The Russian Centre, where few go now was hub-a-bub with activity as friends and admirers of the artist turned up in full force to view the installations of the artist which were made at different places in the past five years or so. The work consists of five installations on the theme of `Shelter'. These comprise `House/Boat', `Carrier', `The Table is Laid' and `Bunk-Bed' and `House'.

Using steel, wood, hand-made paper, grease, paint and even rice, chutney and curd along with video monitors, Vivan creates monuments to life's journey. The Left-of-the-road ideology and politics of the time helped in shaping the works but what comes through to the viewer is the human warmth which runs through the body of work. At the level of aesthetics, the works have an appealing visual quality. These monuments to life's journey are to be seen to be felt.

The fire burning in the little `House' inside the white cube keeps the pot boiling and the twin dining space, both eastern and western, in `The Table is Laid' is a visual delight with the intellectual overtones reduced to classical minimalism. Vivan says of his work, ``All the objects included in `Shelter' are made dysfunctional, multifunctional. The boat is propped up on railway sleepers and in the other end stood up on oars. The table becomes a room, the bunk-bed and upside-down crypt.'' The human presence comes through a machine. Kathakali dancer literally making faces or Shubha Mudgal singing a piece on the video. The toys are there on the bunk-bed in rubber representing the childhood memories and the table is laid but there is no one to partake of the feast. This adds to the dramatic element of the artist's work.

Away from the the `Shelter' is yet another installation called `The Indian Bazar' which is the outcome of hundreds of pictures Vivan has taken of the flea markets to be found on the pavements of the country. These are strewn in a heap of red metallic frames while a pillar of blue-and-green metallic frames stands witness. Some of the pictures are blown up and displayed in lit tin trunks. Vivan's show comes at a time when `Installation' has become a much-maligned word with just about anything passing by that name. But the `art of the matter' is showing at Vivan's exhibition which has been co-sponsored by Nature Morte.