Art in Transit devika shah PDP 401
stories behind the door
Index Content INTRODUCTION MAPPING THE INSIDE WORLD Experience INSPIRATION CONCEPT Initial Attempt Start of the process Form Installation EXHIBITION FURTHER EXPLORATIONS
Introduction Peenya is the name of an industrial area of the Bangalore city in India. It is considered to be one of the largest industrial areas in Asia. – Wikipedia. Whether its Google or KSRTC , (Karnataka State Road Transport Corporation),“Peenya”, has always been associated to a commercial station. On my first visit to Peenya, I was under the same impression. The Peenya Metro Station resembled the strength and the reach of the Industrial Area. I was proved wrong the day I went about mapping Peenya.
Mapping The Inside World
Experience
The walk towards the SRS bus stop felt quite hectic. Amidst all the honking from Bangalore’s busiest Highway’s, Tumkur, was a small community. This settlement didn’t really have a designated name like the SRS community. It was counted as the 4th block area of Peenya. The area is registered as S 10 under Peenya.
Veteran inspector Babu Rao Vagmaare was the first person I interacted with that day. He was a Maharashtrian resident, who handled the issues related to the vet hospital which is supposedly the first building of that area. The conversation started off with him warning me regarding the lack of security for women in those lanes. He asked me not to roam around alone even in broad daylight. This made me curious but fearful.
Experience That’s when I met Tejas, a 9th standard kid who knew reasonable English words and became my guide. With him by my side the fear was slowly diminishing. He took to me to each and every lane of the residential area. Those vibrant wall colors enlighten the entire community. It was so colorful and cheerful until we reached the starting point of the Industrial area. Tejas refused to go any further. According to him he wasn’t allowed to wander in those grey lanes. After a lot of insisting and some Mc Donald fries I convinced him to take me further. Divakar, Radhe Kishan, Gajenra, Mahesh and other workers warned me about not going into the interiors too. This was the first experience of Peenya community, a place of contrasts.
First experience of Peeenya S10, a place of contrasts.
Inspiration
Inspiration
Shiv Kumar, 48, President of the S 10 community, handles the public affairs of 2647 residents. He is an educated and respected travel agent. While talking to him, I came across a lot of unknown facts about this land. Peenya S10 was a 70 year old settlement. It started with mere ragi fields that cultivated their way into the industrial area. Development had taken a leap in these areas. Peenya S10 now became the root of my concept inspiration. I started digging more into it. This fascinating colorful colony with a transit history and contrasting lanes started to grow within me.
Afternoon’s used to be the best time to go around. It was the no current time, when all the women used to come out of their houses and sit under the shade of their rooftop. It was the time when they were free and ready to gossip. They used to form these groups. After spending hours with each group I got to hear some unexpected stories.
Inspiration That area felt like a space that was secluded from the outside world. But Peenya S10 had seen more changes. They were affected by the rapid development around them. They are squeezed between heavy steel, timber, paints and cement pillars After a week of visiting S 10 and gathering the most unexpected stories I felt strayed. It was going to be hard to try and accomodate so much into something representational and worthwhile.
Concept
Start of the process
Initial Attempt
Stories Behind the door, started with a distinct observation of the space element that a door provides. Every door had its own character just like the stories. It provided individuality. The colors, the wood, the garland that hung, the Sali (lock), the different design of the Rangoli (white powder) outside the house and most importantly the face of Lord Raavan. All these elements provided a different charm. Every element had its own purpose. The Rangoli is supposed to be drawn every morning because it traps any negative energy from entering the house, its cleanses evil and the lord Raavan face was to scare harmful spirits and the Toran (garland) acts as an accessory at the same time offers a grand welcome for everyone. These ancestral characters, doors, added a touch of individuality and helped me to investigate regarding what was beyond them.
“STATIONS OF AWARNESS�, was my first attempt to form a forced furniture design project for the course. As a tripper I didn’t want to do something that was out of my skill set. The idea was to design a structure/ structures (miniature stations in the station) that restores the belongingness of the Peenya community as well as blends in with the vastness of Peenya Metro Station. T hese forms would be a medium to engage the metro travelers into learning more about the current situation/ problems faced by the Peenya community. These issues mainly touch upon the underdeveloped society of the most developed area in Bangalore. After recent interventions, my interest are directed more towards the gender glitches faced by women in that area and how certain ancestral customs still dominate the livelihood of girls in that area. After certain crit sessions, I realized that the interpretation of the stories that were collected could be tried to put forward in a more positive conceptual way. These stories belonged to these people who have been residing there for a long time now. If they have learned to adapt to it that I should be highlighting their courage rather than taking a negative turn.
Stories
Shiv Kumarji- “It’s just here, doesn’t affect me.” –regarding the metro Harshita – “I knows English, she doesn’t.” (Pointing at her friend who studies in Kannada Medium School).
