AIT
in kandivali, mumbai 01-07 march 2015 art in transit, bangalore, in collaboration with the urban vision
Art in transit in kandivali, mumbai Art in Transit is a public art project run by the Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology, Bangalore, that aims to create meaningful artistic interventions in spaces of transit. In March 2015, The Urban Vision, a think-do tank of architects, invited the Art in Transit project and its current batch of final year students to participate in a week-long charrette creating site-specific public artwork in Samtanagar, Kandivali, Mumbai. Samtanagar is being redeveloped and most of what we see around is either on its way out or will be in the course of the next couple of months. The road extending from the highway to the entrance of Thakur Village is undergoing a major transformation. Caught between this flux are complex webs of life that silently watch as their very foundation threatens to be relocated. Our role as artists was to respond to this dynamic of shifting lives and changing structures. With ten distinct creative practices, we sought to pronounce the undercurrents of what constitutes a place caught between its past and an impending ‘redeveloped’ future.
This book is a documentation of the outcomes of this week-long endeavour.
ait interventions in samtanagar PG 8
PG 28
PG 20 PG 13
PG 3
PG 14
PG 16
PG 12
PG 1
PG 2 PG 19
PG 26 PG 27
PG 4
PG 18
PG 22
PG 10
invisibility. inhabitation. Ria Bajaj Intervention #1 I began by locating areas that had the potential to facilitate interactions between people and space. The site was an arbitrary bench in the middle of the road, and its only occupants were crows. I painted a silhouette of a woman sitting next to a crow in response to the impossibility of anyone actually sitting there.
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Intervention #2 I was drawn to a site that had shelter with a noticeable lack of seating below it, while an adjacent site conversely had seating without corresponding shelter. The silhouette of women sitting in a cluster under the shed activates and transforms the space into an interactive one. The colour signifies the political majority that lives around the area.
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Intervention #3 In my third intervention, a child climbing the gap between the shutters of two shops brings out an element of playfulness and brightens up the atmosphere.
I located areas that had the potential to facilitate interactions between people and space.
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fluidity. frailty. Reuben Samson
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My piece attempts to combine various elements that coexisted within the physical space of the sheltered housing modules that I was drawn to. The structure of tightly packed modular blocks of housing shielded by a series of alcoves that concealed all signs of life created a sense of an almost inter-dimensional portal, where the alcoves were actively shielding signs of activity that took place in the background. Despite allowing narrow beams
of light to pass through the fragile, crumbling structure, the cavernous buildings managed to act as a shield. I was intrigued by the idea of something brittle and crumbling acting as such a shield, and a natural form that displayed the same qualities was that of wings. I used a group of disembodied wings to represent this idea and combined it with the coolness and fluidity of the cavernous alcove.
I was intrigued by the idea of something brittle and crumbling acting as a shield.
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extrapolation. repetition. Veda Thozhur Kolleri
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While assessing the space, I found that its landscape seemed predictable; so much so that I felt that I could fill the empty spaces with drawings that would complete it. I realized that what made the space predictable was its repetition – as if everything was dictated by a specific structure. On finding decrepit walls that exist almost as if to merely create contrast, I chose to draw windows in repetition to make up for what the larger space
saw as something these walls lacked. I thought that the nature of my drawing would appear as a mockery of the space, and my act of building these windows would mimic the act of forcing structure upon urban landscapes.
I thought that my building these windows would mimic the act of forcing structure upon urban landscapes.
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staccato. serpentine. Harleen Chatha In response to the vertical garden that formed the façade of the building, I decided to paint creepers on the old gate of the building. I’ve attempted to evoke a sense of greenery in that area through these forms that are my personal interpretation of
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creepers, with their staccato movement. The form and placement of each of them is reliant on the existing wall with its broken parts, and to my mind, these forms could only exist as a response to this specific site.
I’ve attempted to evoke a sense of greenery in that area through my personal interpretation of creepers.
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people. interactions. Fabrice Grolaire Intervention #1 What is behind the walls of the buildings of Samtanagar? Samtanagar is a redeveloping area. This project focuses on Samtanagar Block #5 and aims to acknowledge the life of the inhabitants of this building. These buildings are getting constructed and demolished. People keep changing their home, life moves according the rhythm of construction.
Through a series of five portraits, this project seeks to give image to this life, revealing the people behind the walls.
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Intervention #2 People walking in the streets of India are most likely staring at their feet. This makes them feel safe and confident about the direction and decisions they are taking in their lives.
This representation encourages the idea of changing the way people look. Instead of looking at their feet, this painting suggests their gaze follow another direction and angle. The painted eye looks towards the sky, encouraging people to look at it. This is perhaps where people will find better answers to their everyday questions.
Instead of looking at their feet, this painting suggests that people direct their gaze towards the sky.
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Intervention #3 Playing with site composition, this project focuses on the material-immaterial relation of a painting and its site.
