In the walkway of Singapore's prestigious Esplanade arts centre is a breath-taking sculpture by Chennai-based contemporary visual artist, poet and writer Parvathi Nayar. Aptly titled BreatheWater, this ocean-related installation allows viewers to believe that they're positioned on an ocean floor looking up, immersed in a certain oneness with the waters.
Nayar, known for her multidisciplinary art, has showcased extensively worldwide, from Indonesia to France and Dubai to London. She pioneered the form of "drawn sculpture" as in the seminal 20-foot-high drawing "A Story of Flight", JayaHe art programme, T2 Terminal, Mumbai international airport; and Water of Life/Salt as part of Rajeev Sethi's Elemental project. Her works have been collected by institutions such as the Singapore Art Museum, BMW, The Sotheby's Art Institute, The Australia India Institute and Deutsche Bank.
DH spoke with the artist on BreatheWater, which is on display until mid-July 2022.
Q. How did the BreatheWater installation come about? Were you already working on it, or did the Esplanade specifically commission it?
A. A commission from the Esplanade invited me to explore an experiential installation based on my work with nature, water, and sustainability. One strand of my work in the area of water and man's relationships to the environment has been on Diatoms that are fantastically-shaped microscopic organisms with walls of glass. They are found in water, especially the oceans, and contribute to the oxygen we breathe. They can also function as a gauge of the purity of water. I decided to focus on diatoms for this installation.
Q. What exactly is the Esplanade, and how does BreatheWater fit in?
A. BreatheWater offers a multidisciplinary journey that combines science and art. It is installed in three giant conical structures above a public walkway at the Esplanade arts centre in Singapore. It was a process that took over two years, thinking through the drawings and reinterpreting them into three-dimensional forms that remained true to their original concept. Esplanade—Theatres on the Bay, Singapore's national arts centre, is one of the busiest in the world, with about 3,500 arts events presented annually.
Q. What materials have you used?
A. The installation consists of 21 large sculptures created from metal and string; three-dimensional "drawings in space" based on my small triptych of hand-drawn diatoms. The drawings are also installed as part of BreatheWater. The detailing of the drawings invites the viewers to come up close and look at the subatomic world.
The sculptures do not have a kinetic mechanism; however, the sculptures do move, based on the movement of people through the Esplanade walkway and the airflow currents this creates.
Q. Sustainability has been a significant theme in your work. How do you think artists and sculptors can contribute to this dialogue?
A. My art engages with the socio-cultural milieu in which we live and responds to our time's urgent questions and ideas. As an artist and a mother, I think deeply about the planet we live on and the legacy we leave to future generations. BreatheWater tries to draw attention to the urgency of these subjects in a thoughtful and experiential way and reminds us of the beauty and interconnected nature of our planet. I believe that art can contribute to the sustainability dialogue in such subtle yet powerful ways.
Q. What kind of projects do you aim to do in the future?
A. Art, for me, is a way of trying to understand the world in which I live. It is, in a sense, a philosophy of the spaces we inhabit that deals with urban memory, nature and water, and man's relationship to the environment. My work often marries science and art as two great 'languages' with which to speak of our world and its multiple truths and experiences. I hope to continue to develop artwork and projects around these areas.
(Neeti Jaychander is a journalist, writer and lecturer based in Chennai)