Parul Gupta

Parul Gupta works at the intersection of art and architecture, in an expanded notion of drawing from site conditioned interventions, drawings in space, sculptures, kinetics, photographs to works on paper. Her work is based on her interest in movement in architecture where our bodies and our movements are in endless dialogues with our buildings.

Movement in architecture is an organised system of various types of movements stimulated by specific architectural elements, such as the twist and turn of the body, vertical and oblique movement, long and short perspectives, open and close & dark and light spaces and overlapping geometries. This movement is experienced through moving observer and stationary object through parallax, rhythm and sense of space, and in a few instances through moving objects and stationary observer as in the case of daylight. These movements, within and around the buildings, are also significantly affected by the tactile quality of surfaces and edges encountered, along with auditory and kinaesthetic sense. Memory and anticipation too enhance our experience of moving through spaces.

Based on these observations, gupta makes works which alter our perception of structural reality within architectural spaces and provides an alternate experience of the same space.

In her site specific works – drawing in Space and site conditioned interventions, the site and its structural elements become active participants in the work. Drawing in space creates the movement of lines, forms and geometry as the viewer moves around between different positions by recreating the experience of parallax. It shifts from the dynamics of “looking at” to “moving in”. Every time a new site with its unique spatial narratives and conditions, guides the work both conceptually and moving body dynamics, resulting in drawing in space as spatial exploration – temporary and ephemeral installation based on the language of line.

Site conditioned interventions engage with examining the relationship between architectural spaces and structural elements in those spaces, further locating perceptual questions on what happens when a subtle shift is made in the very space which one has been experiencing in a certain way? And how to make the same space anew.

Working on site informs her perceptual enquiries further, resulting in works on paper, sculptures, kinetic drawings and photographs, which engages with the similar questions and gestures in the form of distortion, parallax, layering and repetition. Her work often applies the tools of arithmetics following a self constructed set of instructions, codes and complex processes. It approaches time, space and movement by integrating geometry, line and light.

Through her work gupta is bringing the viewers attention to subtle shifts and movements which are constantly at play in architecture through perceptual, cognitive and scientific enquiries. Since our perception of the world around us is the construct of the mind, engaging with her work shifts our perception and enriches our social, cultural and lived experience of architecture.

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© 2024 Parul Gupta.