Black Fever II - Live Performance - Lagos, Nigeria.

From the Series of Cry from the Dark - Ejigbo, Lagos, December 27th 2013.

This was last performance for the year 2013 on 27th December done in Ejigbo ,Lagos, Nigeria. This was one more performance done on issue of rape crime on women in respect to socio-cultural situation in Lagos especially in Ejigbo area. The core concept was already worked out but I was also improvising to bring in cultural element of Yoruba culture and wanted to do Intervention with local community.

Day before the performance I went for survey of area to fix an ideal spot for my performance in Ejigbo and also to know more about Yoruba culture and intermingle with local in one of discussion with community members one of the member came with outburst of news the leak in YouTube video of local women tortured in Ejigbo it was about how police official handled the situation it was about how one local women was tortured by inserting spices in her private part because she happen to do small crime of stealing small amount of spice in market. This was shocking news and issue of concern so then my thought melt down to same thoughts of justice and humanity and respect to women the issues of rapes violence against women there seems to be no stop for crimes, I made my mind to perform to bring this concern this time I used local traditional hair dress 'Gele' to represent the mass Yoruba girls along with their name written on my face. I asked the local ladies to tie this head dress in public.

Very openly and generously they collaborated in tie headdress on my head and it become spontaneous collaboration with them also some of women also reading out the names as they were written on my face. After thoroughly studying the area I had chosen my spot in one corner where four road meet and where people catch local yellow cabs and it is busy with heavy traffic. The performance was a durational performance went for an hour where I interacted with local people of Yoruba community with audio. I used audio which were circulated through multiple ear phones to my audience and one to one interaction with my audience. The local community very well received my performance and seriously listening to the audio and I had one to one interaction with lots of women, men’s and local people and explained then about my concern many on the main road stopped by to know more about the Performance.

Dimple B Shah
2013

I am - Live Performance, Lagos, Nigeria.

From the Series of Cry from the Dark - UPDC Lekki Estate, Lagos Nigeria, Dec 19th 2013

In recent performance which was done as part of Afiriperfoma International residency in Lagos, Nigeria. The first performance was done in NKEM Gallery in UPDC Lekki Estate in Lagos on 19th December 2013, which was also part of international symposium on Contemporary Performance Art. This work again an extension of my work from Black fever performed in Delhi the national capital.

This performance was done keeping in social and cultural aspect of Nigerian especially in focus to Yoruba culture in mind. This was done with intervention by Nigerian artist who wrote Yoruba names of girls on my face. Visually In this performance I used small baby frock which were stamped with impression of female uterus image on them and with each shout of ' I am…' one name of Yoruba girl was added to my face which marked existence of birth /death and rape crime of each girl every minute in Nigerian scenario overall global scenario. 

In recent statistical report done on rape crime in India it was found that every 20 minute a rape crime happen so we consider in global scenario it might be every minute or even second such crime are inflicted on women. 

This highly alarming rate in which crime happens and it is issue of great concern and also after such crime happen how much is justice done to victims how many criminal are punished and how much a society learn from this what kind of justice is done ? 

What happens to these victims later whether they get respect and dignity in society there are so many such issue which I want my audience to think about. What about their identity and these names punch marks their 'Existence' and which they have to regain their dignity and identity in society.

Dimple B Shah 

2013

Time Immemorial -1st Aifriperform International Residency 14th -31 December 2013

The Black Fever - Live Performance in Delhi

This performance was about the darker shade of society. We are constantly bombarded with socio- political and religious issues in India. Every day we are bombarded with news of rape crime and even now when I am writing this the new rape case shown in News and might be even when I am performing some rape might be happening in any corner of our country every minute.  Every day we are left with feeling of helplessness with situation this news keep on circulating in one form or other form and we feel entangled with such unpleasant and insecure life with no hope for any good future.

Visually I wore black mourning dress with face covered with see through black mirrors that reflects audience face; simultaneously I could see audience, though audience could only see their reflection in Black. I have chosen black costume, to mourn, to show dark feeling and wound which has grown like black patch/reflection of society. I had conceived this idea keeping in mind the capital city New Delhi, since the news of Nirbhaiya, there had been no change in social security of women and especially girls and we have been seeing only an alarming amount of crime rates day by day in the villages, town and major cities in India. I really don’t understand why there is such a rise in such crimes may be  because those who  break laws and who does the crime  don’t have any more fear to be caught and punished, may be also due to decrease in moral values and respect to women or should we blame Bollywood items number and vulgar songs for this? We need to question and also seek out for answers about like what kind of mind set of people in the society is? Why women are not secure in India?  Once known for its moral and ethical values. 

