Architectural Resonance I: Clock Tower, Sardar Market, Jodhpur, 2025
Aphra Shemza
Materials: Fluorescent Perspex, ultraviolet lights, black powder coated steel frames, wire and fixings
Dimensions: Site specific
Commissioned for Jodhpur Arts Week 1.0 by the Public Arts Trust of India with support from British Council India and curated by Sakhshi Mahajan.
Architectural Resonance I is a site-specific installation that brings the abstract art of Aphra Shemza's grandfather, Anwar Jalal Shemza (1928–1985), into dialogue with her contemporary practice and the architectural heritage of Jodhpur. The work reinterprets the wall and gate motifs of his City Walls series, drawing inspiration from Islamic architecture and the traditional jaali, a perforated stone screen characteristic of South Asian architecture. Combining these inherited forms with geometric patterns observed in Sardar Market and Ghanta Ghar, Shemza creates a visual language rooted in both family legacy and place.
Historically, jaalis served both aesthetic and climatic purposes, casting intricate shadows while regulating light and airflow. Shemza reimagines this interplay through fluorescent Perspex illuminated by ultraviolet light, transforming architectural patterns into a contemporary sculptural installation that explores the relationship between geometry, light and space.
Through the concept of architectural resonance, the work explores how forms and ideas can echo across generations, cultures and places, finding new meaning through reinterpretation. Bringing together ancestral influence and the distinctive architectural identity of Jodhpur, Architectural Resonance I creates a dialogue between past and present, exploring how geometry can carry memory, express interconnectedness and reveal the relationships between people and the spaces they inhabit.