Site Specific I Sarai Reader 09 I Devi Art Foundation, Gurgaon
2012-2013
Curated by RAQS Media Collective
Transparent Tape on Scaffolding and Wall
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.
The fourth and final space activated within this site-specific project, this work was situated upon the already existing scaffoldings present at the site of the Devi Art Foundation building in Gurugram. These structures were an architectural intervention by Sayantan Maitra Boka, as a part of the exhibition curation and design. While being in this space, the sight of light rays falling upon the scaffoldings and its emergent shadows caught my initial point of interest towards this engagement, after which the subsequent spatial extension of these pre-existent lines followed.
Although the shadows formed as a result of light do not have any particular significance quantitatively, but qualitatively it is a very crucial part to the whole seeing process, as it makes our world appear real. The things required to create shadows are objects and light. One light equals one shadow and if we move the light, the shadow disappears or shifts. In response to the basic principle of light and shadow, I worked with the materiality of perception here.
This installation was made using transparent tape on the aforementioned scaffolding and one light source, but two visible shadows on the wall. Therefore, it naturally birthed curiosity within the minds of witnessing viewers, now brimming with a want to locate the supposed second source of light responsible for the diagonal shadow. Through this very act, the work emphasises the role of ‘perception’ through which we construct our understanding of reality. It was the transparent nature of vertical strips of adhesive tape that, when positioned on the scaffolding, acted as if a shadow had been cast on the wall. Thereby creating an illusion that challenged the observer’s initial reading of the very space. Further, the viewer here also becomes an integral part to activate the work. Unfolding through a process of looking, questioning and eventually discovering, it is this precise moment that the work fully comes into being as it exposes our preconceived notion of perceiving reality.
Link to the project https://parulguptastudio.com/work/project-sarai-reader-09/
