Asim Waqif's sculpture, 'Baans' at Khoj Studios (2005)

Anita Dube and Asim Waqif’s exhibition, KEYWORDS AND BAANS was planned as part of an initiative to bring creative practitioners from diverse disciplines together at KHOJ studios, in the hopes of creating a stimulating environment for critical discourse and dialogue. The exhibition brought together contemporary artist Anita Dube with young architect Asim Waqif. “As an architect Waqif has always been fascinated with concrete shuttering structures, its ‘jugar’-ness, although haphazard, is utility based. He is also inspired by shadi-pandaals and the Bengalli migrant labour that construct them in Delhi. These structures act as a base, a skeleton, they are not the objective but a means to another. Here the bamboo was reused, just as it was after this installation; but during the exhibit the bamboo is the Kohinoor, the object. The ambience of the space, the introverted-ness, claustrophobia, anti-socialness; blandness, gaudiness, uncomfortableness is all of vastly importance. Everyone lives in their own protected spaces, not only physically but also figuratively, who they meet, what they do and what they talk about dominates how they exist. Wasif aimed to force the viewer to encounter a new space that compelled them to behave extra-ordinarily, to rethink, to doubt, to even dismiss.” – Exhibition note, Keywords and Baans (2005)