Shubha Taparia: Silhouette of an Unknown Landscape

29th September, 2018 - 19th April, 2019

This vast site-specific installation of light, shadow and sound continues Taparia’s longstanding engagement with everyday industrial materials and unveils the beauty in the mundane.

The installation, suspended six meters above the viewer, consists of a temporary scaffolding structure of tubes, boards, gates and ladders; lattice bracing, shipping pallets, gin-wheel rope and rubble netting; perforated aluminium and the branches of local trees. A single sheet of polyethylene shrink-wrap – traditionally used to conceal scaffold – encloses the composition, which inhabits a 28 x 10 m area in the rafters of the artist’s studio. Re-presented, these usually overlooked materials are raised both literally and conceptually within the work. Chosen for their individual aesthetic value and for the role they play in the visual melody, the elements form a single fictional landscape, illuminated from within.

Composing the installation much like a musical symphony, Taparia encourages the viewer to pause through visual harmonies, counterpoints, crescendos and moments of quiet. These arrangements promote a contemplative state, as do the viewer’s footsteps and whispers, which echo throughout the studio. With this aural intervention the viewer becomes part of the work, a presence that the artist documents with a sound recording.

As in past series, Taparia alters common perceptions and unearths awe in unseen places, creating an idealised realm charged with an evocative power.