EMERGING: THE RISE AND RISE OF YOUNG SCULPTORS FROM GUJARAT

Mayadhara Sahu

Odisha-born artist Mayadhara Sahu is inspired by a sense of loneliness that living in a big city. He creates artworks that take him back to his village. Sahu admits “When I went to Bhubaneswar for my further studies, I found changes in my surroundings and lifestyle. They started evoking nostalgic feelings for my home, stories found there, and the surrounding objects. This became the source for my art practice”.Through his choice of medium – marble, wood and metal – Sahu attempts to strike a balance between urban chaos and rural modesty, taking further his idealised vision that is placed between myth and reality. There is one thing, which I always address in my work – change – be it in places or people. Creating works about his villages keeps him connected to his family, friends, culture and society he says which is why he tries to reflect this in my art.”

Awdhesh Tamrakar

Architecture by nature, calls for a specific aesthetic in the absence of routine human interactions one of decay and of abandonment. This aesthetic interests me, as buildings cease to function in the way they were originally designed to. The abandoned, ignored and forgotten space that goes unseen by the bulk of society. It is difficult to explain this to a lay man and needs a lot of attention to the methodology to clearly display the idea. I thereby use task-photography. Photography tells the tale of what these spaces are, in the clearest manner. Exploration through photography present with another level of exploration of how space came into being, is capable of causing a reactionary exploration into what space can become. This series is a result of the observation and scrutiny of such remnants. The romance of absence and the traces of memories, reunite the beauty of forgotten. These traces associate us with the tangible and materialistic world of ours. They seem like old faded photographs of an occasion of yesterday.

ManaKhera Mishra

India invented zero, the first plastic surgery and eventually the Kamasutra but the ‘modern us’ still cannot accept certain fragments of such as sexuality and its legacies. Khera says, ‘My work is truly based on confronting these problems of acceptance in these contemporary generations’. Khera attempts to grab information from her surroundings and always concentrates on the way people behave in a society. The experience of romantic relationships, attraction and passion are subjects that recur in her work. She replaces the human body and it’s their identity with organic objects.The two most captivating concepts that define her work are Shape and Skin. ‘Skin has been a recurring theme throughout my artistic practice, I aim to capture the sensitive movement of the body and have portrayed the same with objects that replace the human body in my work. It is the movement that’s designed to enhance the viewer’s experience and expression. Through these elements in my sculpture, I talk about the complex issues of the inner dialogues of human beings and the difficult workings of the human psyche.I work towards enhancing my work in substance and form as I continue to explore the various conditions a human body undergoes’.

Cover Graphic: Aniruddha Das