Text from the museum:
State Of Celebration marks the third stage in a decade-long exploration of mandap architecture, from Celebration Gates (2021) , which were executed as drawing studies and Development Rates and Celebration Gates, (2024_ , displayed at World But No Home at TARQ, 2024, curated by Kaiwan Mehta, to this large-scale installation intervention. The work examines the mandap as both a civic and symbolic structure, a temporary architecture of celebration that mirrors the city’s own cycles of construction, erasure, and renewal.
The installation consists of multiple textile panels resembling a mandap structure, each panel functioning as a visual and conceptual fragment. From afar, the patterned fabric resembles the decorative textiles of traditional mandaps; yet, upon closer inspection, the surface dissolves into contemporary imagery: traffic signs, urban motifs, and fragments of everyday city life. The vinyl-like fabrics reference how the mandap, once wrapped in woven cloth, has now become a surface for advertisement and layered political messages. Here, that same surface is subverted to narrate the contradictions of urban existence.
Kulavoor retains the large-scale and grandiose essence of traditional mandap structures which too embeds messages highlighting contemporary challenges of an urban city. The front of the structure glitters with sequined embroidery, printed and screen-printed motifs, and layered textiles reminiscent of mass-produced festival fabrics from Mumbai’s markets that the artist has observed and researched. In mimicking the mass produced nature of materials generally used for mandaps, Kulavoor produced the fabric for this work at automated tailoring and embroidery facilities while also interweaving his own designed patterns with the print of the available fabric.
In contrast, the reverse of the structure is painted with tempera, gesso, and fluid acrylic depicting the city’s invisible workforce: the labourers who build, dismantle, and maintain these ephemeral architectures. The painted surface, washed in the hues of cement dust and monsoon flow, honours the toiling bodies behind the spectacle, transforming a temporary gate into a meditation on visibility, labour, and the fragile materiality of the urban fabric.
Acknowledgements: The installation was supported by the staff and curatorial team at Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Mumbai City Museum. STATE OF CELEBRATION was executed in collaboration with Sandeep Meher Production Design : Suyog Naik, Bhaskar Gawade, and Chinmay Rahate. The team consisted of Satyanarayan Vishwakarma, Rajpratap Pratap Yadav, Bharat Vishwakarma, Anil Kumar Vishwakarma, Sunny Kumar Singh, Vineet Kumar Chaube, Shivam Todkar, Mohammed Aslam, Mohd. Hanif, and Pratap Narayan Singh. Screenprinting by Prajval Mendon at Pritam Arts. Textile embroidery work executed by Rakesh bhai, Pappu, Anup and team. Studio assistance and support provided by Swapnil Sawant, Dnyanesh Patale and Bombay Duck Designs. Supported by TARQ.
