Forgotten isles of scrap

Ahead of his exhibition, artist Viraag Desai talks about re-imagining the city through artworks that make use of waste material found from Curry Road to Mahim

We live in an era where rights no longer belong to men, women, kings or labour unions, but rather to those who lie at the intersection of these social axes. In others words, the world is largely being viewed as a culmination of all the things that comprise it rather than a synthesis between them. God knows, if Marx read this, he'd probably unfriend us on Facebook, but then again, perhaps we'd never even be friends. The point is, it would be naive to look at art as something that is dissociated from history and politics.

Exploring this confluence of disciplines is Mumbai-based artist and set designer Viraag Desai, originally from Kolkata. Currently, Desai is working on a series at the ongoing Piramal Art Residency, titled Re-imagining Mumbai. In its 16th cycle, the residency has invited artists to — like the name suggests — re-imagine the city. And for Desai, an idea which germinated within the cold walls of his studio in a crumbling Parsi-owned building in Parel, has taken an adventurous course at the residency.

Starting from scrap

"I attended the Venice Biennale earlier this year, where I discovered American artist Mark Bradford, who is the master of using remnants of paper. I was really taken in by his work," Desai shares, talking about the use of scrap in his current series. He has been collecting printed matter by ripping off movie posters, adverts and propaganda from walls of Curry Road station and Ambedkar Road. From off-sites in Mazagaon and Mahim, he collected small business advertisements and then sanded and treated them to create abstract pieces. Scaling it up at the residency, he is creating five of the seven original islands of Mumbai surrounded by many layers of illustrations sunk in resin to give the illusion of water, and to highlight the forgotten histories of those regions.

No art without history

The artwork on Parel island. Pics/Sameer Markande

Take his piece on Parel for example — a water body depicts the island's history, and a shapeless face staring out of nowhere is a reference to the vague mentions of a king who ruled before Portuguese invasion. "During the Portuguese occupation of this island, the Parali Mahadev temple was replaced by a Jesuit church and convent. This is represented by a temple rained upon by a storm of crosses," Desai elaborates. His work also touches upon historical ruptures such as the expansion of the cotton industry and exploitation of Indian farmers, and land reclamation in the mid-17th century during the British rule, which destroyed the indigenous fishing industries. And a smaller piece on Worli, which appears to be floating, is a note on the oppression of the Koli fishermen who were forcibly made to convert to Christianity.

Artwork on Worli

The symbolisms are galore, but why did Desai choose to move to industrial and print scrap? "Earlier, I concentrated more on rendering reality, which is what most painters do. We use rarefied material and then re-imagine what we see in front of us using high-brow material available at art stores. But with this project, I wanted to bring a sense of order and meaning to the visual cacophony in Mumbai and show people that the overstimulation, ugliness and garishness can be imbibed instead of creating virtual worlds to escape to," he elucidates.

But Desai's work is not just a narrative on Mumbai's past. It is also a reflection of the city's present.
"I stumbled upon a lot of B-grade film posters and political propaganda in Parel, obviously because the presence of the ruling party is stronger there. South Bombay had more adverts, mainstream Bollywood posters, etc. So, the more upscale the locality, the posher the pamphlets and posters got, and the lower down the socio-economic rung I went, I found kitschy posters and adverts for jobs, massages, and sex therapists," he reveals.

In other words, the kind of waste available in different parts of the city was a direct indicator of its ethos, which is now on a canvas for us to reflect on.

Fact check
The seven original islands of Bombay were Bombay, Colaba, Little Colaba (Old Woman's Island), Mazagaon, Mahim, Parel, and Worli

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