Untitled, 2020, ink and acrylic on Indian handmade paper, 14 x 11 inches.

About the Artworks

During the lockdown period, for completely two months, I was in complete isolation, alone in a room in Varanasi somehow managing my food and survival. With no opportunity to earn I lost my little saving in this lockdown. By government arrangements, I returned home with nil social distancing and precautions. In this journey, I travelled with migrant labourers and poor students like me where all of us were stuffed in busses and compelled to wait on roads in heat and sun. Later in my quarantine period, I just prayed for not being infected of the virus and was fortunate enough.

This journey will remain in my mind and soul like a dark spot forever. Every time I sketched, I have expressed the experiences of this journey. My recent drawings are all themed over this escapade. They speak of the present situation which I have seen and personally experienced and I have expressed it with the medium of the sketching and drawings with the insufficient stationery I was left with. On seeing twenty to twenty-five individuals living in the tiny room I was inspired to draw skeletons figures, compact crowd, folks walking with luggage on their heads, or mob gathering for ration. I have portrayed some people wearing masks and some waiting for their main goal, that is when will they reach their homes. And in this period of despair, some people were creating violence. In some of the drawings, I have depicted barn which is vacant with no sign of intervention of humans and I made tools that look like bones.  

I personally know many friends and family who permanently migrated to bigger cities for work as their homes in Bihar are prone to floods and they don’t have any permanent house to live in the cities now in this lockdown they have nowhere to go as well as they are all trapped.

Umesh Singh (b.1992) received his Bachelor's Degree in painting from Banaras Hindu University (2017) and Master’s Degree in printmaking from S. N. School, University of Hyderabad (2019). He has been the recipient of Kalasakshi Foundation Award (2018) and 2019 Tata Trust International Award, Student Biennale, of the Kochi Muziris Biennale 2019. Singh has participated in several workshops and camps  including, Utsaah Barbil Project (2019); On-site Workshop and Exhibition FICA, Delhi and Serendipity Foundation (2019); Inter College Multi-disciplinary Student's Art, Workshop Kala Bhavan, Santiniketan (2018). His recent exhibitions include, 2019 ‘Call to Disorder’ FICA & Serendipity Festival (2019); Khoj Peers Share in 2019; 2019 Student Biennale Kochi Muziris Biennale (2018) and  Rajya Lalit Kala Academi Lucknow (2018). Singh is currently based in Kurmuri, Bihar.