The blue tarpaulin that is ubiquitous in slums and shanties of the city of Mumbai in India as well as at construction sites in Singapore is the key reference point in this project. This seemingly commonplace object, which is so omnipresent that no one notices it, is a signifier of one of the most important social phenomenon of 20th century – migration. Both Mumbai slums and construction sites in Singapore share the common subject of transient migrant workers and the blue tarpaulin connects them in a way that those in Singapore use it for their day to day work, while those in Mumbai use it as a material to create temporary homes for themselves. While construction workers in Singapore exist on the periphery of the society and are required to go back to their home country after a prescribed period, those is Mumbai constitute the fringe as slum dwellers. However, the symbolic imagery of blue tarpaulin is not restricted to urban environments such as Mumbai and Singapore only as it’s often associated with the housing for refugee population across the globe. Its presence is about temporariness, movement and concealment.
Oil paint, repetitively layered over weeks on the tarpaulin surface, is transformed into skins over time and then pulled down by fire and gravity. Delicate and temporary skins of oil paint, created through this process, are then arranged to create installations in space. The material created in this way is also a reminder of the act of disconnection and detachment as they embody the history and relationship between the surface and the removed piece, very similar to the act of migration. These skins are temporary in nature, similar to the existence of migrant workers and their usage of temporary materials to survive.
