Mumbai’s introvert opens up in Taiwan

The BandraWorli Sea Link comes alive in an unfamiliar light in Sameer Tawdersquos camerawork Foregrounded by a bunch of white balloon strings the cablestayed structure appears surrealmdashlooking majestic and toylike at the same time because it is positioned against commonplace threads of a balloon sellerThe image is part of an exhibition titled Constructed Realities to be inaugurated on August 17 at Uniquephoto Gallery Taiwan Due to COVID19related restrictions worldwide Tawde wonrsquot be accompanying his frames like he did for his solo show in 2018 in the same gallery which is devoted to photography Earlier he displayed another defining sea link image in which the cabled wires contrasted against dangling nimbumirchi good luck threadsIstri Mounts Tawde vertically positions steel press iron bases at an angle that makes the mundane triangular istris look like a mountain rangeThe sea link diptych is part of his ongoing series Dialogues of an Introvertmdashimagined constructed and shot in Mumbai and its outskirts before the March 2020 lockdown Tawde chose sundry locationsmdashMadh Island Wadala a swimming pool in faroff Dahanumdashthat allowed laborious recces and earlyhour shooting Alongside photography Tawdersquos practice embraces installations lifesize props miniature sets video and sculpture In this series one can see the floats and plastic creations as part of the prestage he will add to the series in the coming months as things open up in postpandemic Mumbai The images will segue to his book on the ldquoillusionsrdquo created over the years ldquoThe quest for contrast is always on and not necessarily directed at an exhibition I express my views on a variety of issues like environment urban planning civic life in a design vocabulary which rests on the lsquocreatedrsquo imagerdquo he says adding that once a design comes together in his mind the location logistics becomeseasier especially in Mumbai which lends itself to linear and lateral adjustmentsTawdersquos images form part of an exhibition titled Constructed Realities in HsinchuIn Tawdersquos scheme of things props are open to interpretation much like the discarded packaging material from Dharavi used in the Holy Boulevard which was on display last month at Toschi Arredamenti Italy There is no stated context to the blue waters on which he places the pyramidal plastic structures but one can get a sense of the contaminated seabed that he references Similarly the glass bottle floats and a jumbosized spinning top evoke churning of waterland resources In some of his earlier images on Mumbai life the mood of the moment is clearmdashan indolent hour on a beach caught from amidst a paani puri stack The puris look sufficiently epicIn the soontobeinaugurated show in Hsinchu Tawde vertically positions steel press iron bases at an angle that makes the mundane triangular istris look like a mountain range The iron bases also resemble wooden vessels docked in alignment backdropped by a setting sun This work shot at a Vasai beach was shortlisted in the top 10 entries for the Emerging Photographer Award at Photo London 2020 They reveal his efforts to transcend the geography in which he shootsTawdersquos images are his worldviews musings and efforts to transcend the geography in which he shoots They go beyond the subject and are perceived in an individual and personal light For instance this columnist was transported to the Bapu Kuti in Wardha by his ldquoconstructedrdquo image of largesize specs with barbed wires For me the roundframed glasses are symbolic of those worn by the Father of the Nation and the barbs stand for a collective Indian failure to appreciate his unifying worldview The visual grammar of the image evoked altogether dissimilar responses on social mediamdashsome interpreted it as a picture of a blinkered caustic mind and some treated it as a metaphor for violation of a basic right to discretion It travelled to the Backlight Photo Festival Finland as well as the photo fair in Shanghai and the Singapore International Photo Festival all three inclusions in the momentous COVIDimpacted yearDesign artistphotographer Sameer TawdeThe 1978born artist says the cultural background of the viewer determines his or her reception of reality Just as the nimbumirchi totka is an accepted endearing superstition in India as played up in the sea link image it needs explanation in the Western world In yet another project titled Miracle Robots shaped in collaboration with French anthropologist Emmanuel Grimaud Tawde documented the world of Indian Automata mostly through the lens of Mumbairsquos Ganesh festivity Urban Indians reacted differently to the placement of the mythical oversized idols amid modern milieusTawdersquos images rest on design elements but also on vistas He appreciated large panoramas since the time he took to architecture in Mumbairsquos LS Raheja College 2001 and later completed his postgraduation from the National Institute of Design AhmedabadEven before formal education his fixation with malleable spaces began in his childhood years in Ghatkopar marked by 1BHK constraints He became alert to the possibilities in the interior as well as the exterior more so after he started trotting over the globe either for exhibitions or for art residency programmes like the one at Fukuoka Asian Art Museum 2013 where he juxtaposed the Japanese automata with the Indian onesFor him the worldrsquos vastness wasnrsquot just about serene landscapes or aweevoking constructions ldquoMy eyes and camera play with anglestilts and objects that tell a story I donrsquot want to necessarily mock at the times in which we live neither is mine a solemn remarkrdquoTawdersquos fun with ordinary objectsmdasha podium a microphone bottles balloons a carpet or a mesh of overhead electric wiresmdashmakes us relook at our cityrsquos transformational power He shoots the magic in everyday spacesSumedha RaikarMhatre is a culture columnist in search of the subtext You can reach her at sumedharaikarmiddaycom