Sandeep Mukherjee – Molting the Fractured

The concept for the exhibition Molting the Fractured acts on a multitude of ideas and thoughts that have occupied Sandeep Mukherjee for over ten years. After preparatory work in his studio in Los Angeles, the artist finalised the exhibition in the summer of 2017 as part of a Berlin-based residency lasting several weeks, which was initiated and financed by 68projects. The works, extending through all three rooms of 68projects, celebrated their world premiere in Berlin.

For more than ten years, the works of Sandeep Mukherjee have revolved around the concept of abstraction as a means to artistically design volatile processes. In his paintings, drawings, and installations, the artist consistently remains faithful to the processual aspect, which is also expressed in his fondness for improvisational methods. The transformation of the acting body, the removal of the material body, and the convolution of the architectural body are central to his artistic explorations, which always focus on the relationship between process, affect, and image.

The primary material at the heart of Mukherjee’s Berlin exhibition is the artist’s private car, a 2006 BMW Mini Cooper. The vehicle served the artist for more than six years as a means of transportation in his adopted city of Los Angeles—the city of cars par excellence—with its interlaced, intersecting highways, fastways, and freeways that cover the city like a network, enriched with the echo of countless Hollywood films in which the automobile is celebrated as an inextricable part of the American Way of Life.

Not least in view of the many hours that Sandeep Mukherjee spent in this vehicle, the BMW Mini Cooper became a type of extended second skin for the artist:

“The Mini Cooper acts like a magnified casing for my body, which became my reference framework with its extended possibilities for speed, mobility and movement within space. The vehicle allows me space to imagine distance and topography in a way that remains closed to my own body.”

Through his father, who worked at Siemens in Germany for many years, Sandeep Mukherjee learned German and became familiar with the idea of the car as the Germans’ favourite child. Before deciding to become an artist, he studied engineering, meaning that his project for Berlin is in many respects an interaction with his own roots.

The works—combining sculpture, painting, and installation—mark a significant step in Mukherjee’s artistic practice and are the result of complex preparations. The BMW Mini Cooper is used as a mould: a total of eighteen thin, nearly square aluminium sheets (each approx. 100 × 120 cm) encase the car completely. Similar to a frottage, the individual layers are pressed by hand or pushed into less accessible areas using tools. In this way, each aluminium sheet is embossed with a copy of a part of the car’s surface, becoming a second skin that preserves the imprint of the underlying vehicle.

The moulded sheets are then individually and manually coloured with acrylic paint. The focus lies less on accurate painting technique and more on the moment of spraying with all its contingencies. Gravitational force, the direction of the spray can, and even slight breezes play an important role in the spreading of paint across the surfaces. These eventualities are deliberately allowed and encouraged.

On the outer sides of the aluminium skin, the artist works with black and white tones. The insides, normally hidden from view, are designed with flesh-coloured shades of red. The notion of the aluminium sheets as skin is thus intensified: while the exterior appears neutral, the interior colouring evokes raw flesh. Through this process, the aluminium undergoes a transformation and appears to acquire an organic quality.

The eighteen coloured aluminium sheets are then suspended closely together from the ceiling using transparent ropes—close enough to convey the impression of a single body, yet always accessible. The movement of the individual sheets caused by air currents or visitors walking among them is an integral part of the installation’s concept, as is the site-specific adjustment to the exhibition space. The sounds produced when the parts move and come into contact add another sensory layer to the work. The multitude of impressions—sight, touch, and hearing—address the senses in a manner analogous to the experience of a car journey.

The works of Sandeep Mukherjee have been shown in the United States, Asia, and Europe in numerous solo and group exhibitions, including at the Broad Center, Pitzer College, and the Pomona College Museum of Art in Claremont, California. He was recently awarded a John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation Fellowship, marking a significant milestone in his artistic career.