marker2000

Marker@2000
Collaboration with Architect Sen Kapadia

This work was made as a part of a group exhibition, in which 4 pairs of artists and architects were selected to each make a work site specific to Chemould Art Gallery. This was in response to the Kala Ghoda District, which is now the Art District of Mumbai, as per Urban Design Plans.

I was paired with Architect Sen Kapadia, a practising architect, educationist and writer. The collaboration was one of sharing art/design concepts, working methodology and creative concerns. After getting a feel of the Kala Ghoda District, we realised that it needed a strong identity, marker or character, which could serve as a landmark for the area. The process of arriving at the final design was one of boiling down to the essence, the idea, so that with a minimal use of material, each area of the concept could be made experiential and relevant.

As we were given the entrance to the gallery to work in, we decided to create an entrance using stretcher frames, (used to stretch canvas) hence relevant to art. By repeated hanging of these frames, an entrance was demarcated. (To echo the architecture in this area which has numerous arched arcades). The very act of walking through it, meant a participation with art by the viewer.

The small lobby (8 x 6 x 8 feet) was painted a lemon yellow to intensify this brief experience at entry to the gallery. Loose yellow powder, 'Rangoli', (used for design at entrances, in Indian homes) was layered on the ground, so that each entrant carried with them the yellow pigment, both inside and out of the gallery (metaphorically denoting the process of entering a space with some framework/approach, and leaving after experiencing art, with maybe, a changed one).

In its site - specificificity, Marker @ 2000 served as entrance. A proposition to have a modified version of the same in the Art District was suggested.