In “Paper Dreams” multiple works [Media: PU on brass and stoneware, handmade paper.] Gada returns to his large-scale botanicals inspired by his solitary walks in the forest, where amid the russets and browns of the parched earth of an Indian summer he encounters huge busts of fluorescent colour and drifts of fallen shocking cerise pink petals of the bougainvillea, also known as paper flowers. For Gada the flowers are a paradox, as their delicate translucent origami blooms symbolise for him the fragility of his hopes and dreams that quickly wither under the harsh glare of reality and his aspirations are dashed to the floor where he treads softly on his dreams through pools of colour. However, bougainvillea is extremely robust and flower in the harshest and most arid of climates as they require minimal water so have adapted to flourish in dry conditions. Therefore, even in despair the flowers create beautiful drifts of coloured oases in a parched, grey environment. The viewer is invited to look down onto the dappled forest floor where an installation of handmade paper from Bougainvillea flowers is scattered with hundreds of hand-craftedceramic flowers. Elsewhere large floral sculptures climb and flourish from the walls of the gallery, Gada employs a process called repousséand chasing, used mostly by jewellers for embossed designs, to create the delicate veins and textures of the fragile flowers. The artist has distilled the heat of a shimmering Indian summer’s day into his art,but the flowers and dreams are no longer ephemeral but a moment in time frozen for perpetuity.

text by Julian Parr