It’s rare for people to openly talk about contentious events. But Ajmal Shifaz is unafraid to do so. He makes public art in collaboration with local communities. Most of the works reference observations on society through a compassionate lens.

I’m fascinated by how his work, Echo of Nothing: Life That Sparks After Fire, a mobile sonic sculpture, came about. It had been six months since communal violence had torn Mustafabad in north-east Delhi, when Shifaz arrived there on a visit in late 2020. He was curious about what had taken place but people refused to converse with him, worried about the pandemic and wary of who he might be. It took numerous visits and conversations for them to be comfortable in his presence.

Shifaz set out wanting to understand how the violence had affected the people in the area. But what caught his attention were the games the local children played on the streets. Watching them at play, he decided to open a workshop to collaborate with the them. He eventually set up a studio in the middle of a scrap-processing quarter, encouraging the kids to get creative with burnt and broken objects left as the debris of violence.

They picked up bicycle wheels, frying pans, bowls, ladles, springs, even bathroom-drain grilles, and created toys resembling strange creatures. Shifaz then fused the various toys to create the final work, a sort of merry-go-round. He added lights and a swivelling mechanism. The work, emerging from hate and junk, became a symbol of hope. (The materials are fine).

The kids loved it, of course. Once Shifaz put the merry-go-round sculpture onto the street, children from the neighbourhood immediately flocked to it. It warmed up the once-reticent neighbourhood too. A nine-minute-long film captures those moments of delight and discovery.

And because the community had collaborated on the work, it’s become both the medium and the message. Both the children and the objects had survived something terrible and were part of something wonderful. To see Shifaz creatively employ objects to spread positivity was wonderful. Perhaps the sculpture became a means for the children to emotionally heal.

I first saw the work up close when Shifaz presented it at Shiv Nadar University. His passion for the subject and the detailed and intensive procedure involved in creating it really impressed me. Shifaz and I have a similar way of looking at life, and our modes of artistic practice are also quite alike. Echo of Nothing echoes the principles I follow. I too believe in the tremendous value of initiating conversations around compassion and coexistence, encouraging the magic that happens when people come together.

Delhi-based artist Vishnu Prasad works across mediums to create art that questions the nature of conflict. He believes that art must be collaborative to be effective.

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