ON THE LINE
Dublin Core
Title
ON THE LINE
Description
As the UK grows increasingly hostile toward immigrants, ON THE LINE engages what Fred
Moten and Stefano Harney describe as “the refusal to be refused” (2013). From Jabalpur, India,
Tuhin Chandra portrays the lived reality of an immigrant navigating London’s unforgiving
cityscape: long hours in a fast-food restaurant alongside the urgent necessity of creation. With
limited time and resources, Chandra uses his immediate conditions as material. This is not
escapism, but an act of refusal and resilience. The photographs are produced covertly, in
defiance of company policy. Taken on the production line, they transform the prohibition of
image-making into a political gesture. Here, mustard, pickles, grease, and exhaustion converge
with questions of identity, survival, and expression. The fast-food kitchen — anonymous,
repetitive, hostile to individuality — becomes a site of clandestine creativity. The series invokes
the line both literally and metaphorically: the assembly belt of burgers and fries, the immigrant
artist on the verge of burnout, the refusal to remain confined within prescribed limits. In resisting
linearity, the work affirms the spiral of lived experience — cyclical, messy, non-linear — in which
suffering and joy remain inseparably intertwined. This is a love letter to expression when
everything else feels unlivable. It’s a reminder that even in a kitchen full of noise, grease, and
anonymity, the human spirit is still capable of saying something true - Tuhin Chandra.
Moten and Stefano Harney describe as “the refusal to be refused” (2013). From Jabalpur, India,
Tuhin Chandra portrays the lived reality of an immigrant navigating London’s unforgiving
cityscape: long hours in a fast-food restaurant alongside the urgent necessity of creation. With
limited time and resources, Chandra uses his immediate conditions as material. This is not
escapism, but an act of refusal and resilience. The photographs are produced covertly, in
defiance of company policy. Taken on the production line, they transform the prohibition of
image-making into a political gesture. Here, mustard, pickles, grease, and exhaustion converge
with questions of identity, survival, and expression. The fast-food kitchen — anonymous,
repetitive, hostile to individuality — becomes a site of clandestine creativity. The series invokes
the line both literally and metaphorically: the assembly belt of burgers and fries, the immigrant
artist on the verge of burnout, the refusal to remain confined within prescribed limits. In resisting
linearity, the work affirms the spiral of lived experience — cyclical, messy, non-linear — in which
suffering and joy remain inseparably intertwined. This is a love letter to expression when
everything else feels unlivable. It’s a reminder that even in a kitchen full of noise, grease, and
anonymity, the human spirit is still capable of saying something true - Tuhin Chandra.
Publisher
Self Published
Date
2025
Format
Perfect (PUR), Full-colour printing, 60 pages, 115gsm Silk
Zine Item Type Metadata
Issue Title
ON THE LINE
Issue Number
1
Editor
Mellissa Heane, Tashi Samuels & Simon Hackart
Designer
Tuhin Chandra
Dimensions
148mm, 198mm, 4mm
Number of Pages
60
Place of Publication
LONDON
Website
https://tuhinchandra.net/
Where to buy
https://www.tuhinchandra.net/category/zine
Collection
Citation
Tuhin Srivastava, “ON THE LINE,” Photobook Cafe Photobook Collection, accessed May 4, 2026, https://photobookcafe-archive.co.uk/items/show/2096.