Sculptor Anish Kapoor’s acrylic cube, which is part of an ongoing exhibition called Constructs/Constructions at the Kiran Nadar Museum of Art (KNMA), resembles a frozen model of the Big Bang and creates an illusion of air bubbles trapped inside it.
The minimalistic work, titled ‘In Mind’, best defines the exhibition that explores the process of creation of a work of art from the time it forms in the mind of the artist till it becomes a reality and can communicate on behalf of its creator.
The exhibition brings together 30 artists cutting across generations to focus on the close relationship between the act of making and the manifestation of thought and ideas.
The show, curated by Roobina Karode, looks at built structures we see around us and the materials that are used to take it from an idea or a theory into a physical, communicative form.
The artists have used materials like Mangalorean tiles, jute, cardboard, twigs, electrical fixtures, vases, grills, scrap and other recycled material to put together concepts in two dimension. Some installations, however, invite the viewer to walk through or inside the work for an immersive experience.
Artists Gigi Scaria, Nataraj Sharma and Hema Upadhyay draw upon urban experiences of the everyday that affect us both physically and psychologically.
Scaria’s ‘The Elevator’ is an example of fast-paced urban lifestyle and incorporates the anxiety of speed, hurried impressions and even claustrophobia in our day-to-day lives.
An installation by Upadhyay looks at the over-populated Dharavi basti in Mumbai and asks visitors to walk into an installation that is modelled on the 8x12 feet space, which is the average size of a house in the slum.
Designed using aluminium sheets, car scrap, plastic and other objects, the installation portrays how cities have no breathing space left to offer to its inhabitants.
Modern Indian artists like S.H. Raza, Ram Kumar and F.N. Souza also make their presence felt at the show with their canvasses that highlight built structures and the changing landscape of cities with the growing absence of nature.
Some works even highlight moods of alienation, darkness and a sense of mystery that engulfs lives in cities.
Gulam Mohammed Sheikh, meanwhile, translates his painted spaces to be experienced in an architectural form, a portable structure that can be folded or contained in a large square box but can also be opened to unfold as individual pages of a book or as a three-dimensional structure that allows viewers to enter and move in and out of its multiple sections.
The exhibition, sponsored by the Shiv Nadar Foundation is on at KNMA, 145, DLF South Court Mall, Saket, till December 15.
The show, curated by Roobina Karode, looks
at built structures we
see around us and the materials that are used
to take it from an idea or
a theory into a physical, communicative form
