“I was painting a mural in Rome when I met Alex and he asked whether I would be interested in going to Bhopal in 18 months to paint a mural commemorating the 25th anniversary of the chemical disaster there. Without hesitation, without much more than a fuzzy memory of the event and without serious thoughts to the details or logistics, I agreed. Whatever challenges working in India might realistically pose, at the time they made no impact on my enthusiasm. My first task was to read the definitive book on what happened at the Union Carbide factory.
It Was Five Minutes Past Midnight in Bhopal. The synopsis on the cover is horrific: “On December 2nd 1984 a terrifying cloud of toxic gas escaped from an American pesticide plant in Bhopal. Killing between 16 and 30 thousand people and injuring five hundred thousand, it was the most murderous industrial disaster in history.” With this in description in mind, I set out to create what is now referred to as the first design – death and dying, the evil factory spewing invisible toxic gas, falling bodies, skeletons, screaming victims, pesticide bugs, all rendered in muted / graying colors. It was an appropriate, strong memorial of the disaster and it was sent on to India. As it turned out, the mural’s sponsor, The International Campaign for Justice in Bhopal, had something else in mind. Yes, they wanted the factory and the cloud and the destruction to be included. But they wanted the stress to be on their militant 25 year fight for justice, something which incorporated the history and tragedy, but focused on the power of protest and hope. Their idea of memory – personal and historical - and the role it plays in their on-going struggle was much broader than my long distance interpretation. They wanted a mural that would become a site for demonstrations, an organizing tool and a bold work of art, and in the three weeks that we painted the mural - on a wall across the street from the factory - that was what we created in solidarity with all those who continue their struggle for justice in Bhopal.”
Janet Braun-Reinitz
