In Hyderabad, Ankon Mitra’s art installations give a fun spin to archival maps

Discover Ankon Mitra's innovative map-inspired artworks at Kalakriti Art Gallery in Hyderabad until October 5.

A series of deep blue circular structures greet visitors at the entrance of Kalakriti Art Gallery in Banjara Hills, Hyderabad. The installation is part of Map Unfolded, a showcase of artworks by architect, sculptor and origami artist Ankon Mitra, curated by gallery owner, Prshant Lahoti. The installation features illustrated maps of the constellations in the Milky Way galaxy. Viewed from the other end, it reveals the many moons of the solar system. A few feet away, illuminated lampshades bear printed images of old maps of Hyderabad, Kolkata, Goa, Mumbai and Chennai. 

When Prshant, who has an enviable repository of maps, proposed the idea of artworks inspired by maps, Ankon was game. He explains, “An artist might create something on a blank canvas whereas an architect like me responds to a brief — say, a 1000-bed hospital, a residential complex or an educational institution — and creates something artistic and functional. Through this collaboration with Prshant and Rekha Lahoti, I wanted to see if we could design artworks that spark wider interest, not limited to map nerds.” 

Ankon wanted visitors to pause, observe the oritecture (origami and architecture) artworks and discover new details. “I then thought of three-dimensional artworks that reveal a few details and conceal a few within the origami of origami, that pique the viewers’ curiosity.” 

Having browsed the maps at Kalakriti Archives, the artist worked out a road map (pardon the pun) to make three-dimensional art inspired by the two-dimensional maps. “I found maps of Europe dating back to the 12th and 13th centuries and maps of India from the 17th century to the present and shortlisted what could work for this show. Prshant has a series of city maps, pilgrimage maps, bazaar maps, and so on.” 

Ankon explains how a map of Madurai shows the Meenakshi Sundareshwarar temple and its vicinity, with flower sellers and copper vessel sellers, thus mapping the bazaar. Another map of Benares shows the bazaars near the Kashi Vishwanath temple. A pilgrimage map of Uttarakhand highlights prominent religious sites including Kedarnath, Badrinath and Amarnath. 

A few maps of Indian pilgrimage sites are reimagined through the Japanese art of Ikebana. In his research, Ankon found parallels between the art and culture of India and Japan. “There is a spiritual significance to the method of Ikebana arrangements and the placement of the vase. We tried to reinterpret old pilgrimage maps in that form.” Maps of Thiruchendur, Uttarakhand, Dwaraka and Benares are printed and folded in a specific manner to form the ikebana-inspired artworks.

This is Ankon’s first full-fledged showcase of artworks in Hyderabad, which also features pinwheel-inspired installations and ori-kiri (a combination of origami and kirigami) installations with printed maps.