Alliance Francais de Thiruvananthapuram is organising an exhibition of collages made by Bakerji during the last years of his life. The exhibition will be held for fourteen days from April 1, the death anniversary of the great humanist. Simultaneously, some collages can be seen also at www.lauriebaker.net and at www.indulekha.com. The exhibition is called Mango Mania since that is what Mrs. Elizabeth Baker used to call these works. The name derives from the mango shape that Bakerji used extensively in these collages.
Laurie Baker (1917-2007), the great Gandhian green architect abhorred any sort of waste, recycling every conceivable material in his works. During the last few years of his life, Bakerji used to do collages of mind-boggling patterns in the shape of mangoes with magazine pages, newspapers, bit notices, cloth, etc. Like he had never repeated a building design or detailing, he created new and varied 'mango designs'. This body of work, fondly termed as 'mango mania' by Mrs. Baker, is a liberating experience of amazing range of combinations and permutations that teaches us how we can play around and create with discarded materials. Alliance Francais, Thiruvananthapuram, in association with Costford (Centre of Science and Technology for Rural Development) is proud to present an exhibition of a selection of 'Mango Mania' [curated by Sundar & Bhattathiri] on the first death anniversary of the great architect Laurie Baker.
Here are a couple of collages to whet your appetite:
