'Spirit of Mumbai' exhibition pays tribute to the working-class emblem

It took Valay Shende a year and a half to install a life-size truck with tens of workmen, all composed of thousands of shiny stainless steel disks. Transit (Truck), which stands like a sombre ornament, is his ode to the labour force that struggles to make a living as it continues to build the megapolis of Mumbai.

The 2010 sculpture has been displayed in cities around the world. Now, it is one of Shende’s sculptures dedicated to the city that will be part of an exhibition titled “Spirit of Mumbai”.

Shende feels a connect with the teeming millions, including many from the working class who, like him, have migrated to Mumbai. Migration is a running family theme as well. Shende’s father had moved from a village in Bhandara to Nagpur, while he in turn came to Mumbai and honed his craft at the JJ School of Art.

Shende is a multimedia artist whose work blends sculpture, photography, video and installation. In Transit, he placed two screens in the truck’s rear-view mirrors that play videos he’d shot on the city. As the footage unfolds, from the driver’s seat the screens would give an impression of the truck moving, as if past under-construction buildings. It’s the artist’s way of suggesting that the development of the city or the country, by extension, is visible. “But there is no development in the lives of labourers. I wanted to portray that contrast in this work.”

The cover of Dabbawala Superhero, a comic that will be launched at the exhibition

Among other artworks of his that will be on display are portrayals of commuters in the frenetic Virar Fast local train (Shende used to live in the suburb) and that of the famous dabbawalas — those reliable purveyors of tiffin to the hard-working people of Mumbai. In the train sculpture, he shows commuters hanging by the doors, a striking image of daily survival and the fight for a better life.

In the other, Shende opts to create a life-size figure out of ticking wristwatches — apt symbolism for the clockwork precision of the dabbawala — with gilded stomachs in his hands, in place of lunchboxes.

As it seeks to celebrate the indomitable spirit of the “maximum city”, the exhibition places the dabbawala at the forefront. Besides showcasing Shende’s work, it will also launch Dabbawala Superhero, an English and Marathi comic by city-based cartoonist Abhijeet Kini and his wife Diksha who were commissioned by Parsi restaurant chain SodaBottleOpenerWala.

The comic tells the story of a child who identifies the dabbawala, when asked to name a superhero in school. “It tells how the dabbawalas came into existence and how they became what they are, which is nothing short of a superpower. Mumbai is known for its people, and dabbawalas are very much a part of it,” says Kini.

The ‘Spirit of Bombay’ exhibition will be open to the public at Palladium, Mumbai, from June 15 to August 18, 2019