There’s something wonderful about not quite knowing what you’re looking at. Emphasis on quite, as standing in front of Serial Structures 2, I did recognise it as a sort of city. I found myself imagining what might be going on in the thin alleys between the layers of ceramic. Something about it made me want to look further; perhaps it was the mix of bright colours and the powerful physicality of Chowdhary’s ceramics. I felt a sense of childlike curiosity about it all.
The colours, textures and shapes of Chowdhary’s exhibition invites you to recognise patterns across the pieces, urging you to consider not only the transformation of ideas using different materials, but also transformation and translations across cultures. Priyesh Mistry, author of the beautiful pamphlet in the exhibition, reports Chowdhary as saying that she’s ‘often searching for points of contact or a symbiosis between western Minimalism and Modern design and Asian tradition of geometry, architecture and design, and the awkwardness that results in these forms.’
I enjoyed how the exhibition allowed me to see how these connection points across other artists’ work as well as across Chowdhary’s, as she plays with tradition and meaning. I got an interesting sense of deja vu walking through the archway surrounded by captivating lines of rope and circles and then seeing the circle-patterned screen print by Sir Eduardo Luigi Paolozzi. I was suddenly aware of the way I moved through the exhibition, and each time I looped back around I noticed different threads linking the designs.
The sculptures in her Erratic series are placed so you can walk around them, peer through different holes in the wood, and find new points of viewing. The positioning of the box above the small aches in Erratic 1 made the sculpture seem as if it had crawled into place. This form is repeated in miniature in Disobedient Typologies II. I wish I could have touched the sculpture, or moved it about. Something about the careful simplicity of the design made it feel like it should be interacted with; perhaps this was the point. This relates to how Chowdhary is ‘very interested in the idea of objects having a potency, and questioning what it is that makes that happen.’ There are so many layers of contrasting forces at play even just in this series, as Chowdhary created the sculptures using a blended balance of technology and manual labour.
PLURIVERSE is visually exciting and highlights the shifting potential of materiality in an engaging way. I enjoyed the feeling of stepping into another world and discovering more about my own.
Rating: ★★★★☆
Lubna Chowdhary PLURIVERSE is on display in Graves Gallery until December 21st
