Artist Mukesh Sharma’s present project is a comment on human beings becoming slaves to technology. He talks to Divya Kaushik about creating massive installations with keyboard, monitors and chips
If you would have visited his Vasant Kunj studio anytime in last five months, it might have easily appeared like a workshop dealing with computer scarp parts. With chips, monitor and thousands of keys uprooted from the computer keyboard spread around, you would have spotted the artist, Mukesh Sharma, working on his life-size installations. The artist, who has been in Delhi for last five years will unveil his four mega installations on July 24. Each talks about the role that technology plays in our lives and with the introduction of upgraded and advanced techniques, the older one becomes obsolete. It also talks about how fast human beings are becoming slave to technology. “We cannot imagine a day without the use of keyboard. Just pressing a few keys can transfer us to a different world. It is this fascination and charm for the virtual world that’s making us get into our own shells,” shared the artist, who along with the curator Unnati Singh has worked hard for over five months to get four sculptures.
The project is titled A Terabyte-ing Serpentine. The first huge sculpture is made of keyboards with digital prints. It is designed in the form of snake and the artist says that it is the reminder to people that as we are fast moving to adopt the latest technique there is a lot of junk that we are leaving behind.
The installation titled Inverted search for immortality is a dead tree Sharma found at the site of his studio. Installed upside down from the ceiling, Sharma has stuck thousands of computer keys on the dried out branches of the tree creating faux branches that reach out towards the ground like complex, tortuous arms.
The 39-year-old artist, who did his MFA in printmaking from MS University, Baroda, shared, “I have been developing this with the imagery of computer and its components in my mixed media installations, paintings and digital prints for the last four years. However, this is not a vindication of the infinite monkey theorem, there are no random hits on composition but a very deliberate construction of what I see around me. But now I have taken the idea several steps forward for this project. The idea is how this simple keyboard button is taking over our lives. Rapid technology change and its outpourings alter the aesthetics of a society. In this context, it is becoming increasingly important for me as an artist to synthesise global visuals into a local vocabulary. In my journey from rural India to its rich, sinister urban cousins, I have encountered the rapid wipe out of the local art traditions and their morphing into something totally different from the way my art aesthetics were. I have always responded to art and visuals with my personal intellect. To me, art has appealed when it was totally away from pretences and evoked a child-like wonder and delight in me. I look at skyscrapers and digital billboards around me with the same sense of amazement as I once did while looking at my village temple or the monstrous looking aerial roots of the tree in its chaupal and the vibrant colours of clothes village women wore. My current collaborative work is an attempt to create a synthesis of my experiences of technology with my surroundings — those of my past with those of my present.”
His other installation is inspired from the ritual he saw in his village. “I belong to a village in Alwar, Rajasthan. I came across this ritual at the village temple. Women, whose wishes are granted by the almighty throw their blouses in front of the temple. So the installation showcases a huge wall mural and infront of the mural is a huge blouse in colour green. There is a tree with keys strung on the branches. “It depicts how the villagers in my village have adopted the technology but they are still following the rituals and traditions they have always believed in,” added Sharma.
Another installation is a comment on use of non-biodegradable material. “It tries to convey a message on the use of recyclable products. You can see the monitors with the money plant branching put of it,” he explained.
The exhibition will continue till August 24.