In Hyderabad, Ankon Mitra’s art installations give a fun spin to archival maps

A sequence of deep blue round buildings greet guests on the entrance of Kalakriti Art Gallery in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. The set up is a part of Map Unfolded, a showcase of artworks by architect, sculptor and origami artist Ankon Mitra, curated by gallery proprietor, Prshant Lahoti. The set up options illustrated maps of the constellations within the Milky Manner galaxy. Seen from the opposite finish, it reveals the numerous moons of the photo voltaic system. A number of toes away, illuminated lampshades bear printed photos of previous maps of Hyderabad, Kolkata, Goa, Mumbai and Chennai. 

When Prshant, who has an enviable repository of maps, proposed the thought of artworks impressed by maps, Ankon was sport. He explains, “An artist would possibly create one thing on a clean canvas whereas an architect like me responds to a short — say, a 1000-bed hospital, a residential advanced or an academic establishment — and creates one thing creative and practical. By way of this collaboration with Prshant and Rekha Lahoti, I wished to see if we may design artworks that spark wider curiosity, not restricted to map nerds.” 

Between the folds

Ankon wished guests to pause, observe the oritecture (origami and structure) artworks and uncover new particulars. “I then considered three-dimensional artworks that reveal a couple of particulars and conceal a couple of inside the origami of origami, that pique the viewers’ curiosity.” 

Having browsed the maps at Kalakriti Archives, the artist labored out a street map (pardon the pun) to make three-dimensional artwork impressed by the two-dimensional maps. “I discovered maps of Europe courting again to the twelfth and thirteenth centuries and maps of India from the seventeenth century to the current and shortlisted what may work for this present. Prshant has a sequence of metropolis maps, pilgrimage maps, bazaar maps, and so forth.” 

Ankon explains how a map of Madurai exhibits the Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple and its neighborhood, with flower sellers and copper vessel sellers, thus mapping the bazaar. One other map of Benares exhibits the bazaars close to the Kashi Vishwanath temple. A pilgrimage map of Uttarakhand highlights distinguished spiritual websites together with Kedarnath, Badrinath and Amarnath. 

A number of maps of Indian pilgrimage websites are reimagined via the Japanese artwork of Ikebana. In his analysis, Ankon discovered parallels between the artwork and tradition of India and Japan. “There’s a religious significance to the strategy of Ikebana preparations and the location of the vase. We tried to reinterpret previous pilgrimage maps in that kind.” Maps of Thiruchendur, Uttarakhand, Dwaraka and Benares are printed and folded in a selected method to kind the ikebana-inspired artworks.

That is Ankon’s first full-fledged showcase of artworks in Hyderabad, which additionally options pinwheel-inspired installations and ori-kiri (a mixture of origami and kirigami) installations with printed maps.

Outdated and new

“We additionally created lenticular maps,” says the artist. The concept borrows from the distortion of photos when considered via a double convex lens. Ankon reimagines the idea impressed by the childhood plastic toys that reveal two photos after we flip a card left to proper in our arms. The origami folds of the paper have been labored upon such {that a} lenticular map of Jaipur reveals a Unesco World Heritage-tagged map of the walled metropolis (2019) when considered from one facet. From one other route, the identical map exhibits an archival Navagraha map of Jaipur metropolis (1885). The set up works as a sculptural time journey. 

A lenticular map set up by Ankon Mitra
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

Map Unfolded options almost 100 artworks, a couple of impressed by on a regular basis objects. A pinwheel is reimagined because the earth spinning on an imaginary axis. Spin the art work and maps of the north and the south poles become visible. Did anybody say maps are boring? An ori-kiri art work, inside its cuts and folds, reveals a map of the Himalayas, Tibet and Kashmir.

Aside from maps sourced from Kalakriti Archives, a couple of summary installations are impressed by ‘cloud maps’ made public by the European Area Company (ESA), Nationwide Aeronautics and Area Administration, USA (NASA), Indian Area Analysis Organisation (ISRO), Japan Aerospace Exploration Company (JAXA) and their geosynchronous satellites, with video footage from the Worldwide Area Company (ISS). 

Selfie mirror room

“The concept of together with maps of clouds and galaxies was to finish the circle, aside from having maps of cities and nations,” says Prshant. He views this exhibition, with its 3D sculptures, murals and installations, as diverse expressions of kind, house and light-weight.

Mirror room
| Photograph Credit score:
Particular Association

A mirror room the place guests can take selfies, whereas archival maps and pictures of the Charminar and Crimson Fort become visible, additional amplify the interactive quotient of the exhibition. Elsewhere, a globe can be reimagined as a sequence of origami sculptures.

“A show of archival maps and pictures is one thing museums have been doing for many years,” says cartophile Prshant. “I wished to marry archival materials with modern artwork to make it extra attention-grabbing.” Origami-inspired artwork with printed maps, he says, might be considered as an extension of how older maps are folded and preserved. “Every time I open an previous map, I discover it robust to fold it again the identical means. There are overlaps, which additionally add to the creative high quality.”

Maps Unfolded would possibly simply be the start. Kalakriti and Ankon are engaged on a brand new collaborative showcase for India Artwork Honest 2025.

(Maps Unfolded is on view at Kalakriti Artwork Gallery until October 5)