The presentation of the work of Rathin Barman examines the nuances of the modern built environment as a tool for understanding socio-political history. The project uses architecture as an anchor to explore the consequences of the political and economic upheaval of some 50 years. It also proposes a possible future for the structures built and occupied by migrants. Architecture is characteristically perceived as a fixed entity, central to validating history yet simultaneously existing outside it. To Barman however, architectural form has also served as an anthropological tool, in building a collective recollection of a place and its people.
For over a decade, Barman, trained as an engineer and then a sculptor, has been working on understanding urban sprawl and how the built environment and architecture adapts itself to a growing influx of people over extended periods of time. He sculpts with the materials of modern construction: wood, concrete, rebar, silicon, and firebrick, often in combination. Barman also references architectural renderings, in-depth interviews, photographs, and anecdotal reconstructions in his practice.
