Saif Osmani

Spatial Designer, Visual Artist | England

111 Scenes
By documenting the material exchanges that take place in transitory spaces, in the exchanges and occurrences of daily life, we connect with those which have been taken place over centuries. Bamboo has materially adapted in parallel to human history, by being carved, woven, joined, shifting in form, increasing in mass, deceasing in our collective psyches; through re-abbreviation, gaining meaning and producing symbolism. Throughout this time is has retained its position as a silent signifier to the past and gives rise to a possibility of a future.

The concept of the ‘Baasher Ghor’ or ‘Bamboo House’ seeks to look beyond the means of a self-contained place with a fixed setting, or one singular view, it is instead an abode of many openings and entrances, of multiple frontages and enclosures. The house is still defined by its material essence with inexhaustible connections and still retains the ability to adapt alongside our changing human senses whilst still remaining at core, a house made of bamboo.

‘Baasher Ghor’ presents 35 projects from architects, designers, sculptors, photographers, oral historians and poets from four continents. Each respondent has looked at the material within a narrative in space, connecting it to a real or imaginary place or country of origin.

Human coral
Markets exist as fragile formations, either in our minds or physically on the streets, piecing together the inhabitants’ shared oral histories and hurtling them into the air. Sellers share opportunistic stares, reassure one another through glances and establish communality in fleeting touches.

We live through our markets as lifelines, peering through a micro lense, into multiple, cloned worlds of strange fruits, piled up snacks, exotic vegetables, cooking hot pots, where the mind is allowed to travel, stirring our imaginations and creating dynamic concoctions from our reservoir of memories.

A market stall forms in its own individual way, it does not compromise with the other mimicking creations, so it is pushed to the periphery, the edges of the streets and into narrow lanes. In the shadows of the neon lights, the market becomes a place of refuge where newcomers can pitch for a stake in the city’s fortunes.