2019 | SONAL MITHAL
ART/NATURSCI PAVILION’S EQUILIBRIUM EXHIBITION, VENICE BIENNALE 2019
CURATOR: mp WARMING
The project “matter in the future continuous” illustrates possibilities of using decay, ruination, and agents thereof as triggers for regenerating aging matter—historical structures in this case, thereby allowing for a freedom of change, growth, and adaptability of the building itself as necessary steps in furthering the ecological process of survival.
Hybrid Systems: Through a series of plates made using basalt fiber, metal sheet, and medium density fiber board; the project presents the possibility hybrid building systems that combine the characteristics of the organic and the inorganic. Here, hybrid systems are developed by close study of the ruination process of an abandoned factory precinct—seen in the ways in which human vandalism, coincides with vegetation haven taken shelter in the decaying building, such that the former renders the building vulnerable, and the vegetation makes the building stronger. Conventional conservation processes spend too much effort on removal of vegetation. Instead, this project sees vegetation as an opportunity for a composite structure to develop that combines the rules of both organic and inorganic growth. In this manner, it embraces process of decay as aesthetic and ecological. Basalt fiber—an emerging reinforcement material is combined with brickwork pattern cut out in medium density fiber board. The warped brickwork pattern is detailed in such a manner that it emulates the decaying masonry. This layer is superimposed with an intricate root system cut out in metal sheet that represents consolidation of the vegetation with the masonry. Thus the final creation is a hybrid sculpture piece in a plate form—viewable from two sides.
Material: 400 GSM basalt fiber, 3mm medium density fiber board, 1mm steel sheet, epoxy.
Size: 12” x 12”
