Collapse analysis on Vehicle Factory Jabalpur door, 2019
Aluminium composite panel worked on with a CNC router, folded by hand and mounted on the door of an army truck manufactured in Vehicle Factory
Balpur. Worked on with an axe.
63 x 44 x 15.9 inches
ASIM WAQIF
ABOUT THE ARTWORK
Collapse analysis on Vehicle Factory Jabalpur door utilises by-products of industrial waste from the Vehicle Factory Jabalpur, originally owned by the Government of India in 1969. Waqif’s work speaks to the processes of decay and destruction involved in manual labour and how it exposes local violence of economic forces. By using a door and moulding residual materials onto it, it shows how space can be a vessel of memory, enveloped in pain and disorientation. Bodies are annexed to the rhythms of the machine and labour processes are emptied of higher worth. As people cannot see themselves in the final products of labour, this piece is an ironic commentary on the self that is hollow and commodified. It touches upon the theme of violence as a by-product effect of socio-economic causes such as labour exploitation, regulated by the state.
The work speaks to the daily lives of factory workers, governed by the state. Memory produced at this site is under a mandated frame of labour laws. Thus, with modernity and industrial practices, the work shows how memory can be altered, changed and reshaped to serve a certain politics and build an identity. This piece, made of reusable materials and leftover wastes, reminds us that identities—as ways of being and becoming—are constantly in flux.
ABOUT THE ARTIST
Asim Waqif is a Delhi-based artist who studied at the School of Planning and Architecture and was previously an art director and documentary filmmaker. Waqif’s contribution to contemporary art has led him to be the first recipient of the Asia Society Arts Pathbreaker Award 2024, the category proudly sponsored by The Eight Foundation. Being an experimental artist, one can observe his creativity in his use of bamboo at the Kochi-Muziris Biennale and the acclaimed Venu at Hayward Gallery in London. Building on aesthetics that are intrinsic to nature, he speaks to the politics of sustainability. Bringing voice to those silenced, Waqif showcases how art preservation and architecture can produce new ways of interacting as opposed to passively seeing art.
As an artist, he uses multiple visual mediums—sculptures, site-specific public and interactive installations, and photography. Violence is constantly reproduced to claim legitimacy—this can be seen in his spatial visualisation works on bombings in Baghdad and Kabul: Ground Zero. His wide knowledge of the nuances of ecological management and politics of ruin aid his artistic pursuits as can be seen in All we leave behind are the memories, which was for the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial in Brisbane, the flagship exhibition of Queensland Art Gallery. The project utilised reclaimed timber from destroyed sites around Brisbane, encouraging visitors to immerse themselves and redefine the experience each time fully.