METHOD ROOFTOP RESIDENCY
Mumbai, Maharashtra – 2019:
Sahil Arora, founder of Method Contemporary Art Space in Kala Ghoda, is also the founder of its residency place in Bandra. He says, “Whether it’s drawing in notebooks or making digital art, we’ve noticed that many talented artists tend to shy away from large format, analog artwork. This is a practice we wanted to encourage by addressing the two roadblocks to creating this art: space and funds.”
And so, they set up Method Rooftop Residency in 2019. Here, they offer the terrace for working and provide funds for all the artists’ supplies to create their work.
As a rooftop residency, the artist are also faced with the difficulty of dealing with external factors. “We saw the roof as a great place to create, particularly in a megacity where people don’t have access to nature or space. Though it’s concrete, a rooftop gives you great access to the sky, and ours in particular has a view of the sea. There are sounds of birds, and rustling trees, so it’s sort of an oasis in the city,” he shares. “We saw a lot of experiments. Surabhi Chowdhary, who was from Kolkata, was making large prints on paper. While she did a lot of experimenting on the roof, we realised that ultimately, it was too windy for her thin papers which kept flying away. So, her final pieces actually had to be done inside on the floor below.”
Illesha Khandewal, on the other hand, utilised the terrain in a unique way. “Her goal was to make large sheets of paper, and in doing so, she left the pool of water necessary for paper making sit for a few weeks. By the end of it, the pool collected a lot of natural elements like leaves, bugs and other things, all which became part of her piece,” he says.
Text Courtesy : Space118
Image Courtesy : Method Rooftop Residency and World Wide Web