Uncomfortable Tools
Umesh Singh
Umesh Singh comes from an agricultural family from Bihar. Due to lack of sustenance in farming, his family migrated to an urban area by abandoning their traditional occupation. This series of photographs (cynotype prints) reflects on his connection with his village, its people and their practices. Drawing from his memories, farming objects and revisits to his village, Umesh connects his work with the present farmers’ protests across the country.
Through his work, Umesh makes observations of the farmers and landless labourers and interacts with them to understand their plight. His drawings, photographs, videos and installations are portrayals of his ongoing observations. Farmers often tie the faces of oxen with a muzzle or a ‘jaab’to prevent them from grazing on grass while working on the field. Umesh photographs farmers and farm labourers wearing muzzles on their faces to symbolise their subjugation, their relentless toiling and food scarcity. Umesh has also been collecting farming tools from farmers who have abandoned farming in recent years. In this series, he has replaced the handles of these tools with diseased wood to create ‘uncomfortable tools’. These tools symbolise difficulties of agricultural practice, farmers’ distress and suffering by presenting them as objects of decay and destruction.
