Every man carries a room inside him, Franz Kafka wrote in The Blue Octavo Notebooks.
The concept of ‘Spacemates’ — objects peopling domestic space — has, however, become fluid with shrinking living spaces and rapidly changing household accessory design. Yesterday’s art deco interiors have given way to today’s utilitarianism and minimalism, and each object is defined by multiple purposes — utility, affordability, uncluttered lines and minimum space occupied.
Leading Indian conceptual artist and filmmaker Aradhana Seth, sister of writer-poet Vikram Seth, and Italian artist Andrea Anastasio have now collaborated on an onsite art project, Spacemates, looking at transforming Indian living spaces, which are at a premium and expensive.
The month-long Indo-Italian art project opened at the Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Centre) Tuesday.
The project was mounted after an intensive three-week ‘sweatshop’ by the two artists, who used the two galleries as their studio, putting together the material and artworks.
Material is central to the installations, and the primary object is the humble pillow, made locally and covered in cotton textile with floral motifs.
The pillows take up one of the galleries in a centrepiece, This is not a Love Song, inspired by Checkpoint Charlie-type barricades that scan vehicles for possible bombs and terrorists. The pillows are arranged like sand bunkers.
The main installation is surrounded by smaller cushions bunched together with plastic flowers on the floor and on the ceiling, like remains of mayhem. The checkpoint is placed between the living room and bedroom. The colours on the 60-odd pillows, as the artists explain, serve as a symbol of class division as well.
‘It is very important for me to engage with something used in daily life. Seeing is also framed by thought, and I wanted to relate to the wonderful minds with my work,’ said Andrea Anastasio, a scholar of eastern philosophy and a conceptual designer.
Explaining the synergy between social psychology, home design, art and political movements, Anastasio said: ‘Soon after World War II, functionality of home design was contaminated by language’. The main focus of home decor after the war was, in Anastasio words: ‘To sit in the living room and share socially and politically.’
In the 1960s, the ‘socialist’ decor of living-room bonding was replaced by New Age minimalism.
In the 1990s, this common ground was ‘contaminated’ with style — a ‘personal romantic idea of uniqueness’, Anastasio explained.
Anastasio is showing three installations. Amnesia 2013 comprises patterns in cement jaalis (lattices) covered with wallpapers. ‘Jaalis with beautiful wallpapers remind me of a zenana — the royal women’s quarters and symbol of gender in another place in another time. The jaalis are like membrane. We all have a skin and that skin is a very plane to work with,’ said Anastasio. Fishing Tank 2013 conveys the sense of domestic space through a series of paintings with ‘shopping bags hemmed in between glass and plywood to create abstract forms’.
DETAIL
At: Exhibition Gallery I, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Chanakyapuri
On till: 28 February
Timings: 10.30 am to 6 pm
The concept of ‘Spacemates’ — objects peopling domestic space — has, however, become fluid with shrinking living spaces and rapidly changing household accessory design. Yesterday’s art deco interiors have given way to today’s utilitarianism and minimalism, and each object is defined by multiple purposes — utility, affordability, uncluttered lines and minimum space occupied.
Leading Indian conceptual artist and filmmaker Aradhana Seth, sister of writer-poet Vikram Seth, and Italian artist Andrea Anastasio have now collaborated on an onsite art project, Spacemates, looking at transforming Indian living spaces, which are at a premium and expensive.
The month-long Indo-Italian art project opened at the Italiano di Cultura (Italian Cultural Centre) Tuesday.
The project was mounted after an intensive three-week ‘sweatshop’ by the two artists, who used the two galleries as their studio, putting together the material and artworks.
Material is central to the installations, and the primary object is the humble pillow, made locally and covered in cotton textile with floral motifs.
The pillows take up one of the galleries in a centrepiece, This is not a Love Song, inspired by Checkpoint Charlie-type barricades that scan vehicles for possible bombs and terrorists. The pillows are arranged like sand bunkers.
The main installation is surrounded by smaller cushions bunched together with plastic flowers on the floor and on the ceiling, like remains of mayhem. The checkpoint is placed between the living room and bedroom. The colours on the 60-odd pillows, as the artists explain, serve as a symbol of class division as well.
‘It is very important for me to engage with something used in daily life. Seeing is also framed by thought, and I wanted to relate to the wonderful minds with my work,’ said Andrea Anastasio, a scholar of eastern philosophy and a conceptual designer.
Explaining the synergy between social psychology, home design, art and political movements, Anastasio said: ‘Soon after World War II, functionality of home design was contaminated by language’. The main focus of home decor after the war was, in Anastasio words: ‘To sit in the living room and share socially and politically.’
In the 1960s, the ‘socialist’ decor of living-room bonding was replaced by New Age minimalism.
In the 1990s, this common ground was ‘contaminated’ with style — a ‘personal romantic idea of uniqueness’, Anastasio explained.
Anastasio is showing three installations. Amnesia 2013 comprises patterns in cement jaalis (lattices) covered with wallpapers. ‘Jaalis with beautiful wallpapers remind me of a zenana — the royal women’s quarters and symbol of gender in another place in another time. The jaalis are like membrane. We all have a skin and that skin is a very plane to work with,’ said Anastasio. Fishing Tank 2013 conveys the sense of domestic space through a series of paintings with ‘shopping bags hemmed in between glass and plywood to create abstract forms’.
DETAIL
At: Exhibition Gallery I, Istituto Italiano di Cultura, Chanakyapuri
On till: 28 February
Timings: 10.30 am to 6 pm