![](http://sharjahart.org/images/uploads/site-images/SB9__Gowda_Drip_Field1.jpg)
Drip Field, 2009
Sheela Gowda
Drip Field, 2009
Site-specific outdoor installation
Mixed media
Installation view
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Sheela Gowda
Drip Field, 2009
Site-specific outdoor installation
Mixed media
Installation view
I got interested in the meanings and the weight of materials, gestures, Sharjah’s history and the link to other histories. I was struck by its special link to India, past and present, by the fact that till around 1960 the currency in use in the Emirates was the Indian Rupee. I was moved by the stamps issued by Sharjah, of European paintings, the celebration of another country’s ‘the first man on the moon’ mission. I was curious about a country that has to import almost everything for its people, the absence of grandiose historical buildings and artifacts (I had visualized huge mosques with patterns inlayed with lapis lazuli), its geographical sparseness, and its present excesses.
I was fascinated by the system of drip irrigation which uses recycled water for greenery to exist in the cities. I was intrigued by the presence of the colour black in a hot climate, the predilection for gold and shiny things.
2009
Excerpted from Provisions, Book I, the catalogue for Sharjah Biennial 9
This project was part of Sharjah Biennial 9
Sheela Gowda
2009
Site-specific outdoor installation
Mixed media
Installation view
Published to accompany Sharjah Biennial 9, Provisions is an experimental catalogue approaching the space of the book as an art project.
The second book in the Provisions series looks at the experience of taking part in and attending a biennial.
In many of my works I bring together specificity of place, form and materials into a language of abstraction.
Sheela Gowda