MATRIX 286 / Amol K Patil: A Forest of Remembrance

Amol K Patil (b. 1987, Mumbai) works across painting, sculpture, performance, and video and excavates the lived experiences of Mumbai's working class. His multipart investigation into the city's chawls, social housing originally built in the early 1900s for mill workers and other migrant laborers, critiques South Asia's caste system and ongoing forms of birth-based discrimination. Despite living in units measuring approximately ten by twelve feet, the residents of the chawls have for over a century created vibrant shared living spaces that are infused with the sounds, smells, and textures of their daily lives. In recent years, government-backed plans to redevelop the sites have been underway, displacing thousands of families who have for generations called the chawls their home. Drawing upon his own family's history of dissent in the form of grassroots theater performances and sung poetry traditions, Patil shines a light on the social and political injustices these communities face and the dignity, creativity, and resourcefulness with which they continue to advocate for their rights. For his first solo exhibition in the United States, the artist presents a newly commissioned body of work consisting of paintings and sculptures that reconfigure the architecture of the chawl into a space of collective memory and dynamic protest.