Asim Waqif: ‘touch is really important in experiencing any art work’
‘I’m really keen to try and bring together things that are apparently very disparate or polarised,’ says Asim Waqif as he introduces us to वेणु [Venu], his striking bamboo installation on our Hayward Gallery Terrace.
वेणु [Venu], the third Bagri Foundation commission to appear at the Southbank Centre, embodies Waqif’s approach, with a swirling, sprawling natural bamboo structure, wrapped around the industrial metal skeleton which holds it against the concrete of our brutalist Hayward Gallery.
Waqif joined us at the Southbank Centre to give this video introduction to his installation, in which he explains his concerns at the creative industry’s hierarchical nature, how his preference for improvisation led him from architecture into the arts, and his lessening fear at being typecast as a bamboo artist.
‘I want to improvise. I am much happier when I am surprised by what turns out at the end.’
Asim Waqif