The performance was done in highly populated area with migrated population from villages around and African population in Khirkee Village, Delhi and I used multiple audio receivers to interact with people in public space. The attempt was to bombard news to my audience just like News channels to a level of intolerance, to make them react and become sensitive towards issues of security and respect to women and voice their concern, rather than being passive to situations, I wanted my audience to react and become sensitive to issues rather than neglecting it as it has become a common news.

This performance was well received by people, some with very strange reaction they wanted me to pay to hear the audio and some seriously indulging in issue and inquiring whether I am activist or social worker etc., there were some more strange reaction since one audio was to calm them but they thought it was Bollywood music and tried to find out what song it was about.

Dimple B Shah

2013

Karmic Connections I

Performance at National Gallery Of Modern Art, Bangalore.

As per Jain philosophy, I strongly believe in Karmic Connections. We come across many people in our life, good or bad, because we may have earlier connections with them.

This performance was about how we connect our self to others. I wanted my audience to see themselves in me, by interacting with me one to one in a time and space. 

Although my audience come from different origin, roots, environment, space and experience. During the performance we are going to experience a moment of time and space together and I  used few objects as my tool to look into the past, present and future. In this moment we are building our bonds and we will all recollect our memories of the past and will look towards the future. In this performance my audience or my fellow performer will not see my face but they will see their reflections (in multiples) on to the small mirrors tied around my face, thereby encounter me in multiple perspectives and connecting with me by seeing themselves in me. It in general understands that, what we are, we see in other people. Most of the time we don’t understand opposite person properly due to our own preconceived ideas and understanding, so sometimes we arrive at positive and sometime negative emotions, hence it might block our real understanding of the person.

In general human tendency is that most of the time we assume and sometime undermine and block our way to really connect with people, It is human nature to like and love our self all the time, visually my attempt will be to show their own multiple faces instead of mine so that they might connect with me.  In this performance I tried to make connection with my audience through object of memories and they are my personal objects which are placed in front of the audience and through that they will try to see me.

Dimple B Shah
2013

Performance, National Gallery Of Modern Art, as part of ACT (Artists Create Together), Co-curated by Lina Vincent & Seema Kohli, Photo Credit Lina Vincent, Bangalore, India.

'Road to Thousand Lights' - Performance at Rangoli Art Center, M.G. Road, Boulevard, Bangalore.

Ever since we crawled out of that primordial slime, that's been our unifying cry, "More light." Sunlight. Torchlight. Candlelight. Neon, incandescent lights that banish the darkness from our caves to illuminate our roads, the insides of our refrigerators. Big floods for the night games at Soldier's Field. Little tiny flashlights for those books we read under the covers when we're supposed to be asleep. Light is more than watts and footcandles. Light is metaphor. Light is knowledge, light is life, and light is light. 

~Diane Frolov and Andrew Schneider

'Road to Thousand Lights' is my second project for Live Art Lab which was based on concept of RE COLLECTION and RE P(L)AY of changes in city and especially in MG Boulevard, Bangalore which is transformed into new Space. Rangoli Art Center being a place for cultural exchanges so I thought the subject will be apt for the performance.

Through this work, I wanted to reconnect and reestablish relationship with old traditional Bangalore with the new grown city. Relooking the old historical roads of Bangalore which are transformed with a new look. The new cosmopolitan Bangalore is recognized with IT industries with hustling and bustling night life, meeting the worlds demand, the city has got new status as Silicon city from Garden city with flashing night lights. There city has undergone tremendous change in last decade with long flyovers cutting across the city and accommodating traffic. The city of Bangalore is slowly and gradually losing its charm and becoming like any other metro city of concrete land, where people hardly get the time to think about what they actual need and what they need to see. The people have blinded by more demands of modern lifestyle, the flashy glaring lights, thereby more and more distancing themselves from themselves. In this performance work I wanted to bring this very same message where they see old Bangalore but in the shadow of new light a mix of old and new together.

I was wearing a traditional hair plaits with flowers (Maggie na jade) replaced by light representing the new development in Bangalore the growth of IT industries, Companies burning their night lamps and city replaced with jazzy lights (electronic bill board night light).