The piece represents a local woman holding up two windows with her hands. The idea behind this representation is to make it seem like something as immaterial and dimensionless as a painting can hold up something as tangible as a building, the idea that paint can make walls stronger.
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concealment. confinement. Deepti Ramakrishnan My site was adjacent to a local fish market, with a pavement running along it, with regularly spaced manholes which were placed at a slight depression, allowing them to collect with rain water. I wanted to incorporate my initial experiences of being in Bombay. The space conveyed a lot of discomfort and made me claustrophobic. I wanted to use key observations of the space
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to communicate the sensations derived from my experiences. I created an image of a fish that looked like it was squeezed into the manhole, and when the rains arrived, it would fill up with water.
I wanted to incorporate my initial experiences of being in Bombay. The space conveyed a lot of discomfort and made me claustrophobic.
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STRUCTURES. SHADOWS. Devika Shah
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Structures lend an identity to spaces, and their placement possesses and provides direction. Through a series of three interventions, I have attempted to emphasize the role of these place-making elements by distorting their function. I have done this through the addition of gradients, and shadows that bend the existing structure. I chose to work around a large transformer that acts as a landmark to those traveling in and out of Kandivali,
and around two less imposing pillars located within the residential lanes of Samta Nagar. These interventions act as markers of space, where I’m attempting to draw attention to how these elements create a sense of place and to their potential to act as landmarks.
These interventions act as markers of space, where I’m attempting to draw attention to how these elements create a sense of place
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ASPIRATIONS. Temporality. Ishita Biswas Our lives are so centered around our aspirations in this grand urban laboratory, where we keep fighting for the ideal role we want to play and the ideal space we want to acquire within its larger structure. But what if all of this rests on a structure that is inherently weak? On learning that the site of my choosing was slated
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for demolition, I was further encouraged to question this uninterrupted growth of urban structures. My mural attempts to ask these questions, and asks whether it is something we would like to rethink or something that we would rather ignore.
On learning that my site was slated for demolition, I was encouraged to question the uninterrupted growth of urban structures.
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movement. activity. Shail Suneja This intervention is a direct response to the actions that occur around the site. The energy of the site is captured through a medium of using small narratives. By using these in-transit stick figures, I have tried to represent motion that is achieved only after the viewer walks across the entire image. The image is incomplete if
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it is viewed from one place. The flow of the drawing draws from the surroundings of the wall, such as the school and the colony building right next to it.
The energy of the site is captured through the medium of small narratives.
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whimsy. playfulness. Akshaya Elizabeth Zachariah Intervention #1 My first piece involved pulling out elements from the space I was in through shape, repetitiveness, and size. The tiles on the floor in the alcove space were small square shapes that reminded me of old video games that were highly pixelated and bright with colour. Since Tetris was the first game that came to my mind, I began to look at how the form of the square tiles when put together could resemble the game, especially if it trickled from the wall to the tiles on the floor. I decided to use bright colours to contrast the dull, cracked, old walls.
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Intervention #2 My second intervention was to study light and shadow and how the elements within a space are morphed over time through their shadows. I chose a satellite dish in my space as I was intrigued by the elongated shadow and the shapes it formed. My larger motive was to leave behind something that not many people notice as the light changes over a day.
I also worked with the intention that the tones of grey that I painted would play with the actual shadows in an interesting way to reveal to the viewer the intent behind my piece.
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My larger motive was to leave behind something that highlighted things people didn’t usually notice. Intervention #3 In my third intervention, I decided to explore human forms that occupy the alcove. Since the alcove was a quiet space, and away from the noise of the main road, I chose to use silhouettes of kids playing hide-n-seek, peeking over walls, crouching/ hiding in corners of buildings, where I used the space around the houses to aid the placement of these forms.
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more about art in transit Art in Transit, a collaboration between the Bangalore Metro Rail Corporation (BMRC) and Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology, aims at transforming Bangalore’s metro stations into cultural hubs that facilitate meaningful interactions through public art. Begun in July 2014, the pilot project at Peenya Metro Station has brought students and facilitators from Srishti who are working towards creating relevant and meaningful interventions that transform the station into a space that is integrated and sensitive to the cultural context within which it is situated.
Art in Transit hopes to grow and expand out into different types of public spaces and reach multiple different audiences.
COLLABORATORS Art in Transit Students Akshaya Elizabeth Zachariah Deepti Ramakrishnan Devika Shah Fabrice Grolaire Harleen Chatha Ishita Biswas Reuben Samson Ria Bajaj Shail Suneja Veda Thozhur Kolleri Art in Transit Facilitators Amitabh Kumar Samir Parker Ruchika Nambiar
The Urban Vision (Host Organization) Prathima Manohar Aditi Nargundkar Pathak Ashwini Nair Shalmali Kulkarni www.facebook.com/artintransitproject www.theurbanvision.com