Description
In India, the Kumbhar Wala (potter) is among the lower castes, meaning that these craftspeople, who make functional objects serving millions of Indians on a daily basis, do not earn the respect that they deserve for their role within Indian society. Kumbhar Walas work extremely long hours, making thousands of thrown objects every day, and the remuneration received for their many hours of toil is no where near that of higher, more traditionally educated castes.
Trent Jansen worked with Abbas Galwani, a Kumbhar Wala living and working in Dharavi, to develop a conceptual project that brings together social comment and local craft traditions. Echoing the provocation of Ai Weiwei’s famed triptych Dropping a Han Dynasty Urn (1995), their collaborative project features a symbolic gesture of resistance by Galwani, the Kumbhar Wala lets go of a freshly thrown, still wet Matka, creating a new sculptural form that embodies his protest.
Trent Jansen
Dropping a Kumbhar Wala Matka #8, 2016
26 x 27 x 26 cm
terracotta
unique, in a series of 10
Produced in Dharavi, Mumbai, India
Fabricated by Abbas Galwani