The light has more Philosophical and psychological relevance for our life. We have seen people having suicidal tendency when they don’t see much light in their life the light in not in literal sense but more in spiritual context and connected to broader sense of life, having thousands of metaphoric connotations.

As we are progressing to new age of high tech life style people usual distance to real connection to themselves running behind meeting deadlines making money accumulating things. I also wanted my audience to see light beyond light the more inner meaning and metaphors of lights I felt a need of a hour as we are growing we are distancing ourselves from seeing inner and true meaning of light. In my performance I distributed light stick and light toys and postcard as souvenir to remember light, not miss the real meaning of light this was given in exchange of dialogue and seeking answer to question what is light for them.

Dimple B Shah, 2013

Soul Purpose -Channel 6

Sheet Happen -Time Out Bangalore

One Monday last month, as the city slipped into the bustling rhythms of the morning, Dimple Shah began supervising the unloading of 15 boxes from a truck that had driven up to Gallery Sumukha. She was just emerging from about with conjunctivitis, which she contracted before undertaking a train journey to the city from Baroda– but with a tight schedule leading up to the opening of her latest show Catharsis in a Forbidden Zone, Shah couldn't afford to let physical discomfort derail her work.

Over the next few days the artist had the formidable job of unpacking 400 kgs of material and getting her show ready. Possibly the most daunting task – setting up the extraordinary piece titled “Catharsis Chamber” – a shower cubicle that she designed, surrounded by PVC curtains and shelves made of acrylic sheets. Once the basic structure of the cubicle was ready, Shah would have to line the shelves with 1,800 medicine bottles, each one filled with either ash, salt, hair or nail clippings, to create a room for a viewer to enter, a space permeated with a sense of privacy and almost ritualistic calm.

“I initially wanted to use pieces of my own nails for the work,” said Shah, who, while talking about her work, veers between earnestness and giggly delight (the former, in this case). “I started collecting clippings two years ago.” Does that mean she’s been planning the details of this show for the last two years? “No,” she clarified. “I just have a habit of collecting things which I might decide to use. I would have used my own clippings, but in a few days I found that they had started attracting ants, so I threw them away. I don’t know why ants were interested in my nails. Maybe the ants inBaroda[where Shah studied, at the Maharaja Sayajirao University] are a little mad.”

The clippings that finally became a part of the show were artificial, procured by Shah after scouring dozens of beauty shops. But there was a problem. “They looked terrible, too artificial and white. My friend and I sat and painted each individual clipping so that it looked a little more natural.” What about the hair in the other bottles? “That’s my hair,” said Shah. “I collected it over two years.”

The sense of theatricality in Shah’s installation work is perhaps explained by the fact that, for many years, she’s had a parallel interest in performance art. Through her training inBaroda, she held performance art shows in which she herself featured, often rendered unrecognisable by blotches of paint. And over the years, photographs of these performances showed up in Shah’s print works and paintings, along with other traces of herself – an image of an eye, a hand print, a diary entry.

“You might enjoy this,” said Shah, momentarily distracted in the middle of going over slides of her work, and flipping open a notebook crammed with preparatory notes and sketches.

A glance through its pages suggested an almost obsessive bent of mind. Reams of notes about psychoanalytic concepts jostle for space with conceptual diagrams, such as the ones of imaginary scientific apparati that Shah ended up fabricating out of copper for Forbidden Zone.

In creating these apparati, and, indeed, in all her explorations into the show’s central theme of alchemy, Shah seems to be responding to a need to explain the inexplicable, and to organise the chaotic storm of ideas that rage through her mind. And while some of her earlier works can bewilder the viewer just because of the sheer number of elements used, in newer works like “Catharsis Chamber” these impulses are expressed simply, with an immediate and undeniable power.

Showing off the sketch of a piece of apparatus, which didn’t make it to the final show, Shah said it was a challenge to get vendors to carry out her orders. “They go crazy when I show them what I want done,” she said. “They’re used to normal orders. I have to spend days with them. They eat my head, and I eat their heads.”

These tedious transactions more than exhausted her, Shah admitted. “Every single work seems to take a toll on my body,” she said, gesturing towards the example of her infected eye. Then, a smile appearing, and her tone growing kinder, “But it doesn’t matter. After all, art is about hard work.”

