Studio 5: Structures of Memory

Studio 5: Structures of memory 

The artworks in this studio function as maps of the mind, where architecture, geometry, and grids transcend their utilitarian precision to become vessels of memory and emotion. Often seen as tools of structure and control, these diagrammatic forms are reimagined as poetic blueprints of belonging, displacement, and remembrance. Through abstraction and symmetry, the artists distort the rigidity of maps and layouts, transforming them into living terrains where nostalgia, history, and time intersect in quiet reflection and reinvention.

The Promise of the Metropolis - II explores the tensions between rural and urban life in India, particularly around land use and development. Sunoj D examines the emotional, economic, and cultural relationships people have with the land, revealing how nature and territory are differently understood and valued across contexts. Seher Shah’s etchings are studies of incomplete lines that lie somewhere in between architectural abstraction and music notations, reflecting on the fractures and poetics of how landscapes are perceived. By reworking elemental architectural forms, in the Unit Object series, such as the wall, column, grid, and plane, Seher creates evocative meditations on interior and exterior, object and landscape, and opacity and translucency. Priya Gaekwar employs abstract techniques to create intuitive and playful works, drawing inspiration from asemic writing and the gestural language of Cy Twombly. In her Paragraph series, she layers sequences of spontaneous, unintended gestures over time to produce a distinctive, evolving composition.

404 Error, Place of worship not found, and People in Prayer, from the Claiming Spaces series, are a reflection of societal fragmentation, exposing how religious and cultural discords shape responses of acceptance, rejection or ignorance. Distilled into an abstraction of elliptical patterns, Purvai Rai alludes to the precariousness of existing on the margins. Zarina’s minimalist works draw from her personal history, exploring themes of home, memory, and displacement through geometry and materiality. This diasporic trajectory is distilled in her work Delhi, from the series The Cities I Called Home, reflecting a longing for belonging and the impossibility of return.