Rashmi Bidasaria
My work focuses on blurring the boundaries between different material media to find new interpretations that are often inspired by my native roots and cultural understanding. Through my work i aim to bring together all stakeholders - network of designers, researchers, technical experts and the citizens to a common platform. My practice is shaped by my background in architecture and product design and the work extends from spatial experiences to objects and artefacts. Developed around mixed media , I bring a multidisciplinary approach to my practice. I like to engage with people and communities and enjoy the process of uncertainty and discovery with them..
🇮🇳 India
My practice is evolving into an exploration of hybrid disciplines, I am excited by remixing culture and craft and an advocate of the art of mash-up. My projects have been a very personal journey of learning to understand how I can use different tools to create a narrative. I am currently working with waste material (steel slag and quartz), textiles, metal working, digital tools like AR VR and Photography. Some of the most exciting projects I have done - Proximity Sensor and Arduino to notice how long I was away from my work desk and while I was gone, a pen would ‘react’ and ‘misbehave’ by scribbling all over my desk, ‘asking’ me to come back. Using long exposure photography and VR to map the movement of block printing artisans and converting those movement patterns into individual woven signatures. An uncomfortable- physical VR installation set-up that questions the ethics and politics of humane architecture in the context of factory farming. Utilising waste materials, steel slag and waste quartz powder from steel manufacturing plants to make furniture. Mapping textures and inscriptions of Hampi as relics to create neo-artifacts. Using VR to create new urban experiences. A sinusoidal framework works best for my practice where I allow myself to learn, fail and grow. With technology and its tools, I am excited for the opportunity to grow and the multidisciplinary work that one could create.
Affiliations
BeFantastic
Projects
Dross
Dross investigates the recovery of steel slag, ramming mass and residual heat that form a large percentage of the waste by-products of the molten iron processing industry. By using the materials and residual energy found on the geographical site in context, the project focuses on innovating with industrial methods and manufacturing techniques common to the factory worker by following principles of utility and proximity. The techniques and the aesthetics are a result of scrap objects found in the factory’s waste pile. These scrapped bits are then welded together to create forms and edge details, to completely allow the process of discovery to influence the final outcome. The rough, brutalist and simplistic aesthetic that Dross adopts is a reflection of the modern sections of India’s cities which are all about roughness, raw tactility and puristic shapes. The project is key to the factory workers and their working & living communities that live in the factory - by being an active resource of income and comfort, as these are techniques and methods that they are extremely comfortable and familiar with but also have unlimited access to. The artifacts created through this process are meant to start a dialogue about the consumption of materials and manufacturing processes by allowing room for thought to develop a more responsible sense towards use of resources. This project is in collaboration and funded by Southern Ferro Ltd, Hubli, India a recycling steel scrap foundry.
Southern Ferro Steel Ltd Hubli, Royal College of Art
Hubli , India
Kaarigari
Kaarigari , कारीगरी, (Craftsmanship in Hindi) explores the celebration of a craftsman as a front runner in his craft. Hand Block Printing, a 500 year-old traditional craft in India, is now becoming redundant due to advanced digital printing systems and is requiring craft individuals to realize the worth of continuing it. Kaarigari is aimed at delivering recognition to the artisans towards their work by highlighting their individuality. The project records the nuanced signature movements and translates them into patterns that become each artisan's individual signature, an impression of their time, work and body.The block printing artisans print on an average of 10 hours continuously everyday. Thousands of stamps that print almost as a muscle memory. The monotony and the mundane routine is quite tiresome. Upon working with them and observing them, I realised that each artisan prints very uniquely. There is a notion of performance/dance that is complimented by their movements, their signature move. I began to record those little nuances of movements to translate them into patterns, using analogue techniques like light & motion study and digital tools - Long exposure photography and Virtual Reality.The patterns you see on the textile illustrate the movement of the artisan on their printing table - specifically finger points of individual artisans. (Pink/Yellow - Left hand, Blue - Right Hand). These dots are representative of their swiftness, skill, dexterity - their signature.
Royal College of Art , TextielMuseum | TextielLab
Rajasthan
Rashmi Bidasaria on the Web
http://www.rashmibidasaria.com/index
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