Ajay Krishnan
Time Out Bangalore
October 01 2010 7.14am

To cleanse from within

Dimple B Shah gives an expression to catharsis through Paintings, Installations and Sculptures

Dimple Shah with her paintings. Photo: Sangeetha Devi Dundoo, The Hindu.

The first installation that greets visitors at Kalakriti Art Gallery is a shower chamber, which Dimple B Shah calls the ‘Katharsis Chamber’. The curtains of the shower place bear psychological theories of Carl Rogers, the process of Calcination and the glass walls of the chamber are lined with rows of tiny bottles. Nothing is here for ornamentation of by accident, says the artist. The bottles are filled with shreds of hair, nails and ash. An recorded audio completes the picture providing the sound of water streaming in.

‘Kartharsis in Forbidden Zones’ is an exhibition of installations, paintings and sculptures that communicate Dimple’s ideas. It took her three and a half years to complete this series, she tells us. “The installations took time. Once I worked on the concept and made detailed sketches, I took help of carpenters and technicians who cut acrylic sheets, wooden and iron planks. I scouted junk shops and found a 100-year-old shop selling old bottles and sourced these for the installation. For another installation, I needed wheels of a cart and after much trial and error, I travelled to Baroda to find the kind of wheels I was looking for,” she says. 

Dimple’s paintings reflect her study of metals, their properties and their effect on our lives. While studying art in Glasgow, she researched on Jain philosophy and imagery. “I came across a book on metals, alchemy and equated what I read to the seven basic planets in astrology and the seven chakras described in yoga. I learnt about lead and it’s correlation to Saturn. I read that nail samples of criminals have an increased lead content in them. I also came to know that women have more traces of copper in them. It was fascinating as I dug deeper into metals and the way they affect us,” she explains. In one of her paintings, Dimple uses a chameleon to represent the changing state of mercury. A glass jar with a sample of the metal corresponding to her paintings and a page from her workbook, detailing her paintings and installation are there for the audience to correlate and introspect.

Dimple completes her work through a performance. She’s been supplementing her work with a performance since her college days in 2001. Her performance has no dialogues, doesn't fall strictly into the realms of theater though Dimple has studied theater. For an earlier exhibition titled Saffron Borders, she gave vent to people’s fear psychosis in the aftermath of the Godhra riots by encircling herself with a ring of fire and reacting to it. “This is the way I connect with people through a visual medium of Painting, Sculpture, Installation of expressing my thoughts by way of performance,” she says. 

What’s interesting is this artist did her bachelors in commerce before shifting gears to fine arts. “After B. Com I realized I was truly interested in arts and did a five-year bachelor course in visual arts, followed by masters in M.S University, Baroda and one year in Glasgow,” she smiles. As a parting shot, she admits installations don’t come cheap. “I am yet to sell any of  them. But I don’t think of returns when I work on an idea,” she says.

Sangeetha Devi Dundoo,

The Hindu, Hyderabad, March 8, 2013

"Kartharsis in Forbidden Zones" an exhibition of Paintings, Illustrations, Prints & Sculpture 

is on at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad till March 13.

‘Katharsis in Forbidden Zones’ by Dimple B Shah

KATHARSIS IN FORBIDDEN ZONES

Paintings, Sculptures, Installation & Performance by DIMPLE B SHAH

(Part of Women’s March 2013)

Preview: Wednesday, 6th March at 6.30 pm

Venue: Kalakriti Art Gallery, Hyderabad

http://hyderabad.afindia.org/katharsis-in-forbidden-zones-by-dimple-shah/

Alliance Française of Hyderabad and Kalakriti Art Gallery, in association with AGS Four Winds

and Pitars invites you to the opening of ‘Katharsis in Forbidden Zones’, a solo show by Dimple B

Shah.

Purification and healing process in various mediums is the base in Dimple B Shah’s solo show

‘Katharsis in Forbidden Zones’. The idea is to bring the effect of these elements and by studying

them in various aspects like psychological, sociological, ecological and philosophical ways to

understand society and self. Her performances deal with social issues in a theatrical expression,

along with a video installation.

