Inside ‘Matrix at Seventy-Three Times Square’: Ashok Ahuja’s take on digital art and AI

Standing beneath ‘Skyroof’, one feels dwarfed by towering structures, as if trapped in a metropolis where the sky is a mere sliver between concrete giants. Mounted on the ceiling at Gallery Espace, this immersive digital installation by filmmaker, photographer, and artist Ashok Ahuja replicates the feeling of being swallowed by the metropolis. “The sky becomes a roof, and the buildings, walls. Suddenly, what was once an open street turns into a vast yet confined room,” Ahuja says.

The ongoing exhibition, ‘Matrix at Seventy-Three Times Square,’ builds on this interplay of space, structure, and perception. Ahuja explores the tension between order and chaos, drawing connections between mathematics, digital space, and perception." 

Ahuja’s works are not easy to decode, forcing one to slow down, pause, and engage—peeling back layers of meaning—whether it's an image of the night sky, abstract line drawings resembling an abacus, or digitally layered photographs of architectural spaces. 

Reimagining spaces

Ahuja uses his practice to reimagine spaces he has encountered during his travels. One of the works in the show is ‘Navajivan Nagar,’ a digital cityscape where towering stacks of books replace skyscrapers. Inspired by a visit to the Navajivan Trust’s basement in Gujarat, Ahuja saw more than just storage. “To me, these stacks of books looked like buildings,” he says. By digitally adding a sky above them, he transformed a mundane basement into a symbolic city—one where knowledge forms the foundation of life. 

His work ‘Moon’s Sojourn’ is inspired by IIM Ahmedabad, where architect Louis Kahn’s geometric forms—circles, arches, and red-brick semicircles—reminded him of the moon’s abode. 

“I saw the moon’s many faces in the architecture and imagined that each night, when everyone is asleep, it comes down and wanders through the corridors,” he says. The work envisions the moon drifting silently through the campus, a dreamlike presence in the stillness of the night.

Computer master 

Ahuja was an early adopter of digital tools, buying his first computer in 1985 and experimenting with digital photography by 1998. “Computers were always a seamless extension of my work, whether it was filmmaking, scriptwriting, or visual art. As the tools evolved, so did my practice,” he says.

He held his first exhibition of inkjet prints and computer animation in 2003, when digital art was still an emerging field. His early adoption of technology made the transition to digital art an organic evolution, “It wasn’t a decision—it simply unfolded as part of my creative process,” says Ahuja.

A voracious reader, his personal library holds over 5,000 books spanning existentialism, cognitive science, and quantum physics. His artistic approach is deeply informed by philosophy, literature, and science. Thinkers like Sartre, Camus, Derrida, Heisenberg, and Niels Bohr have profoundly influenced his perception of reality. “If you don’t engage deeply with the world, you’re just reproducing what’s already been done,” he says. 

When asked about his creative process, he dismisses over analysing technique. “If you focus on the process, you’ll never truly see what it is—you miss the work itself.”

Ahuja prefers working alone, “I don’t have assistants. Everything you see in my studio is created, printed, and finished in-house,” he says. His independence is not about rejecting collaboration but about preserving a deep personal connection with his work. “I like having complete control—from concept to execution.” 

The AI Question

With Artificial Intelligence-generated art becoming more prevalent, Ahuja sees technology not as a replacement but as just another medium. “AI won’t replace human creativity—it’s just another tool, like a camera or a paintbrush,” he argues. “When photography emerged, people feared it would kill painting. Instead, it made painters rethink their craft. AI will do the same.”  

He dismisses the idea that AI could supplant human ingenuity. “AI can generate images, write poetry, even mimic a novelist’s style—but does that mean poets and writers will become obsolete? No. Art requires vision, intellect, and emotional depth—something AI lacks.”

While he has yet to incorporate AI into his practice, he remains open to it. “If it finds a meaningful place in my work, I’ll engage with it. But for now, I’m focused on what I can create with my own hands and mind.”

For Ahuja, art is not about capturing reality but reshaping it. Whether turning books into buildings or skies into ceilings, he challenges us to reconsider the spaces we move through—and the perceptions that shape them. “We all perceive the same reality differently,” he says. “I’m simply showing you how I see the world—when I walk around, move through everyday life, and step into the world outside, this is the reality as it appears to me.”

‘Matrix at Seventy-Three Times Square’  is on view at Gallery Espace, New Friends Colony till April 12

This article is written by Adithi Reena Ajith