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The Lilliput Proletariat

Public Art Installation

A dystopian city in a box

Project completed under ‘Art in Transit’ at Peenya Metro Station, Bangalore

Art in Transit is a public art initiative run by Srishti School of Art, Design & Technology. It brings together students and practitioners to develop contextual art and design interventions in metro stations and public spaces in the city.

In a Nutshell

Peenya is an industrial district in Bangalore. My project aimed at illuminating the strangely pure, almost dystopian quality of Peenya’s industrial environment by contrasting it against the opposite: the kind of imagery one often associates with notions of ‘development’, ‘progress’ and ‘happiness’.

An image in layers.

The piece is constructed as a large illustrated synoptic image that tells the entire story.

In the form of a 2D layered miniature diorama, every scene is intricately made up of several little pieces illustrated, printed, laser-cut and layered together to create the final composite image.

The piece is two-sided, contained within an aquarium-like display case, with one side depicting industrial Peenya, while the other side depicts the “developed” city.

A narrative jigsaw.

Piecing together the story

The image weaves an intricate dystopian narrative around Peenya and its role in building the city we live in. The scenes in the diorama draw from and exaggerate Peenya’s existing landscape on one side, incorporating tiny details like fliers, building signs, tea stalls, etc. The other side, depicting the “developed” city, stands in stark contrast, recreating formulaic scenes from commercial advertisements. It hopes to question what development means to us and attempts to present the imagery we attach to it in a way that makes it seem alien.

The story behind the image is never explicitly spelled out anywhere. Every scene acts like a puzzle piece that fits together to narrate the larger story, and the viewer is invited to come closer, observe, make connections and decipher the story for himself. With several hidden details and micro-stories taking place across the image, viewers have the opportunity to notice and take something new away from the piece every time.