“I am not allowed to go near the industrial Area with you, my dad is a driver, and he might beat me up if he saw me”. – Tejas, 17 year old.
Rajeshwari – “I studied till 7th standard, after that I had to cook. Cooking takes a lot of time and had to be at home.” (She is a mother of a one year old girl now and desires to send her only to school, not college.) “tum hamara photo kyun leta?, hum gareeb hai isliye, tum bada bada ghar mein rehta hai. Humara chota ghar ka photo leta hai?” ( why are you clicking my photograph, just because I am poor? You big people , clicking photos of my small hut) . “Rama na mile jo naak na puraya.” (It’s a belief there that if you don’t get your nose pierced you won’t find a suitable match for yourself ).
Each story had its own charm. With this I moved forward to the representational part.
Form Our first exercise, in class, was sketching one of the stations of the Purple Metro Line and trying to interpret that experience. For our convenience, we were asked to express that using a metaphor. M G Road Metaphor Structures and their shapes have a long lasting effect on a traveler. M.G.Road metro station as a space didn’t seem as appealing as a structure. After sitting around in that space, I kind of found the element of line playing a great role in maintaining the balance of the design. It created an unknown movement from within the pillars and the stairs and the station as a whole. Those lines created an illusion catering to displacement of thoughts. Peenya Metro Station Metaphor The station created an image of a Giant trying to suppress the free tiny being, by its vastness. The idea of a space being so open but heavy on eyes. This allowed me to think in term of colors and to utilise illusion “lines� as a dominating component of the installation.
Floor painting A composition of streets of Peenya would be helpful to complement the door structures. This is when I decided to make a floor laid composition of The Streets of Peenya. It’s a simple compilation of several lanes at different perspective points.
3 D Structure
Site Selection
As my first attempt towards following the process, I wanted to emphasis more towards the tittle “stories behind the door”. Enhancing the doors in the floor painting wouldn’t have been quite successful. So I decided to make them something that would protrude out of the floor painting, resembling the importance of “doors”.
The platform was the only space where in people were allowed to wander for some time. Usually the time difference between each Metro was around 8-10 minutes. I felt like people should spend some time understanding the installation and how it works and most importantly its purpose. As the size of the painting was 14 ft. by 15.5 ft. travelers were bound to take a look at the work. It was a work about Peenya S10 for people who stepped into the station to board Metro from Peenya.
Installation
This installation attempts to bring together elements that characterize the lives of the lesser known communities that have inhabited Peenya for decades so as to lend to those in transit a sense of belonging through empathy. Borrowing elements from local housing in the area, this piece attempts to characterize the lives of the lesser known communities that have inhabited Peenya for decades so as to lend to those in transit a sense of belonging through empathy.
Exhibition 19/9/2014 - 25/9/2014
Learning
Further Explorations
Execution of the concept according to our own perspective/ vision is quite difficult. Certain aspects of the process or ideas always act as a barrier to facilitate other idea which is different in certain ways. This exhibition allowed me to look beyond this barrier and helped me deal with merging ideas. Try and take things which felt more relevant to the concept and erase ones which didn’t work out well. Achieving the highest level was hard, but it was a great learning experience. Not thinking/working inside my safe zone helped me a lot. Expanding these limitations facilitated me to look beyond the obvious and helped me to understand the concept with more clarity and simplicity. Using the Metro Station platform was quite a challenge but figuring out the next composition that would help in overcoming certain problems would be more difficult but interesting. A fter the exhibition, learned one thing, being ambitious is good but being practical is more important. Painting on floor is not easy and constructing 3d structures that merge with the space and the artwork, is another challenge but something that is important.
For the second prototype I wanted to concentrate more towards the composition of the floor painting. A lot of passengers couldn’t really decipher that those were the “streets of Peenya.” the painting required to bring in more of a resemblance .at the same time on the skill exploration front; and to learn more about pavement painting. this led to working on something on the roads of the SFS colony, Yelahanka new town.
Explaination As a continuation to the process, this painting was an abode to the important gathering spaces in Peenya S10. The composition is divided into 4 different views. The viewer has to go around the painting to get an understanding of it. The prominent part of the painting is the tree which is the central zone for a lot of activities, there’s a temple situated right next to it, a shade where all the construction working men have their lunch, an open ground for the kids and right opposite is a vegetable vendor. On the right hand side of the painting is a small sketch of the metro bridge which signifies the placement of the entire Peenya S10 community below it. On the left are some outside seating of the houses. Certain elements like stairs, benches and tables are added to provide a sense of seating used around the area.
Further Explorations
Third exploration is something close to a 3D painting. I was thoroughly inspired by the work of artists like Kurt Wenner and Edgar Mueller. They have a knack for working with pavement paintings and on large scale. I have just started working with it so it’s a work in progress.
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