Shubha Taparia

‘Silhouette of an Unknown Landscape’
Prahlad Bubbar Project Space, London
29 September 2018 – 14 July 2019
Site-specific installation in light-industrial unit
Temporary scaffold Structure; Aluminium tubes, gates, ladders, perforated sheeting and lattice bracing;
Wooden boards and shipping pallets; Gin-wheel rope; Rubble netting; Branches of trees; Polythene Shrink-Wrap
28 x 10 m

This vast site-specific installation of light, shadow and sound continues Taparia’s longstanding engagement with everyday industrial materials and unveils the beauty in the mundane.

The installation, suspended six meters above the viewer, consists of a temporary scaffolding structure of tubes, boards, gates and ladders; lattice bracing, shipping pallets, gin-wheel rope and rubble netting; perforated aluminium and the branches of local trees. A single sheet of polyethylene shrink-wrap – traditionally used to conceal scaffold – encloses the composition, which inhabits a 28 x 10 m area in the rafters of the artist’s studio. Re-presented, these usually overlooked materials are raised both literally and conceptually within the work. Chosen for their individual aesthetic value and for the role they play in the visual melody, the elements form a single fictional landscape, illuminated from within.

‘Silhouette of an Unknown Landscape’ was reviewed in RIBA Journal.