Architect Bijoy Jain gets his hands into cow dung, lime plaster, basalt, ash, clay and banana fibre - not for a house - but for objects of art
Bactrian camel, made of imestone, lime and ash
When we call architect Bijoy Jain to talk about his new exhibition, Abhaya: In the Palm of our Hand, at Chemould Prescott Road, the conversation is peppered with long silences, as he tries to find the words to describe something that should be experienced. The materials he's used in the exhibition — cow dung, lime plaster, basalt, ash, clay and banana fibre — are those he uses every day in his practice.
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But, he says, he isn't alone to come in their contact. "A lot of these [materials] are available to all of us. What's important to me when it comes to materiality is that all of these require water, air and light. That's what we are also physically made of. That's our construct, and that's what makes us physical." He follows this philosophy in the structures he builds as well, for his homes are filled with water, air and light.
Bijoy Jain
The objects in the exhibition are a combination of large and small pieces: an eyeball called Bathsheba, after the biblical character who was lusted after by King David; a small Bactrian camel; a geometric drawing of a Chennai well, with two octagons placed within each other; a life-sized hut, and so on. "What I wanted to communicate was this idea about stillness," he says. "How you look at time in terms of distance." The objects span the length of human evolution. "The hope is that having entered and left [the exhibition], the way you perceive something changes in that moment."
Where: Chemould Prescott Road, Queens Mansion, Fort
When: December 4 to January 3
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