Memphis Nagara

7 sets of 11 works each.

Solidified paints and acrylic paints on canford coloured card paper 300 gsm acid free paper.

Size: 8.3 x 11.7 inches each

Memphis Nagara refers to the Memphis Design movement of the early 80s while drawing from the informal urban architecture the artist observed in Bangalore during a residency at 1Shanthiroad, Bengaluru, in 2023. In Bangalore, the neighbourhoods called nagaras are dotted with low-rise houses, often built without architects. As a result, these structures he encountered characterised bold forms, irregular details, and strikingly vibrant colors.

Kulavoor notes that not every part of the built structures followed logic or function, that is otherwise ‘customary’ in modern design. Thus, these structures driven by personal choice rather than strict design logic, echoed the postmodern spirit of Memphis for the artist.

Kulavoor further attempts at linking back to Ettore Sottsass’s own encounters with Indian towns in the 1970s that prompted his work and subsequently giving rise to the movement. The series reflects on how architectural forms in the subcontinent embody a kind of postmodernism that emerges not as a reaction to modernism, but as a lived, intuitive way of shaping space.

 

 

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