Skin the label | Mural | Dec 2013
Godrej Culture Lab was creating a one-day pop up museum in an old Godrej factory - Something that would get demolished the next day.
Why should an artist go and put efforts to make something that will perish in a day?
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| The space, before :) - Entrance to the pop-up museum |
A canvas has it's own set of challenges. You are trying to go deeper in the dimension you have chosen and exploring a facet of you. There are executional challenges there, but no real executional push-backs.
Here, this project was worth doing for it's own challenges.
The space was large. Each wall was 17-20 ft high and 60 feet long.
It was old. It didn't have a roof but two water tanks, many pipes and a fixed ladder.
I hadn't painted on a vertically held surface before, with gravity pulling the paint down. I didn't know what's the best paint for the walls and whether one coat would work or two.
Or what colours I should use or how I would handle them in case i have to give another layer on top.
How long would this entire thing take - and how would it develop.
It would at least be good 10-11 ft high, which meant I would have to work on a raised surface, that too without a sturdy scaffolding - a massive effort.
And I didn't know whether I would last that long. The answer was simple : Do!
Making a composition that would come together in a viewer's eye wouldn't have worked in this space as there was hardly any viewing distance. Standing 10 feet away from the wall to contain the 60 feet long work in one's eyes - was an impossible task - and there were two such walls facing each other.
When one stood at the entry, it felt like an alley with a dead end - one wouldn't know how to exit the space at the first glance. The walls were coming together to contain the space which viewer could walk into.
This was a space that could give the people an experience of walking into an art. Abstract art.
The unknown, unidentifiable, ever changing forms. But aren't people scared of abstracts? Who would want to dive into a pool of abstracts?
I had seen people who stood watching the abstract works for hours in my first exhibition, Within.
The words helped them shed fear of watching the work - and once they got over the initial fear, the art would make them look at things they never saw.
The concept had to be 'skin'. I was giving a skin to the space.
One who would walk through, would carry the skin on oneself, around oneself.
It was about colours and lack of them.
We distinguish colours by seeing them, but we can't do the same by touching them.
Touch doesn't lie, our eyes do, our biases do. That was the theme for the mural.
There was a concept. and there was the rough layout.
And this is what I was going to make, life size.
Concept hits the ground, day 1.
The mural starts coming to life.
It's 8 days and 50 litres of paint down and the 2000 sq ft mural is ready.
Should I cover it or not? The tanks at the top make the decision simple. Has to be done.
Back at it for two more days to put up the roof. (I took Rucha's help for this, phew!).
Obviously it can't be normal. Hooks, ribbons, efforts and hope.
People keep walking through irrespective of all the 'Wet paint' signs, water tank overflows add to the concerns. One day before the floor is so dull that I am dreading whether I will have to paint the floor again.
And then I give it a bath. Dust washed away and clean painted floor shining like new!
(Thank god for emulsion paints)
Obviously, it needs to be guarded in the night.
From anyone who can walk - or fly. Bats, pigeons. Shit.
The engraved acrylic panel goes up completing the space.
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| Skin the label | The final look |
The space has its own energy, its own peace.
Every moment spent on it has been worth the experience.
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Here's a video of the walk-through.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZnHqmmaz0ec
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A heart-felt thanks!
To everyone who walked through the mural and felt it.
To Parmesh Shahani, Avanti, Dianne, Rushva from India Culture Lab team for providing the space and the opportunity.
To Shailesh Deshpande for the numerous lunches and the chats at the venue that kept me going (+ the ladder too)
To the media who covered India's largest 3D mural
To Chinmay, Rashida, Arush, Shikha and my friends of Godrej and outside, who kept visiting, discussing and ensuring that the energy levels were up.
To Shindeji and team, who got the place cleaned up for me, without any official talk
To the facilities team for taking off the honey comb and saving me probable bites
Apologies to the honey bees : Sorry, I was just not able to communicate and resolve it :(
To Rashid, who helped put up the roof, transited for being my man-friday
To Kanhaiyyaji and Dhaba team, for amazing omelet paos and lemon-grass chai, round the clock
To AJS printers for getting the acrylic plate engraved as per my specs in like two hours.
To all the paint companies - who make really good enamel paint.
To Daddy who helped me put up the plate
To Aai who wrote to a lot of people.
To my family, who tolerated my tantrums and drained out evenings
To Rucha Inamdar for pushing me to do the roof, helping me out with it and for the amazing photographs : the mural wouldn't have happened without you.
