for Lawrence (2022)

site specific installation on Whitstable High Street
printed text on red vinyl, variable dimensions

This is Lawrence. He’s from Romania. Over four months during the research and preparation phase for my commission, I slowly built a friendship with him. A day before the opening of Whitstable Biennale 2022, I arrived early on site to continue the installation of my works.

During the two hours I waited for deliveries of essential elements for the works I was showing, I got to know Lawrence a little better. We talked about his home in Romania, his wife who is from the Roma Gypsy community whose ancestral lineage is traced back to the Rajasthan region in what is now called Northern India; and just like he is, she is and I am; fans of Hindi films and music.

We talked about Brown skin and our children while I played him a selection of music from Hindi films and Punjabi folk songs using my portable JBL speaker. This all happened organically on the street at the spot he sits in directly next to the entrance to the venue where I was presenting two of my works at this edition of the biennale. The third work, Muhâjir (2022), was installed at Whitstable Harbour.

I got to know that one of his two sons is named Shair, which means ‘poet’ in Urdu, Hindi and a few other languages from the South Asian and Middle Eastern regions. I knew I wanted to do something for Lawrence apart from occasionally giving him the little money I could spare. From this short discussion and listening session on the street, Lawrence and I collaboratively created the fourth work I presented at the biennale — the red text on the wall next to Lawrence’s spot.

The first flight deporting refugees to Rwanda was set to leave on 14 June 2022 (during the run of the biennale) exactly five years since the Grenfell tragedy on 14 June 2017. The date is no coincidence … this UK government specifically targets to traumatise Black and Brown people with its racist agenda and series of laws without any concern for human rights, dignity or compassion.

The words on the wall are an excerpt from lyrics written by Anand Bakshi from the Hindi film Bobby (1973). I was going to translate the excerpt but didn’t feel like it. If you’re interested in the meaning of the lyrics and this work I’m sure you’ll find the translation yourself and hopefully see that we are all human, we all feel pain and love and loss and … Who knows how long the words on the wall will stay, who knows how long Lawrence will stay. Who knows how long I or you or we will stay?

Sound in video: excerpt from Main Shair To Nahin from the film Bobby, 1973. Music by Laxmikant Pyarelal, vocals by Shailendra Singh and lyrics by Anand Bakshi. Used for artistic and non commercial reasons and in no way intended to harm, prejudice or attempt to own the copyrights of the original.

Commissioned by Cement Fields for Whitstable Biennale 2022