iSculpt unveils sculptures that are making magnificent statements as works of public art. By Team Viva
Split into contemporary installations and sculptures, the exhibition iSculpt seamlessly occupies the Gandhi King Plaza at IIC, being its own diverse ecosystem. Uma Nair, the show’s curator, calls it a revolution in public exhibitions because it is the first time that artists have been allowed a free run in terms of material and experimentation.
The works on display include Arun Pandit’s Mask Seller, Sanjay Bhattacharyya’s 12-foot bronze Krishna, Vineet Kacker’s Buddhist Pillar, Tapas Biswas’ Innocence, Mukesh Sharma’s Nagraj and Neeraj Gupta’s Divine love.
About curating the show, Uma says that it is particularly important at a time when discussion on taking art works beyond galleries is going on. “Art can be expressed in any medium. If there is any divide, that is something set by Nature only. Where the question of longevity starts and ends is important. There should be no barrier.”
About his work Mask Seller, which looks at the many faces of human predicament, Arun Pandit says that human beings have a mask to hide their real identity. “What people show is not their real face. They move around with a mask.” His second work Bull speaks about the massive forces of nature through animal imagery. There’s a larger meaning too. “This collection is about the development of cities and villages. Cities develop vertically whereas villages develop horizontally. But everywhere our social life is based on money. Hence I titled it as Bull,” he says.
Simran lamba’s Krishna and Radha is a post- modernist look at the fervour and flavour of the Radha Krishna folklore that still turns heads. Explains the artist, “My work is about the union of Radha and Krishna. I love heating metal. My medium of preference includes copper and brass which are innately intense. I melt these metals and work with them,” he says.
Neeraj Gupta’s Divine love is about human relationships and the eternal quest for a civilisation to live and procreate for posterity. His sculpture is based on the mythological theme of Rasleela. “Our art should represent the country’s cultural fabric. We shouldn’t get influenced or dominated by Western models,” he adds.
The National Award-winning work of Madhab Das, An Inconvenient Truth, of a deer with iron, is a statement on the loss of habitat for an animal whose world is threatened due to largescale deforestation. Sanjay Bhattacharyya’s work represents Krishna as a flute player. Mukesh Sharma’s Nagraj depicts the uselessness of waste and the degree of conspicuous consumption. Created out of computer boards and Styrofoam packaging material, this depiction of the mythological Sheshnag is an eye-opener. Vineet Kacker’s Buddhist Pillar has deep monastic meanderings and is a symbol of sheer resonance. Atul Sinha’s wooden carved work with sleek textural contours sets him apart as a sculptor of deep reverberations.
“iSculpt is a revolution in the making that has adopted a generous stance that exults form, materiality and process alongside the history of art discourse which allows for a breadth of new readings and understandings to occur, both between artists and generations of artists”, concludes the curator.