The works in this exhibition represent, epitomise and evoke various alchemical substances to

suggest a precise examination of their properties, the laboratory paraphernalia alluding to

different stages of purification and transformation, while a host of more or less ordinary objects

link the findings of the quasi-science and modern scholarship with the character of our reality,

human imperfections or impurities as well as hope and ideals. The large canvases deal with

the basic classical metals of alchemy in a manner that binds them with and lets them disclose

rudimentary qualities of the human disposition. The artist begins from a position of neutral

objectivity and in the centre of the paintings places a researcher’s table whose frontal position in

vanishing point perspective seems to display it clearly to the viewer. The table covered by white

cloth introduces the sense of an old-fashioned study but with a tinge of domestic interior. The

vessels for chemical experiments and a profusion of other objects demonstrate their nature and

connections at various planes. With the help of the titles one can grasp some of the content,

whereas, indeed, like in the obscure science of alchemy, the specific, often complex relationships

between motifs necessitate detailed elucidation. On longer scrutiny, the objects arranged so

as to indicate their condition begin to stir responding to one another. As one recalls the words

denoting energy, flow and spirit that recur in Dimple’s drawings, the items on the table top

which usually include devices that heat substances contained in glass retorts appear to enact

self-presentation and transformation, like performers explaining themselves to the attentive

audience. The sense of a nearly theatrical scene is enhanced by the large format of the paintings

that invite an immediate, static focus from the spectator. The precise, sparing realism of the

rendering here aims at lucid objectivity, and yet an imperceptive mood of enigmatic, fragile

transmutation emerges with the glossy translucence of the glass tubes, beaked containers,

smooth bowls and globes, etc. The atmosphere gains an eerie note spreading into the saturated,

murky backgrounds that conjure an endless landscape engulfing the sky merged with the ground

over an expanse of flatness and indistinct depth, its darkness not relieved by the tonalities of

ominous, muted radiance conjuring a somewhat surrealistic impact. The intuition of the real and

the subconscious blends then, as a home interior contrasts as well as blends with the external

space indicative of its cosmic dimensions, the artist considering her theme at the same time on

the micro and macro scale, at the personal and social or all-encompassing levels.

Extract from Ms. Marta Jakimowicz’s essay for Dimple B Shah’s solo show ‘Katharsis in a

forbidden zones’ at Gallery Sumukha in 2010.

About the Artist

Dimple B Shah obtained her Diploma in Painting from KEN School of Arts, Bangalore in 1998,

and Post Diploma in Printmaking from the Faculty of Fine Arts MS University of Baroda in 2001.

In the year 2006 Dimple went to Glasgow Print studio to get further training in Printmaking,

Glasgow, UK. Dimple was awarded the First Gold Prix in 7th Engraving Biennale, Versailles,

France in 2009, and National award from Lalit Kala Academy, Chandigarh. She was also awarded

the Commonwealth Arts & Crafts Award, UK in 2005, and Junior Research Fellowship by

Department of Culture, Government of India during 2000-2002.

Dimple, in the very beginning of her art practice, went on to experiment on variety of

media. Her works comprises of Painting, Printmaking, Sculptures, Installations, Video and

Performance Art. Her recent performance include ‘RIP (Rest in Peace)’, Sethu Sundaram

Project, Bangalore; ‘Dual Paradox’, Rasa Art Gallery, Bangalore; ‘Milk, Melancholy and Me’,

Venkatappa Art Gallery, Bangalore, and, ‘One in Hundred years’, NGMA, Mumbai.

Dimple’s solo works has been showcased at Gallery Sumukha, Bangalore; Gallery III, Glasgow

Print Studio, Glasgow, Scotland; Central Park, Bangalore, and Gallery Akkruti, Bangalore. Apart

from these her works were featured in several group exhibitions, includes, ‘Cross Border

Constellations’, Theertha, IAC, Srilanka; 1st United Art Fair, New Delhi; National Awardees show,

Central Lalit Kala Academy, Bhubaneswar; 7th Engraving Biennale, Versailles, France; ‘Present

and Future, NGMA, Mumbai, to name a few.

On view until 13 March 2013, 11am -7pm

Opening on Wed, 6th March at 6.30pm till 13th March at Kalakriti Art Gallery, Open to all

Post Oil City And Bangalore Gardens Reloaded

Connecting Ideas - Marta Jakimowicz, Feb 3, 2013, DHNS

The dual exhibition “Post-Oil City: The History of the City’s Future” and “Bangalore Gardens Reloaded” was a very interesting event which strove to interactively connect ideas about the metropolitan past and its environmentally relevant solutions for later as well as the often similarly anchored, innovative efforts and inquiry among architects or urban planners and scientists with those of visual artists.

