Road Marking, 2017 - 2018
Thermoplastic paint and reflective glass particles on a grey board
For the Road Marking series, Divecha collaborated with some of the crews who maintain road markings across Dubai and New York. The painted mark, a municipal tool for marshalling traffic is transformed into a means of gestural and formal expression. Applied onto rectangular grey boards either by a hand pouring technique or machine marking equipment the thick gooey thermoplastic paint is almost sculptural, uncannily approximating impastoed oil paint.
Divecha mapped the city’s marked surface at different locations and under varying conditions. When the crew were working under time constraints Divecha strategically inserted his boards into a maintenance protocol already underway, like a surveyor sampling an ongoing process. At a few occasions when time was at hand the crew experimented with the gooey medium, applying it playfully or drying the boards vertically to create a noticeable sag in the instant drying paint. The information heavy title of each work acknowledges the marking code, application process and location it was created.
Text excerpted From Major to Minor, Murtaza Vali, Published by Gallery Isabelle van den Eynde (2017)
This project was supported by Byblos Roads Marking and Traffic Signs LLC - Ghassan Kandil, Sanas V Salam, Sattanathan selvarasu, Ponnalagan Solai, Muhammed Javed Babar, Alagu Veeran, Zia Ur Rahman, Manivasagam Chinnu, Wasim Ahmad, Sarathbabu Jaybal, Abhijith Jayachandran, Kumara Swamy Ganesula, Zawar hussain, Yasir Shah, Akhilesh Chauhan, Rajeev Chauhan, Ranjeet Jhalman, Ajay Chauhan, Uma Mahesh Vegistte, Ghulam, Muhammad Noman, Speen Badshah. RTA - Musab Yahyia Al-Asawedh, Ashraq Abdul Jaleel, Zeyad Adel Amayri
In 2018 Divecha created a new series of 'Road Marking' works in New York, following various crews during the early hours that work in the borough of Manhattan.
