Space; Underscore I RED Studio, Mumbai
2020
Presented by Farah Siddique Khan and Red Studio
Etching on Brick Wall
The site-specific work is part of a project titled Space; Underscore and produced by Farah Khan and RED Studio, a Mumbai-based architectural studio in 2020. The architects, during renovation, had retained an original dilapidated wall from the old structure of the studio. The brick wall runs through two offices and courtyards, the former being a place for casual hangout and recreational use. The texture of the said wall and its contrast with the rest of the place gained my attention during my first encounter with the space. It led me to question and reason the motive behind the architects’ decision to leave it in such a way.
My creative process usually does not begin with fictional narratives or imagined stories about how something might have happened or why it exists in a particular way. But in this instance, however, it emerged naturally for me. The visual began to evoke within me the atmosphere of ancient ruins and the idea of archaeological excavation, which took me back to my experience being in Mahabalipuram’s grand temple complex, Tamil Nadu in 2011. I started imagining the site as though the building had been excavated and during the process of which, this form was discovered embedded onto the wall itself. And that maybe instead of disturbing this unknown structure or remnant, they simply left it be for us to encounter.
It was almost as if a process of reverse excavation was ongoing, constructing the whole narration backwards in a retrospective procedure of making. This imagined history became an unexpected layer within the work, using which I responded to the present architectural setup and conditions of the studio space. One of the primary facilitators was the pre-existent square grid based glass panels running throughout the whole space, responding to which I subsequently etched the brick wall in a similar visual form. This intervention continues my ongoing inquiry into architectural space, where the existing conditions of a site become an initial point of entry, gradually shaping the work as a dynamic response to its material, visual language and geometry.
The work is produced by Team Red Studio.
Link to the project https://parulguptastudio.com/work/project-space-underscore/
