Building an Art Block

Construction material such as pipes and whole scaffolds arent traditionally objects that are associated with art.

Construction material such as pipes and whole scaffolds arent traditionally objects that are associated with art. But in artist Avantika Bawas work,drawing,sculpture and architecture subtly come together,using a variety of materials from cardboard boxes to car lifts and ladders. Her latest solo show,titled Another Documentation and currently on at Mumbais Gallery Maskara,for instance,uses a gigantic 24-foot tall bright orange scaffold and a number of workhorses,among other things.

In previous exhibitions,the New Delhi-born,Vancouver-based artist has used car lifts to construct a show in a gallery in Seattle that was once a motor workshop and cardboard boxes at Gallery Maskara,which was once a warehouse. The idea,she says,is often to just respond to the gallery space and construct works accordingly,making each work site-specific. So while Another Documentation doesnt particularly reflect that the Colaba gallery was once a warehouse,the massive scaffold is most certainly a reaction to the gallery space with its unusually tall ceiling (which,at its highest point,stands at 45 feet).

Resembling a much larger version of the jungle gyms in schools and play areas for children,this scaffold is to give the show a local,Mumbai element the same scaffold the gallery uses for its construction work. The reason it has been painted orange,however,goes much beyond the fact that the colour is bright and attractive. Orange is the colour of caution,but also the colour of certain Disney characters,intended to give the work a sense of seriousness and play, says Bawa.

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In various places on this scaffold,Bawa has placed a number of black rods and square blocks,the scaffold and these pieces together forming the complete work. The 1973-born artist rather interestingly draws an analogy between this work and grammar. The orange scaffold in itself is like the text without punctuation,but the black pieces form the punctuation, she says. The pipes could be any punctuation,but the square blocks she sees as being full stops or pauses.

The show also features a group of photographs that come together from putting two separate parts of the show together the raw drawings and the scaffolds. The drawings that Bawa describes as not literal blueprints,but more reactional architectural drawings were placed on the workhorses,which she placed at construction sites in Delhi,Greater Noida and Mumbai,and photographed them.

Another interesting point to note is the architectural alteration in the gallery itself. Formerly just one large room,the gallery now has a wall towards the back,separating a large portion in the front as one enters from a smaller space at the farther end of the gallery. This space will be used to display work that may not get displayed otherwise by artists the gallery represents. But for now,it contains roofing material that fascinatingly almost becomes a part of Bawas show by virtue of the entire show being made from construction material. By subtly connecting the raw materials that lie in the smaller part of the gallery to her show,she says its as though shes deconstructing from a complete art work,back to the raw materials again.

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Building an Art Block

Construction material such as pipes and whole scaffolds arent traditionally objects that are associated with art.

Construction material such as pipes and whole scaffolds arent traditionally objects that are associated with art.