Social Rupture

Nobina Gupta

The concept:

The pandemic has revealed a social vacuum, foregrounding huge inequalities in society. It has become imperative for us to start looking beyond ourselves and building circuits of resilience amongst fellow humans, learn from the lesser known and rediscover new perceptions of society at large. Social Rupture is a juxtaposed representation of the disjunctures in society, a mesh that highlights a collective of unheard voices, amplified to catalyse an awakening deep within us to acknowledge our limitations, question the anthropocene and rethink our stance as human beings. Social Rupture engages with ‘Masks’, objects that have become ubiquitous in the post-pandemic reality. The mask is a symbol of privilege and security. The interwoven masks represent the weave of society itself. Contrasted onto this image are the stories of resilience and innovation—voices of those invisible protagonists who we must acknowledge.

The creative process

As a socially engaged artist-curator-researcher, my work emerges from direct experiences and my readings of the people and realities. My research on streets recorded stories of the protagonists of this installation, thereby unfolding a significant narrative. A young technician had been selling his home produce and fish from his pond to support his family; an auto driver has been bringing crates of eggs in his vehicle to sell them in the morning and in the evening, transforming it into a small tea counter at the street corner. A delivery boy who owns a scooty has converted it into a mobile flower shop. Local farmers from the periphery of the city now travel kilometres everyday to urban housing complexes to personally sell vegetables from their fields.

On one side, we have people hoarding their houses with stocks and supplies. And on the other, we encounter a larger community for whom even a single meal is difficult to earn. The disparity this projects is hard hitting and exposes the ruptures, which are impossible to heal without recognition and acknowledgement of these narratives amongst the larger society. Social Rupture salutes the street vendors and daily wageworkers, without whom our everyday lives would simply collapse.

Masks were central to the making of the installation, and I used masks fabricated by women from self-help groups working in the interiors of West Bengal. I was happy to support them in their work, and acknowledge their invaluable contribution by incorporating the same in the work.

As grounded experiences and realisations, Social Rupture triggers a move out of comfort zones to tell unheard stories. It also tries to catalyse an acknowledgement of these stories within a larger section of society and hopefully, building collective support systems. My mantra is to be a catalyst or an enabler of these new emerging dialogues. As an enabler my practice strives not to be extractive, but to build constituency and bonding by weaving different people, narratives, and realities.

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