This is a bit unnerving, I did not read the entire story, just a bit here and there, it makes me too squeamish. I am happy thou that the story of the families is being told. Hopefully this leads to a bit more fundraising to help the people, especially the lovely children working the garbage.
Thank you Steve Kidd and the "Vernon Morning Star" for the wonderful job you did (the parts I glanced at were good).
https://www.kelownacapnews.com/news/penticton-art-gallery-explores-life-on-the-margins-of-society/
https://www.vernonmorningstar.com/news/penticton-art-gallery-explores-life-on-the-margins-of-society/
https://www.pentictonwesternnews.com/news/penticton-art-gallery-explores-life-on-the-margins-of-society/
Penticton Art Gallery explores life on the margins of society
Photographer documents life in a Thai garbage dump
- Steve Kidd
- Sep. 30, 2018 5:00 p.m.
 |
| Gerry Yaum’s exhibition, Children of the Dump, is on until Nov. 4 at the Penticton Art Gallery.
Steve Kidd/Western News |
Can you imagine your definition of a better life as living in a landfill, picking through the trash to find items you can sell?
For a group of Burmese refugees living in Thailand, about 400 people
in 50 family groups, that’s what they’ve found after fleeing political
persecution and economic hardship.
In
Forgotten Laughter: Children of the Dump,
social documentarian Gerry Yaum shares photographs he has been creating
in Thailand’s Mae Sot dump since 2013. The works are on display in the
Project Room at the Penticton Art Gallery until Nov. 4.
The earliest images show the struggle of the people as they tried to
survive in the dump, while later images are more intimate, painting a
fuller picture of the lives of the people who are making a life while
surrounded by trash.
“When I went to the dump the first time, it threw me. I was covered
in flies, it was hot as heck, sweating, no hat, all these white bags
were reflecting light into my eyes. I just felt really uncomfortable,”
said Yaum. “Initially I photographed the people there like victims,
people that were suffering.”
As time went on, he said he came to understand that the dump at least
offered a chance for families to grow, to make money and build up their
lives, at least in a small degree.
“For me, the dump sort of changed. I think that is why the
photographs changed too, said Yaum. “I realized the dump was not a
terrible place, it provides work.”
He doesn’t downplay the abject conditions. He relates how excited one
of the people would be when they found a few forgotten coins in a
discarded purse or bag.
One image Yaum showed during his Artist’s Talk at the gallery
Saturday was of two boys using an old fender from a vehicle to toboggan
down a hill of trash.
“It helped them feel good for an hour,” he said.
Another image shows a pretty little girl, her head shaved because of
lice, a big smile on her face, clutching a donated doll that Yaum had
just given her.
It’s that kind of moment, he said, that help him deal with the tragedy around him.
“You’re making a kid smile, that’s got to feel good,” said Yaum.
Yaum has returned to the Mae Sot dump over and over, becoming
involved in the lives of the families and doing what he can to help make
their lives easier and bring a little joy.
“My first day I was there, I showed up with two food bags that I gave
to people,” said Yaum. “This last trip, in 2018, we raised $4,300
Canadian and we bought rubber boots, headlamps, toys for the kids,
lollipops, all kinds of things that would help the people.”
As the images are exhibited, Yaum is also donating some of his artist fees.
“So the pictures were helping the people, that was a really beautiful
thing,” said Yaum. “I would buy rubber boots, I would buy headlamps and
I would head out on my motorbike and make more pictures.”
Donations to help the children and families of the dump can be made at
eyestoburma.org. Yaum’s blog can be found at
gerryyaum.blogspot.com.
Forgotten Laughter is one of four shows on at the Penticton Art
Gallery right now. In the Toni Onley Gallery, Greg Constantine is
showing
Exiled to Nowhere: Burma’s Rohingya, documenting the human rights abuses suffered by this Muslim minority living in Burma.
Joshua Van Dyke’s Trace Marks
is on display in the Bench 1775, mapping digital data of the
contraction of B.C.’s woodland caribou herds into three dimensions, and
exploring how the data moves between digital and analog space.
The annual Mental Health Exhibition is on in the Education Space.
