Celebrating life and other thrills

The architecture exhibition that kicked off on 10 October seeks to explore a different dimension through incomplete models, fragments, study models, drawings, photographs of construction, videos instead of only showcasing drawings, photographs and scaled models. 

According to Doshi, ‘With the modern day advancements in digital technologies many exciting explorations with materials, clay or wood models, and sensuality of textures are denied. The physical and experiential dimension is very important. It is a connection to the land, ground, scale, light, colour, texture and materials.’

Doshi’s work is the result of an intense assimilation and re-contextualisation of architectural concepts. Drawing from the idea of interdependence between the arts, Doshi successfully integrates the elements of rhythm, resonance, light, form, space and time. The diverse elements of music, art, and theatre through the manifestation of navrasas have been essentially incorporated in his visual vocabulary as architecture cannot stand alone. They reflect that to survive, one must be porous, flexible, absorbing and be rooted as seeds hold their own roots to become banyan trees. 

Doshi further adds, ‘In this retrospective, it becomes important to understand what this journey means. Over the last sixty years, there have been many questions of such nature.  It's like a vast circle. In a philosophic way, this stage connects me, sixty years later, to my beginnings. Hence, this retrospective is very important for me to evaluate my work; an introspective dialogue with students to look into the future afresh’. 

A series of seminars and a symposium have also been planned around the exhibition, along with regular film screenings in the NGMA, preview theatre. A film on the retrospective shall be released on 21 November.