Rickshaw-pullers: The ones who get you places
"The idea of taking the photographs that you see on the walls was a way to get to know these people, who are heroes of the road, who work through pouring rain and harsh sunshine. I normally do sculpture for installations back home. For the last two years I'm concentrating on what art can do for society, moving my focus to the community around me."
Jaffa came in contact with Britto when she was doing a workshop in Taiwan in 2003. She came here for a visit earlier as a tourist and now she has been invited to come here and work. She had hopes to do something with the traditional arts like with bamboo or clay. Being hampered by time limitations, she chose photography as her means of communication. It is the story behind the rickshaw rather than just the decorative aspect of the rickshaw that Jaffa wants to focus on.
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel. She went by rickshaw from 10 am to 2pm on several occasions and asked the rickshaw-pullers questions about their families and their lives. She visited their homes and garages, whenever possible. The wall magazine that Jaffa made of the lives of the rickshaw pullers is a fun thing which holds serious subjects of life too. This reflects the city, with rickshaws and rickshaw-pullers. The rickshaw-pullers have been seen from the back on one side of the gallery wall. "When you sit on the rickshaw you see them from the back," Jaffa explains. On another side you see them with the rickshaws from the front. There are 88,700 such rickshaws and they surely deserve an exhibition dedicated to them. They contribute to society's everyday life and deserve to have their lives showcased.
The exhibition not only contains portraits in photographs and paintings but an actual rickshaw and an exercise bike that depicts the contrast between tradition and modernity.
Jafffa is full of appreciation for the Bangladeshi lifestyle which she views as simple, attractive and not cut off entirely from tradition.