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Marland Khosla
You are an architect by profession; what made you branch out
into art?
I have always studied and practised art in some form, from my
student days. My architectural training and practice were heav
ily influenced by art, particularly sculpture, as well. That said,
the decision to pursue both with equal commitment emerged
after I started to ask larger questions about my architectur
al practice. India has been going through a highly accelerated
pace of urbanisation and change in the past few decades and is
likely to continue on this trajectory for the foreseeable future.
Naturally as an architect and citizen of Delhi, I was intellectual
ly engaging with the larger questions about cities and urbani
sation. Inevitably, a large part of this search becomes a solitary
activity and there was a certain limitation to exploring these
ideas within the framework of my architectural studio. Some
aspects of this work found form in writings on architecture, but
I found myself working increasingly on sculptural and paper
works.
Materially, I am working with a lot of metal, dust and fabric.
What inspired the series?
Conceptually, my concerns remain around ideas of transfor
mation, urbanisation and making of our megacities. Form
wise, this series moves towards much more sculpture-in a
sense more 'architectural' while experimenting with different
materials, like ash.
What comes first for you-Art or Architecture?
In their conceptualisation, I believe that the art and architec
ture challenge me with the same larger questions and that
discourse remains easily interchangeable for me. In its prac
tice and speed however, they are fundamentally different.
If architecture is to be seen as building, it remains a slower,
broader collective endeavour. However, if architecture is seen
in its truer broader sense as a generator of ideas through draw
ings, sculpture, writings and models, its practice becomes
more assimilated to that of art and in some sense a more soli
tary pursuit. Over the years, I have pursued both the collective
What influences your art?
Until now, nearly all my work has been concerned with the and the solitary within architecture. A substantial part of my
larger condition of urbanisation, labour and migration, par
sculptural practice is very much informed by the architectural
ticularly in India. I have drawn a lot from my experience as thinking and vice versa.
an architect to inform these works. The building industry has
attracted rural labour to urban centres-usually with a large Do you feel lines are blurring between creative disciplines?
demand for unskilled labour. Over the last three years since Historically, I think that lines have al1Nays been blurred not
my first solo exhibition in Delhi, my own search has broadened only between creative diSciplines but also between science,
to inquire about aspects of urbanisation through varied scales philosophy and the arts. This paradigm of segregation of pro
of time, individual, and the institutional.
fessional diSCiplines is more of a 20th century phenomenon
that we are still continuing with, but it doesn't make sense to
You will be exhibiting in 2016-can you tell us a little about me. And as such it is only natural that for me, lines are blurred
the series?
between creative and other disciplines. Architecture for the
There are expected to be about six works on display, a combi last several decades has been debating scientific and philo
nation of sculpture and reliefs. These are all a continuation of sophical frameworks to apply to architectural theory. So, one
interrogations around Indian urbanism, the conflict between must not perhaps look at this as a blurring of different creative
different modes of thinking, and new conditions that emerge. disciplines but perhaps more as modes of expression.
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