Fabin Rasheed

The pandemic has shaken the world. It has made us all to stay at home. It did not discriminate between the privileged or the nots. The news is flooded with reports of things which are hitherto unheard of. The situation is particularly worse for a part of society - the creators. The creators - the artists, the artisans, the craftsmen, the street-side sellers of handicrafts, each of them have faced the wrath of the pandemic. It has gotten so worse, that they have started consuming their own produce. The hungry sweet-maker started eating his own sweets. In the dearth of clothing, they started wearing their own handmade fabrics. Thus, this vicious circle of the “creator consuming the creation” has started. “In Other News” is an artwork, an outcry from all these invisible members of the society, who are usually neglected by regular media. It tries to throw light at their situation and tries to say - we also exist.
I photographed each of these photographs as part of an exhibition 5 years back in Hyderabad, showing how the creator consumes his creation. I found this the right time to use these photographs to show the situation of these people whom we see and ignore in everyday life. The innate evil underlying this tendency was symbolised by the 10 heads of the evil king Ravana. The head in each photograph tilts slightly from left to right, image to image - thus showcasing the 10-headed Ravana, with the Photographer at the centre. There are only 9 images in the artwork. The 10th head is invisible, which is me myself as the artist. I will be buying one of the pieces of my creation and thus completing this circle.

In Other News

At the 2 ends are the Photographer and the Copper. The photographer sees and feels his photographs, enjoys it and gets obsessed with it. When no one has a chance to give an opinion on his works, to value it or collect it, the photographer himself becomes the admirer. Obsessed in the depths of the meaning of the situation and how it relates to what’s photographed, he himself starts to feel lost, every single day. 
The Copper comes out at night, the bravest of souls, the conquerer of evil, the catcher of thieves. And yet, he is afraid of his own shadow. The shadow which moved synchronously with him, has started to shift and become asynchronous. What does this mean? Does he himself have thievery in him? Is he himself evil?

Ends