Dear Students for Bhopal.org Readers,
We are writing from the ground here in Bhopal, India. Alizarin and I were relatively informed about the 1984 Union Carbide gas disaster in Bhopal and its continuing repercussions before we arrived here, but no amount of reading could prepare us for the mind-blowing nature of the firsthand experiences in store for us. First , some background on us: we are two high school graduates from Chicago who learned about Bhopal when Rachna Dhingra, Safreen Khan, and Sarita, with the International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, came to our school last spring to give a speech about the disaster and the current situation. We were moved by the stories that the two Bhopali girls recounted about their day to day struggles living in communities where the only available water is contaminated with chemicals like chloroform, mercury, lead, HCH and benzenes. After hearing about the hardcore protests that these girls had already participated in to fight for their rights to compensation and clean water, we were inspired to get involved in the campaign. Shortly after we began planning a gap year together, we decided we would stay in Bhopal for six months and help out in the campaign and community however we could. Now here we are, a month into our stay and knee deep in work as the 25th anniversary of the disaster draws nearer…
So far, the bulk of our work has consisted of observing the situation in Old Bhopal, researching the disaster and the contamination of the water in the bastis (slums) and doing about a million artistic odd jobs, small and large.
We met every Tuesday and Thursday with the group of roughly 30, at times overwhelmingly rambunctious and energetic kids that compose the ICJB offshoot Children Against Dow Carbide. We designed a sculpture based on the kids’ idea of displaying the pots that their families use to carry water from the handpumps, sources of contaminated water, to their homes. The idea was to show how the pots, which are corroded by the harmful chemicals and bare green and white chalky rings of residue, are affected by the water and prompt the viewer to imagine the harm such substances must therefore do to the bodies of those who drink and wash with it daily. The sculpture took the form of a Bhopali woman carrying pots full of water (one in her arms and another on her head in that continually impressive Indian style) which is spilling down all over her. The message of the sculpture is in its details: the streams of water are printed with the names of the chemicals that adulterate Bhopal’s water as well as Dow’s logo (the kids requested that Dow be directly implicated) and the yellow sari on her body is decorated with the stories and messages about the water that the kids wanted to tell to the viewers. We worked together to make her form out of wood, wire, paper mache with wheat paste, fabric and all natural paint over the course of a month. We can’t wait to proudly drag it along the street with the kids on the anniversary march….
