Over the last three weeks, five artists, who have taken refuge at the Piramal Art Residency, a recently opened 30-acre space nestled in Thane, have been busy giving shape to their body of work, exploring the concept of binary. Hailing from different parts of the country, the artists-in-residence — Anni Kumari (Delhi), Gagan Mandal (Odisha), Anupam Saikia (Assam), Sachin Tekade (Maharashtra) and Anupama Alias (Kerala) — have created works using different mediums and methods.

Incidentally, the residency space included a pharmaceutical factory that was bull-dozed in the first week after artists came in to stay. This, too, had an impact on them and made way into many of the works. “Every aspect of our existence has binary inherent in its meaning. The artists have tried to explore it in their own context as well as in reference to the residency space. For instance, Anupam pulled out a wooden cupboard from the dumps and is painting over it, creating a binary between waste and useful. Gagan has found the whole space of the projected residential project to be an attraction and Sachin has explored the rich vegetation in the area,” informs Ashvin Rajagopalan, director, Pir-amal Art Foundation.