children s delight. Soothing purple, burnt pinks and oranges along with the moon. The artists worked with music right through the creation and one could sense the difference that had brought in the space. Music was lingering in the air. This was supposed to be like a temple and sure enough had the vibrance of a Mandir.

The toilets had very catchy art installations and were a part of the installations open to public viewing. The Big Minimalist is an Indian artist who did some walls with typography. Sajid Wajid used waste to make faces on the walls. 'Life inside the camera' was a room which you could see in daylight as it shows the sea, the boats the dock upside down as the lens captures it.

Most artists are graphic designers and work a lot with typography. The Instagram wall was two walls of colours. The walls were at right angles and the way the heart is created with fingers is insane. Karan, our amazingly sweet, well spoken and knowledgeable friend who made this alive for us, used the word 'insane' often. I am copying him and not succeeding at all.

Guido, the Australian artist, makes wall size portraits of real people. He does spray painting. Does not use any lazer technology to mark or outline the face. He had clicked these Koli women selling fish. In one of the guided tours, two of the three women had come. They had no idea they would see themselves on the walls. One of the walls got damp with the unseasonal rains in Mumbai and the way the paint has aged along with the lady, is mind blowing. Needless to say, it was Asian Paints.

The outer walls had portraits of the local Koli people. With the rains, the paper had torn away in places and it looked so authentic like the old hand painted film posters in smaller towns which get torn even with a kite string. Reminds me that 'Sankranti' n 'Lohri' is on its way. And then the weather starts changing. The feeling of New.