Amol K. Patil
The everyday objects in my sculptures represent the harsh realities faced by people working in difficult environments. These objects are part of their daily lives, and the wear and tear on them echoes the physical and emotional toll on the workers themselves.
Amol K. Patil (1987, India) is a performance and visual artist whose body of work is based on the hierarchical Indian caste system. He focuses on social inequality within this system, particularly on the Dalits, the casteless people who belong to the lowest social classes. His ongoing investigations aim to recapture the pulsating movements and sound of “chawl” architecture. Chawls are five-story structures unique to Mumbai, built in the early 1900s and provided social housing for mill and factory workers. Patil draws inspiration from these spaces where lower-caste communities have traditionally lived but are now being evicted. The textures of the walls, old household objects and work clothing are all traces left by people who have remained unseen and unheard. Patil interweaves these social themes with his own family history. His father was an avant-garde playwright, and his grandfather was a poet. Their existing works are now giving rise to new dialogues concerning the identity of the labourer class and the hierarchical politics of caste in India. Patil’s multi-layered practice is both a personal excavation and a political commentary on India’s ongoing caste dynamics and urban transformation.
