লয় [Loy], 2019. Image Courtesy of the artist and Nature Morte, New Delhi. Pictures by Vivian Sarky and Soumik Hati.

ASIM WAQIF

Delhi-based Asim Waqif studied architecture at the School of Planning and Architecture, Delhi. After initially working as an art-director for film and television he later started making independent video and documentaries before moving into a dedicated art-practice.

His recent projects have attempted a crossover between architecture, art and design, with a strong contextual reference to contemporary urban-design and the politics of occupying/intervening/using public spaces. Some of his projects have developed within abandoned and derelict buildings in the city that act like hidden activity-spaces for marginalized people.

Concerns of ecology and anthropology often weave through his work and he has done extensive research on vernacular systems of ecological management, especially with respect to water, waste and architecture. His artworks often employ manual processes that are deliberately pain-staking and laborious while the products themselves are often temporary and sometimes even designed to decay. He has worked in sculpture, site-specific public installation, video, photography, and more recently with large-scale interactive installations that combine traditional and new media technologies.

Courtesy of Asim Waqif and Nature Morte.

Waqif's debut solo show in Europe was held at Palais de Tokyo in December 2012, titled Bordel Monstre or Monstrous Mess. He used detritus from previous exhibitions and repurposed it to create an immersive installation. In a review of the installation, American artist Robert Barry wrote in the frieze magazine: “Bordel Monstre is a fascinating exercise in making use of things otherwise neglected: constructed in a corner of the Palais de Tokyo which hasn’t previously been used, made out of materials discarded at the end of the previous exhibition. And if its exterior form resembles the damage wrought by a force of nature, its construction was as spontaneous and unplanned as the weather.”