Mumbai is Upgrading, Morey is watching

For a visual artist who has changed 12 residences worked from 10 studio set ups and is now moving into a shared workstation in Borivali space is a transitory concept not a matter of steady ownershipThe transience shows in Pratap Moreys ongoing exhibition Concrete Ciphers his second solo first in 2015 titled measure decipher in which he underlines Mumbais shifting landscape The 18 art works at the Tarq gallery are minimalistic expressions of a Dahisarbased artist who has adapted with distinct city spaces since the eighties His is not a rant against rapid industrial work neither a lament about a spacecrunched city I have accepted the city as she is I am into the inescapable transmutability of spaces around us the 37yearold clarifies because he doesnt want to be associated with a pet peeve or interpreted simplistically as antiredevelopmentConcrete Ciphers underscores what once was shared and communal but unexpectedly became privatecontrolled and conversely what once was a silent personal space that accidentally became open to scrutiny For instance Morey deploys the clothesline as a sensitive and recurring motif that is not merely truetoMumbai but applicable to most metros the drying of inners in full public view is a matteroffact outrage that many Mumbai vicinities embrace as a matter of fact however plush be their front porticosMorey nails down the spaces where the public and the private unwittingly merge often giving birth to an awkward aesthetic He has followed the citys skywalks passionately He feels flyovers and gigantic bridges have long invaded the privacy of dilapidated old chawls particularly busy highways running parallel to negligiblycurtained bedrooms He feels skywalks and skyscrapers have gotten appropriated into older habitation systems creating a new normal which he catches in the mazelike drawings He pinpoints the peculiar architectural style that the city has embraced as a matter of convenienceArtist Pratap Morey at the art gallery Tarq in ColabaAlso the congestion in his images depict the lack of vacant spaces in a Mumbaikars life The preoccupation with filling up every available public space as if a vacant spot would mean a lost commercial opportunity evokes strange imagery in the cityMorey is particularly cognizant of the modular block construction in Mumbais mega infrastructure projects His art works underline the lack of imagination in the placement of blocks Much like an architects field guide Morey shows the sameness in constructions particularly with the use of archival ink and metallic canson fine art paper pasted on museum boards Morey feels very little is being built but things are assembled He questions the definition of architecture in some of his explorations of current construction styles His three dimensional relief structures bring out the assembled glass towers which go close to childrens jigsaw puzzle or a Lego game As preconstructed chunks get aligned in a preordered setting the engineering skill seems so achievable and one doesnt even know if this can be rated as a superior skillhellip In the work titled FloorSpaceIndex made of PVC sheets Morey hints at the politics of promised amenities in decorative housing schemesHaving lived in a range of faroff suburbs on the Western and Central railway route he relates to the gigantic vertical space promised in colorful ads of homes on sale Kalyan Virar Panvel neighborhoods lit up with swimming pools morning walk facilities snooker corners and community prayer halls His images show the tiny living space that is eventually delivered by the builderMoreys understanding of the economics of space emerges from his very early tryst with living in distant suburbs of Mumbai As a son of an Amravatibound banker who bought a onebedroom flat in Bhayander way back in 1985 he grew up in a maze of hastily constructed housing coloniesHis own building bang opposite the Bhayander railway station was declared unsafe as it was built on marshy land and tilting on one side He recalls accompanying his parents and other society members to the local politicians to seek help in the dispute with the builder The family lived in multiple shortterm accommodations in Thane and Mumbai during this phase Periodic displacement therefore became a distinctive feature of his schooling years an integral reference point for understanding the cityToday when I look back at my life or profession it is in terms of a montage of spaces each space wearing a character of its own At one point after his graduation from the Vasai Vikasini College of Visual Arts Morey worked in a hired space close to his Dahisar house which was rooted in the AgriKoli community ambience It gave him the vital communityconnect that he longed for also a rightful universe where he drew lot of selfportraits some of which he exhibited at the Jehangir Art gallery But as he left the studio after two years he chose the digital image over canvas paintings Space ruled over or rather shaped my art practiceAs he could not store his work he took to the camera and worked on computergenerated art works often manual drawings on the digital images A distinct juxtaposition has become the hallmark of Moreys works some of which reflected in the eightodd art residencies he has attended in India and abroad In 2014 he stayed at the Rashtrapti Bhavan for a month as part of the artistsinresidence program hosted by President Pranab Mukherjee which was designed to shape the artists role as a social ambassador Morey photographed the Bhavans architecture and created art works based on the imagesHowever in his threemonth residency in South Korea in 2017 he veered away from the digital and resorted to the studiobased practice of drawings He stumbled on the polyvinyl chloride pvc blocks in the local markets near the Gachang Art Studio Daegu which he picked up for experimentation The sheets have now gotten integrated with his art practice the latest manifestation of which was seen in the current Floor Space Index seriesAs Morey shifts to his new studio an artists bungalow in Borivali two discrete raw materials are on his mind First taking inspiration from the use of aluminum panels for new age constructions he is contemplating assimilation of aluminum as art material Second he will be in Gadhchiroli from February 11 to 13 as part of the Bamboo Training Program at the Gondwana University As Morey connects with Gadhchirolis adivasi youth bamboorelated design ideas are expected to flow Morey looks forward to the bamboo bendsSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikargmailcomCatch up on all the latest Mumbai news crime news current affairs and also a complete guide on Mumbai from food to things to do and events across the city here Also download the new midday Android and iOS apps to get latest updates