Wall is Transparent

M Pravat is a multimedia contemporary artist from India whose works represent the theatricality of everyday life in the form of oil paintings, drawings, collages and experimental installations. The idea of this ‘staging’ embraces his larger philosophy that we all live in a continual state of process and everyday ephemera. Moreover, his visual and conceptual language creates a unique engagement for the viewer because of his diverse interests in engineering, science and digital design.

M Pravat has showcased his work in numerous galleries in New Delhi, Mumbai and Baroda, such as Nature Morte and Latitude Twenty Eight and was the recipient of a Pro Helvetia artist residency in Switzerland in 2010.

With a passion for architecture, M-Pravat reflects on the definition and meaning of spaces in his vast body of work. The element of the ‘Jaali’ has become a recurring topic of investigation in his practice and especially within his explorations in the public realm. The jaali is not only historically relevant, being connected with Mughal architecture, but is also a visually common symbol found within our everyday surroundings, thus making it an architectonic feature with layered meanings.

While its features allow one to see through and see beyond, creating a unique exchange between spaces - usually indoor and outdoor, public and private, it also confines and defines these spaces in rigid ways. Using this contraposition, M-Pravat installed painted metal cut-outs of the jaali that extrude into a symbolic composition to make the wall of Lodhi transparent, devoid of any structural division. As the shadow of the jaali falls onto the wall, the composition creates an illusory effect that proposes a unique dimension of exchange between public and private, inside and outside, thus reinforcing the larger purpose of public art.