atul bhalla

Drain 

2006

Digital prints on paper

Framed in Gold

IMT UNIVERSE, GWALIOR. MADHYA PRADESH, INDIA.(SITE SPECEFIC WORK DONE AT - USHA KIRAN PALACE HOTEL)

We pay undue attention to issues/objects/spaces/people, which are transient and make attempts to place them in history. In the process we tend to forget the essential; perhaps the ordinary; which seems less meaningful and even more transient but may have been or has been around for a much longer period than we may imagine.

I have placed the photographs of such common objects/systems/spaces within the same gold frames which decorate the scenes of coronations, marriages, birthdays, hunts, horse rides etc of the royal family of Gwalior at Usha Kiran Palace which used to be their residence.

This appropriation lends importance to the commonplace; ordinary water inlets and outlets, its waste, usage etc.

This also lends importance to the artists of the camp, taking away the sacredness of the royal family from the spaces that they occupy within the Usha Kiran Palace.

Atul Bhalla