The Hands, Amplified — The Voices, Responding

Featuring Big Bang

Produced by maraa, a media and arts collective as part of "Sounds of Labour," a project tracing labour practices in Bangalore that are systematically invisibilised.

The multi-channel sound and video installation ‘The Hands, Amplified — The Voices, Responding” brings the sounds of physical labour carried out in Bangalore’s Koramangala Slum Cluster into an intergenerational conversation with four young artists from the area. In poetic responses to recordings of the everyday work of the blacksmith, metal workers, dhobi (washermen) and sewing units, they voice their memories of having grown up listening to these sounds and their personal experiences of witnessing this work. In the installation, the public moves through each composed sound environment. First, there is the metal work; as one walks further, the space fills with the sounds of sewing machines, then the blacksmith’s furnace and hammering. At the very end, there is the gentle slapping of cloth, spray of water, and low rumble of tumble dryers in the Dhobi Ghat. These sounds are articulated by the words of Sathya, Robin, Sanghamitra, and Surya, as their voices resound through the space and projections of their texts illuminate the walls.

The project “Sounds of Labour" traces the daily lives of workers in Bangalore and the soundscapes that accompany and emerge from their labour. The sounds of this work, which is essential to the functioning of the city and yet invisible to or undervalued by many, reflect how people seek their livelihood, pursue the honing and evolution of their craft, and the experience building a life and finding a home in the face of the larger context of the city’s social and economic structures.

Field recordings: Alex Mohan & Ekta
Sound Composition & Installation: Chelsea Leventhal
Poetic Responses / Voices: Sathya, Robin, Surya, Sanghamitra (Big Bang)
Studio Recording: Megha Varsha, Nihal Passahna & Chelsea Leventhal
Coordination & Tech Support: Nihal Passanha

This collaboration is supported by the Goethe-Institut Max Mueller Bhavan Bangalore.