The Invisible Interior

There is a space beyond the visible is what Dilip Chobisa suggests through his deliberated constructions that draw our attention to corners and thresholds made conspicuous by their stark presence.While his early built structures invited viewers to physically enter his designed enclosuresand experience spaces from the inside and the outside, Chobisa has achieved critical acclaim for his two- dimensional, flatreliefsthat combine graphic and sculpture making skills to evoke emotive and psychological states of being. In his conception of these works, he allows viewers an entry, butonly visually into his spaces of silence and solitude.The visible and the hidden,the interior and the exterior, the measured and the immeasurable are explored by the eye as it encountersoblique angles, blurry shadows, the beam of light from beneath the closed door, a flight of steps that disappear from sight as well as in the reiteration of the receding checkered ground.Using an architectural vocabulary, Chobisia’s distinct articulation of parts is conveyed as a carefully constructed whole, with the preciseness of geometry revealing bare spaces, symbolic of apronounced emptiness.

In some strange way one is reminded of Giorgio De Chirico’s painted landscapes that are enigmatic in their haunting silence and unseen presences. There is also a trompe-l'œilfeel to the work in the way that the eye is made to move in and out. Chobisa has evolved a distinct language of his own that uses his acute observations of the mundane reality, his deep awareness of the everyday to ventilate his inner thoughts and emotions and process them into his art making. 

Chobisa often creates tactile surfaces suggestive of building material such as cement, stone and marble. His preference for a monochromatic palette helps to amplify atmospheric tones and nuance effects of a serene timelessness. The necessary trick is in the framing of the work, which is designed in a way to cast shadows on the two-dimensional planes of the sculptural relief. The spatial configurations invite the viewers to peep in and explorethe shallow staging of architectural elements in graphite and light, creating a resolved composition that gesture absences and perhaps, unseen presences.

The modest interiors of Chobisa are obviously inspired by architecture and natural light but draw our attention to intimate moments of clairvoyance that challenge the limits of perception.

Roobina Karode