Site Specific  I  Sarai Reader 09  I  Devi Art Foundation
2012-2013
Curated by RAQS Media Collective
Fishnet Wire and Permanent Marker

Sarai Reader 09 was a proposal based project that was curated by Raqs Media Collective and its exhibition supported by Devi Art Foundation in 2012-2013. It followed a critical shift in my practice, as it was the first time I consciously began to think of architectural space itself as a material. “To work with space but not occupy any particular space” was the crux of my proposal for the project. Over a duration of three months, I activated four spaces, allowing each spatial encounter to inform and shape the work, this being the first one.

This site-specific work served as an extension to my earlier works, titled ‘Black Drawings’ and ‘Drawing Sculptures: Wire’, and functioned as a bridge between my existing practice and my emerging interest in spatial intervention and drawing within a three dimensional space. It was a direct response to the initial interaction with built environments and acted as a documentation of spatial experience situated within architectural structures.

The project took place in the context of Cybermohalla Hub, a mobile structure functioning as a collaborative studio, archive and urban space, which was temporarily stationed at the Devi Art Foundation’s iconic building in Gurugram. Interacting with the transient nature of this structure helped me realise about space as something that could be activated, altered and reimagined. Created using fishnet wires with a permanent marker, these previous works from early 2012 were conceived as drawings without a conventional fixed surface, and Sarai Reader 09 became the moment where it pivotally served as an entry point to the accompanying space. Subsequently, this work also became a guide for my later project Drawing in Space.

Link to the project https://parulguptastudio.com/work/project-sarai-reader-09/