Vishal shared his path, how after completing architecture in the late 90s, his architectural practice found its way into arts practice of mainly two groups – video and site specific works. Most of his site specific art is done by interventions in abandoned spaces or marginal spaces that sit on the edge.


Dar expresses his desire, “to see that which is invisible, an urban-parallax, achieved by injecting iconic cinematic imagery, through the illegal practice of digital architecture.” At a KHOJ residency program in 2009, Dar created a site-specific digital intervention on Google Earth, where an iconic image from Mehboob Khan’s film “Mother India” towers from behind the India Gate monument in New Delhi. His title “I am a monument”, is borrowed from Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s book, “I am a monument – On Learning from Las Vegas”. 


His work “Cutter” responded to the spurious 500 rupee notes in 2009, locating an object as a landscape to challenge the notions of real or fake. Similarly his ‘Jai Jawan’ video looks at commemorative stamps produced in the 60s on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan, relocating the Jawan in our current space. The state produced stamp enters the public space and Dar expands on its meaning, purpose and association.


NAAG-Z, his 2012 site-specific sculpture was brought to life through cutting-edge projection mapping technology, aspiring to deconstruct the notion of sculpture. A new version of this work titled NAAG-XY is at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco as a part of N.E.A.T. (New Experiments in Art and Technology 2015).

Light is a recurring motif in Dar’s work and is powerfully harnessed in his ambitious 2013 site specific work ‘Prajapati’ which refers to Louis Khan’s texts on silence and light and Vedic texts. 
In 2015, continuing with his interest in creating experience territories and hallucinatory zones, Dar produced Maruts, his first site specific work in Pune, in an abandoned 40,000 sqft. storage facility. The Maruts are reimagined as storm deities using computer controlled oscillating beams of light set to varying metronomic meters over a vast reflection pool created with 200,000 gallons of water.



Dar tries to challenge a certain idea of authorship. When we look at his works like ‘Girl in a swing’ or the ‘Cutter’, they can be circulated endlessly on the internet and can become like any other GIF or meme. His big site specific works also work like that. You have these mesmerising light experiences connecting with the site can offer to you rather than walking into a space which is authored in a specific way or style imposed with an artistic stamp.

Written by Deekshit Sebastian

Vishal shared his path, how after completing architecture in the late 90s, his architectural practice found its way into arts practice of mainly two groups – video and site specific works. Most of his site specific art is done by interventions in abandoned spaces or marginal spaces that sit on the edge.

Dar expresses his desire, “to see that which is invisible, an urban-parallax, achieved by injecting iconic cinematic imagery, through the illegal practice of digital architecture.” At a KHOJ residency program in 2009, Dar created a site-specific digital intervention on Google Earth, where an iconic image from Mehboob Khan’s film “Mother India” towers from behind the India Gate monument in New Delhi. His title “I am a monument”, is borrowed from Robert Venturi and Denise Scott Brown’s book, “I am a monument – On Learning from Las Vegas”.

His work “Cutter” responded to the spurious 500 rupee notes in 2009, locating an object as a landscape to challenge the notions of real or fake. Similarly his ‘Jai Jawan’ video looks at commemorative stamps produced in the 60s on Lal Bahadur Shastri’s slogan, relocating the Jawan in our current space. The state produced stamp enters the public space and Dar expands on its meaning, purpose and association.

NAAG-Z, his 2012 site-specific sculpture was brought to life through cutting-edge projection mapping technology, aspiring to deconstruct the notion of sculpture. A new version of this work titled NAAG-XY is at the Contemporary Jewish Museum in San Francisco as a part of N.E.A.T. (New Experiments in Art and Technology 2015).

Light is a recurring motif in Dar’s work and is powerfully harnessed in his ambitious 2013 site specific work ‘Prajapati’ which refers to Louis Khan’s texts on silence and light and Vedic texts. In 2015, continuing with his interest in creating experience territories and hallucinatory zones, Dar produced Maruts, his first site specific work in Pune, in an abandoned 40,000 sqft. storage facility. The Maruts are reimagined as storm deities using computer controlled oscillating beams of light set to varying metronomic meters over a vast reflection pool created with 200,000 gallons of water.

Dar tries to challenge a certain idea of authorship. When we look at his works like ‘Girl in a swing’ or the ‘Cutter’, they can be circulated endlessly on the internet and can become like any other GIF or meme. His big site specific works also work like that. You have these mesmerising light experiences connecting with the site can offer to you rather than walking into a space which is authored in a specific way or style imposed with an artistic stamp.

Written by Deekshit Sebastian

Heritage Commons creates digital knowledge bases for art institutions like museums and galleries. Existing museums and galleries in our country are extremely insular and wrongly perceived as intellectual institutions for the elite. Heritage Commons pushes the envelope to create state of the art experiences for facilities to be at par with leading museums and galleries of the world, especially with regards to technology. Digital documentation helps creating virtual data to share with the layman using interactive interfaces, which help institutions to reach out to a larger spectrum of people. These methods aim to eventually gather higher footfall.

Neeraj shared two of his latest projects that adopt vastly different approaches to documenting an art program. For the GVK Mumbai T2 Museum, films created were shot on iPhones. Using hardware that was handy but not overly imposing, the team was able to capture candid moments with artists, and also craftsmen in remote areas in the country. The films can be now seen in the digital signage for the museum at the airport and their dedicated website.

Although the aesthetic was very different from the iPhone film, the second project, a film for Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, was very well made. Neeraj referred to this commercial approach as ‘glossy’. With a specific brief for a pre-defined audience, the purpose was to document a large show on “Constructs”. The film captured the essence of the show and had footage intercut of artists explaining their exhibited works.

Neeraj is now looking forward to collaborate with fellow design & art practitioners to create custom made proposals for the country’s museum and galleries. Along with Creative Commons, he hopes to continue to create alternative experiences for these art institutions to dissipate the information to reach the “commons” using readily accessible technology.

Written by Surajit Ranjan Das

Heritage Commons creates digital knowledge bases for art institutions like museums and galleries. Existing museums and galleries in our country are extremely insular and wrongly perceived as intellectual institutions for the elite. Heritage Commons pushes the envelope to create state of the art experiences for facilities to be at par with leading museums and galleries of the world, especially with regards to technology. Digital documentation helps creating virtual data to share with the layman using interactive interfaces, which help institutions to reach out to a larger spectrum of people. These methods aim to eventually gather higher footfall.

Neeraj shared two of his latest projects that adopt vastly different approaches to documenting an art program. For the GVK Mumbai T2 Museum, films created were shot on iPhones. Using hardware that was handy but not overly imposing, the team was able to capture candid moments with artists, and also craftsmen in remote areas in the country. The films can be now seen in the digital signage for the museum at the airport and their dedicated website.

Although the aesthetic was very different from the iPhone film, the second project, a film for Kiran Nadar Museum of Art, was very well made. Neeraj referred to this commercial approach as ‘glossy’. With a specific brief for a pre-defined audience, the purpose was to document a large show on “Constructs”. The film captured the essence of the show and had footage intercut of artists explaining their exhibited works.

Neeraj is now looking forward to collaborate with fellow design & art practitioners to create custom made proposals for the country’s museum and galleries. Along with Creative Commons, he hopes to continue to create alternative experiences for these art institutions to dissipate the information to reach the “commons” using readily accessible technology.

Written by Surajit Ranjan Das