New Delhi, India: Khoj Studios presented Intimate Architectures: Materials at Play - a show of art works exploring the relationship between material and space by Gabi Schilling (Germany) and Masooma Syed (Pakistan/India) that were created during a month-long residency at Khoj Studios, Delhi. The works were displayed at the Khoj Studios from Sept 28 till Oct 5, 2011.
"This is my first time in India and at Khoj. Since I have been trained as an architect, my work is about creating an interaction between public space, people and the material that I work in," Gibi Schilling said.
For her project at Khoj, Gabi has chosen to work with pieces of chanderi cloth, in various colors and sizes. Using geometrical patterns, reminiscent of her architectural training, Gabi is seen folding and pleating the cloth pieces in a multi-layered manner, and then stitching it into a 4 metre by 4 metre installation piece with the help of a local tailor. The work will be suspended in the courtyard of Khoj Studios in a way that will allow people to negotiate their way through the work, interact with it, hide inside it and even use it as a garment if one so wishes. "The work is very minimalistic with only one color on the outside but various hues on the inside of the installation. I used chanderi because I wanted to work with a material that is India and also because of its transparency. One can see the outside world from inside the installation and view what is happening inside it from the outside."
While Gabi worked on the textiles because "they can adapt and change", she connects her work to her architectural responses as well. "I feel that building all over are totally out of scale. The message is to create something which people can interact both in terms of scale and material."
Masooma Syed, on the other hand worked with the concept of material that comes to her from public spaces. During her residency at Khoj, she collected hordes of found material both from bustling market places and sometimes, even from outside temples - amulets, figurines of gods and goddesses, discarded beer bottle caps, velvet cloth, medicine tables amongst others, which all came together to showcase her current fascination wit the concept of 'vanity'.
"I have been working with jewellery, although of a different kind - using hair, fingernails, tamarind seeds and scrap metal, for sometime now. But from a mere decorative art, ornament of utility, a decoration used to embellish part of a building, body or object; it is a strong vehicle for communication. It has embedded history of a society and its politics we live in, along with its functional wear-ability. It also makes structural references to sculpture and architecture. From this evolved the ides of 'adornment' that then took to the idea of 'vanity'. I visited several market spaces where everything and anything is available - for the sake of satisfying one's vanity" she said.
"This is my first time in India and at Khoj. Since I have been trained as an architect, my work is about creating an interaction between public space, people and the material that I work in," Gibi Schilling said.
For her project at Khoj, Gabi has chosen to work with pieces of chanderi cloth, in various colors and sizes. Using geometrical patterns, reminiscent of her architectural training, Gabi is seen folding and pleating the cloth pieces in a multi-layered manner, and then stitching it into a 4 metre by 4 metre installation piece with the help of a local tailor. The work will be suspended in the courtyard of Khoj Studios in a way that will allow people to negotiate their way through the work, interact with it, hide inside it and even use it as a garment if one so wishes. "The work is very minimalistic with only one color on the outside but various hues on the inside of the installation. I used chanderi because I wanted to work with a material that is India and also because of its transparency. One can see the outside world from inside the installation and view what is happening inside it from the outside."
While Gabi worked on the textiles because "they can adapt and change", she connects her work to her architectural responses as well. "I feel that building all over are totally out of scale. The message is to create something which people can interact both in terms of scale and material."
Masooma Syed, on the other hand worked with the concept of material that comes to her from public spaces. During her residency at Khoj, she collected hordes of found material both from bustling market places and sometimes, even from outside temples - amulets, figurines of gods and goddesses, discarded beer bottle caps, velvet cloth, medicine tables amongst others, which all came together to showcase her current fascination wit the concept of 'vanity'.
"I have been working with jewellery, although of a different kind - using hair, fingernails, tamarind seeds and scrap metal, for sometime now. But from a mere decorative art, ornament of utility, a decoration used to embellish part of a building, body or object; it is a strong vehicle for communication. It has embedded history of a society and its politics we live in, along with its functional wear-ability. It also makes structural references to sculpture and architecture. From this evolved the ides of 'adornment' that then took to the idea of 'vanity'. I visited several market spaces where everything and anything is available - for the sake of satisfying one's vanity" she said.
*img courtsey: Persona PR
