On the dusty trail

When artist M Pravatrsquos 8foottall metalframed concrete panels arrived at Punersquos Vida Heydari Contemporary in the beginning of March no one expected his works Movement in Stillness to reside there for three months But the exhibition has now been extended till May end owing to the lockdownThe twin works made of fired bricks have created quite a sensation in the galleryrsquos Koregaon Park neighbourhood Bystanders gathered to see the 25 offloaders lugging the 1000 kg frames Visual art practitioners and patrons in other cities also became privy to the moment after a hoisting video floated in the online space The cutmarked bricks have reminded viewers of the basic raw material in our surrounding environmentCelestial BodiesWhile the gigantic frames resemble an excavation site from an aerial angle they also evoke associations with a bricklaying Lego As Mumbaibased curator Jesal Thacker puts it Pravatrsquos bricks are not just aweevoking building material but they are opentointerpretation poetic devicesldquoThe artist sees disorder in the cities and townships he senses the dust rising from a hectic construction spree But he doesnrsquot just showcase the disorder Pravatalso creates a semblance of an order by juxtaposing materials and narrativesrdquoTerrestrial BodiesBricks essential to Pravatrsquos practice since he postgraduated from MS University Baroda in 2005 gel well with other elements used in the 35odd works accompanying Movement in Stillness which are part of the exhibition in Pune titled Fugitive Dust Curator Sabih Ahmed who lives in Dubai deserves special kudos for seizing the essence of Pravatrsquos oeuvre in a powerful construct of the fleeting transitory and yet omnipresent dustDust equates all urbanscapesmdashbe it the dust in Punersquos newest art gallery that follows social distancing norms the artistrsquos studio shed in South Delhirsquos Rajpur Khurd or this columnistrsquos Mahim residence where new housing towers and renovation projects add a seenunseen coat found on laptop screens book shelves photo frames you name itEntropyFugitive Dust showcases the dustladen ecosystem that we have jointly created and which we collectively complain about Pravat uses cut slate wood paper cement granite pigment along with marked bricks to create sculptural installations paintings drawings collage works and prints For instance the Entropy and CelestialTerrestrial Bodies seriesmdashmixed media on Hahnemuhle Acidfree papermdashpoint towards unrecognisable annotations and smudged records symbolic of the changing metamorphised cities and suburbs of India The circular forms contain a zig zag slippery path to reality Pravatrsquos thoughts on urban expansion find expression in Settlement and Perforated Earth or Granular Structures ldquoNot just Delhi but most cities seem to stretch its metropolitan borders eating into the adjacent grasslands salt pans and forest reserves The unauthorised structures are also worrying I see so many of them when I walk through the bylanes in the Chhatarpur vicinity where I have been living for a while nowrdquoPravat feels the new cities form a unique morphology of elements that encompass colonial city plans premodern architecture and temporary settlements and slums which aid new townships His earlier exhibitionsmdashin metros like Dubai New York Delhi Mumbai and Seoulmdashcapture the fluidity and movement in built environments For example in the 2008 show at Art Musings Colaba he concentrated on lavish interiors Titled Late Again the plush upholstered superfurnished spaces etched with oil on canvas trigger thoughts on the absent humans The Diagram of Unformed Desires series seen in Pune as well as Dubai are diptychs with a distinct materiality Similarly his New York exhibition From Today I Have No Future wore the trappings of architectural maps sans its measurement mathM Pravatrsquos wall installations Movement in Stillness is part of Fugitive Dust at Vida Heydari Contemporary Pune The exhibition showcases the dustladen ecosystem we have jointly created and which we collectively complain aboutHis tryst with materials specifically dust started in a crowded urban Kolkata As a selftaught artist a reluctant graduate he internalised the cacophony of potato sellers competing with screeching buses in Salt Lake and Fulbagan Later when he moved to Baroda as a Fine Arts student noise and dust took a backseat Learning and unlearning followed at a slower pace He met artists and faculty from all over India later one fellow student a sculptor named Vinima Gulati hailing from Chandigarh became his life partner Post 2006 both chose to settle down in a suburb of South Delhi a city characterised by dust storms in the summer which their school going daughter has also accepted Pravatrsquos studio setting resembles a masonrsquos warehouse thriving on abundant stacks of nails cement slate and of course bricks and a team of carpenters who assist the creative processPravat says dust is memory because it holds the past Interestingly his theory is echoed by a bilingual online literary journal named Hakara which has called for contributions on the role of ldquodustrdquo in shaping human understanding of history and culture Is dust a mere witness to the transformation process around us ask the editors They have also asked a powerrelated equationmdashis the weaker section of society treated as dust by the dominant side Answers are awaitedMore than the exhibition the conversation around dust has popularised Pravatrsquos trajectory It has invited varied viewers in which one is particularly quotable Ghashiram Kotwal fame actorpsychiatrist Dr Mohan Agashe feels Fugitive Dust seems just unexplained materials if viewed without the context But if seen through the prism of the changes in our neighbourhood there is so much to dustSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikarmiddaycom