Life is on a New High, Mumbai 2015The project aims to address the issue of the changing landscape and unregulated... Read More
Life is on a New High, Mumbai 2015
The project aims to address the issue of the changing landscape and unregulated construction in the financial capital of India, Mumbai.
Currently Mumbai is home to the largest number of supertalls and skyscrapers under construction in the world. Almost all of these towers, imposing by size and inappropriateness in equal measure, are residential. Even the richest man in the city lives in a skyscraper. ‘Antilia’ is one of the taller towers in which 27 floors accommodate a family of four and 200 servants.
The architecture of the newly builds is unimaginative, conformist and yet aspirational, as the affluent inhabitants model themselves on partly mistaken perceptions of international displays of wealth. What is clearly intended to be an emulation of a western lifestyle has no close equivalent in the West.
The portraits of the towers, which are taken on a large format analogue camera, are in dialogue with found advertising imagery of similarly aspirational interiors, revealing most peculiar ways of homemaking. In the interiors that people create for themselves personal taste is replaced with cultural references of such density that they become difficult even to look at, let alone to inhabit.
The titles of the images are taken from real estate advertising slogans, such as: ’You don’t just invite friends over, you invite awe.’ The new Indian luxury consumer is pursuing a lifestyle where owning an apartment in the 'newly builds', as much as possessing exclusive items, is seen as a clear sign of wealth and power.