The shape of dissent

In Gigi Scaria's sculpture for Vadehra Art Gallery, titled 'Camp', the motif of aggregation is transposed from humans to a circle of houses. This bronze, high-relief wall sculpture with oxidised green roofs directly squares up to the architecture of refugee camps and detention centres. They seem skeletal even though they are simmering with life, mirroring the fragility, uncertainty and the unrelenting impermanence of the displaced. The vicious cycle of un-belonging is the reason why the houses are arranged in a circle. But in the harsh, forbidding circle of stern-looking houses, the artist has also embedded elements of hope and faith. “They come in as the green roofs of the camp,” said Scaria. “And the cyclical notion of camps also reveal the togetherness in this hardship, the aspect of survival where we also help each other. History repeats these positive forces of regeneration as well.”

22 February 2020