The event enabled by the Institute for Foreign Cultural Relations, Stuttgart in co-operation with ARCH+ and the Max Mueller Bhavan here was part of the German curator Elke Falat’s project to be realised in different countries and continents. It had three parts that evidently and not so evidently added to one another and framed one another. 

The main element that remains the same in diverse locations belongs to the precise charts and drawings presenting innovative, ecology-friendly plans for city buildings, waste managements, transport and such. The several cases for study were brought to the Visvesvaraya Museum (January 18 to February 3) and shown in such a way together with the art works by Bangalore artists as to nearly mingle with the venue’s own scientific display, thus underscoring the linkages of purpose and method behind all the participating agents.  

The artists were asked to “critically react to Post-Oil City in the local context, to develop utopias and question them” considering the recent boom growth of the city that has altered its garden-like character. One may suspect that there perhaps was not enough time for sustained work on the ambitious aim, since the new contributions addressing it directly were infrequent, most addressing the contemporary city phenomenon either in a broader manner relating to a diversity of angles or sourcing from already available work in an akin manner. 

Although the whole was rich and included a number of really good concepts and their visual expressions, the level was not exactly even. Another problem may have been one regarding the accessibility of intended meaning when presented in a public, educatory space. The main hall lined up by cases with urban plans seemed to be held together by its focus on the vast floor installation by Sunoj D, whose multi-seed balls with planting instructions evoked both unnatural farming conditions and a longing to overcome those.

While Ayisha Abraham’s video collage of old home movies conjured a sense of dynamic, vivacious history informing the present and Suresh Jayaram’s quilt hanging paid an emotional homage to the once green city, many artists dealt with difficult issues of Bangalore metamorphosing beyond its capacity. If on a somewhat literal note, Bhavani G D offered a video documentation of lakes depleted of water and Raghu Kondur depicted the dangers of construction labour, Suresh Kumar G resorted to a personal gesture filling an enclosure for vermin-compost with plastic trash. 

Among the best contributions one found Dimple B Shah’s noisy, hard and threatening cubicle of urban claustrophobia and Surekha’s Ragi crop growing from a field of discarded computer keyboards, besides the nostalgic lament for the absence of sparrows by Mangala Anebermath. Two exceptional works delved into subtler but significant changes in the occurring: one being the multimedia installation by Bharathesh G D attuning itself to the emergent connections between people and city grids, objects and materials, the other the text-based questioning of mutating relationships between contrasting notions by Prayas Abhinav. Thinking about the shape of the future, a calamitous outcome was foreseen by a gas-masked Madhu D in his performance photograph against felled trees. Nandesh Shanthi Prakash, nonetheless, chose an optimistic prospect of canvassing for alternative energy in his bicycle-born distribution of bright toy windmills. 

BANGALORE GARDENS RELOADED

No Space To Escape -"TO BE OR NOT TO BE"

As the city growing bigger and bigger everyday and more and more people migrating from various parts of the country and making Bangalore as their home. This constant inflow is leading to a very different transition of development that the city is experiencing leaving the city in a chaotic, claustrophobic and suffocating space. Argument can be good development or a bad development but fact remains that the city has changed drastically and slowly becoming the city like others without any identity except being just a concrete habitat. The cityscape of Bangalore has changed to accommodate flyovers, buildings, roads and metro etc. slowly and rapidly replacing greenery with concrete.

This installation work basically evoke the feeling of helplessness of situation ambushed, suddenly attacked like situation where no space to escape and exit (a trap). In this work the audience will be forced to confront the situation which they normally do it in everyday life subconsciously, but here they will consciously face it directly, there by alerting there mind to counter the question and seek for answers.Visually this work is in form of concrete box, inside the box there will be 360 degree view of existing city they live in, which is with cement and other material. the work  bring in main essential characteristic of city in minimal form. The experience within the box (claustrophobic and suffocating space leaving no space to breath) represent the psychological situation of mind the mental space.

Over powering of concrete and its inevitable super imposed presence in our daily life which is symbolically represents mans thought and body slowly turning into concrete form with no space for nature and not being in touch with ourselves. 

The installation is  memorabilia of the changing phase. The smell of concrete initially will attract the audience hiding danger ahead. This work is a presentation of the dilemma - Development (a distortion) – Good, Bad or Necessary. My idea is to bring the attention where we really need to look and what we really need to think about? This work provokes us to question ourselves where we are leading to? Is this road leading to Utopian land or land where there is no space to live?

Dimple B Shah 2013