A series of interlocking steel frames, some bare, some fitted with double-sided mirrors line the winding, sun-drenched courtyard of Madhavendra Palace in Nahargarh fort, Jaipur. The frames are complemented by plastic chairs, each topped with a stone sphere that resemble distant planets. The confounding objects, part of award-winning sculptor and artist Alicja Kwade’s installation has been inviting curiosity and intrigue as tourists and locals gawk in awe and admiration. While some adjust their hair in the mirror, some click selfies and a few even attempt a conversation with the artist herself. “It’s always exciting to meet the general public, not necessarily art-educated people and show my work to them. I have used everyday elements like mirrors and chairs which can invite people easily to interact and play with the art. For me it’s one of the many steps to make art accessible,” says Kwade, whose installation titled Superposition is the latest to join 11 other installations scattered throughout the meandering rooms and grand courtyards of The Sculpture Park at Madhavendra Palace.
There’s no doubt that Kwade is a master illusionist. Her works are all about mental exercises, including leaps into parallel universes and limitless possibilities, experiments with space and time, and highly creative investigations of what is and is not real. Primarily focussed on sculpture but often straying into photography and video, they invite contemplation into the essence of our existence and prompt us to reflect on our relationship with the world. Superposition, in particular, teases with its spatial confusion between transparency and reflection produced by the mirrors. “What this installation is doing, hopefully, is to make people aware that we are losing our sense of space and our own position in space. The spheres stand for the human position in the universe on this planet and the options we have. The plastic chairs which are the most produced object of this planet and also the most human object, remind us of a little bit of a throne. It could be the throne of the capitalist system. What those mirrors are doing are tricking our senses. It's interesting to see how easily we can be cheated. So it questions everything that we see and take as real or true,” says Kwade, who lives and works in Berlin.
Physics and philosophy remain the two underlying themes of her artworks fashioned mostly from stones and mirror. “The mirror is completely loaded with symbolics. I use it as a tool, a window or as a gate to a different reality. Stones are equally fascinating. It’s compressed time and the purest matter we have. They are witness to everything and made up of the same matter as we are. That’s why they are important to me.” A quiet sense humour is almost omnipresent in all of Kwade’s works. “Humour is always a good solution when you don’t know. We are surreal objects on a constantly spinning stone. Isn’t it ironic and very funny?” she asks.
To turn out these physical experiments which ultimately become her art Kwade often leans on the writing of physicists and philosophers such as Werner Karl Heisenberg and Elena Esposito. Her installations always start with reading, research, sketches and then testing materials. After long discussions they are brought to life by a team of architects and fabricators. Her last work which was commissioned for the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York was a massive solar system made of steel and stone.
Kwade has been brought to India through the joint efforts of RMZ Foundation, a non-governmental organisation that works in art, education for marginalised, etc., and the Saat Saath Arts Foundation. After the exhibition, which runs till December 1 this year, Superposition will find a permanent home at one RMZ’s properties. The foundation’s collection include 65 commissioned art installations by globally recognised artists including Elias Sime, Oliver Beer, Patrick Goddard, Erwin Wurm, Manolo Valdes, Julian Opie, Subodh Gupta, Valay Shende, Ravinder Reddy, Dhruva Mistry, Jayasri Burman and Thukral and Tagra. These grace RMZ’s flagship properties in Delhi, Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad. “Alicja is one of the most stellar female artists who is pushing the boundaries of art with her contemplative and transformative work. We want everyone who comes to look at the art to be able to relate to it first for the visual aesthetics and then the unlayering of it. Superposition goes from physical to scientific, metaphysical and to the philosophical. That’s the beauty of her art — its playful, collaborative and participative,” says Anu Menda, managing trustee of RMZ Foundation.
Superposition is on display till December 1, 2024, 10 am-5.30 pm. at The Sculpture Park, Madhavendra Palace in Nahargarh Fort, Jaipur. Entry fee: Rs 50 for Indians and Rs 200 for foreigners, per person.
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