Art that feasts on Tiffin boxes

Dabbawala acts as a starter to the contemporary Indian art feast, proclaimed writer Silvia Radan of The Khaleej Times in a recent essay.

Talented artist Valay Shende’s Dabbawala was selected as an opening piece in a major show of the modern & contemporary Indian art retrospective, entitled ‘‘Spectrum’, in Abu Dhabi. The dabbawala, the tiffin box carrier is Mumbai’s highly efficient system of carrying and serving lunch to office goers.

The home cooked food, packed in a box is given to a carrier, who ensures it reaches the right person at the right time. The complexity and efficiency of the system impressed even Prince Charles so much that he invited a few dabbawalas as guests to his wedding ceremony.“

The dabbawala has been perfected to such details that some may call it a work of art, but how can it actually be translated into art, worthy of an international exhibition? The news report provides the answer by mentioning, "If you ask talented artist Valay Shende, he will tell you to create a copper and golden looking metal sculpture of a standing man in front of his bicycle, the man “dressed” in traditional Mumbai attire, made out of small watches and his bicycle packed with “boxes” in the shape of a human stomach."

The art exhibition was recently set up in a new improvised gallery at Emirates Palace.The Indian Embassy had organized it in cooperation with the Abu Dhabi Authority for Culture & Heritage as a gesture of friendship and deepening relations between Emiratis and Indians.

Incidentally, Bose Krishnamachari's ‘GHOST/TRANSMEMOIR' includes over 100 metal cans used by the city's famous delivery men of Tiffin boxes. In this compelling installation the lunch boxes are mounted on iron scaffolding and contain LCD monitors. The tangle of wires, hand straps, headphones and metal containers is a play on the indomitable spirit and energy of the people of Mumbai, a city constantly on the move.