Sculpture exhibition Sands of Time II, on view at Hyderabad’s Kalakriti Art Gallery, explores fluidity of time

They are Resting at Their Destination by Archisman Roy, as part of Sands of Time II at Kalakriti Hyderabad
| Photo Credit: Special Arrangement

Time, fluid and pausing for none, serves as an archive for political and social histories, containing within it both personal and collective experiences. Sands of Time II, the sculpture exhibition mooted by Hyderabad-based Kalakriti art gallery, has 17 artists exploring the transience of time. Curated by Suroopa Chatterjee, Sands of Time II has emerging artists and well known names presenting their interpretation of time.

This showcase is a follow-up to Kalakriti’s 2018 exhibition Sands of Time. Curating the second edition, Suroopa Chatterjee has been mindful of the fact that the world was forced to press the reset button owing to the pandemic. She encouraged artists to look at day-to-day happenings as well as reflect on larger socio-political events through their work.

Multi-disciplinary artist Avijit Dutta, whocurated the first edition of Sands of Time, observes that artists are now more open to experimenting with diverse mediums. He cites Chandrashekar Koteshwar’s sculptures that use terracotta, stoneware and iron as a case in point. In his statement, Koteshwar says he has moved away from his earlier idea of commentary on museum pieces. He used to create objects that resembled historical artefacts and make a satirical point about the importance assigned to them. His recent sculptures, a few of them on display at Kalakriti, have partial forms to draw attention to the idea of fragments as ruins. A sculpture titled Conscious Reader has a half human figure perched on a wood-terracotta pillar and reading.

Trophies of pride?

Avijit’s artwork Deer harks back to the hunting trophies of yore and questions why man took pride in harming animals. He uses wood, epoxy resin and gold leaf, the last one covering the coveted horns. The glistening horns are Avijit’s way of highlighting the pride hunters took in displaying their trophies derived by cutting many lives short.

Artist Akup Buchem uses wood chips, steel nails, iron and fibreglass to create a large clipped wing of a bird. Another work resembles a disposal bag filled with industrial materials, the artwork resembling an installation rather than a sculpture. 

Archisman Roy likes to elevate simple, everyday objects into works of art. His artwork titled They Are Resting at Their Destination features everyday items — from the humble tiffin carrier to items of luggage with wheels and water cans — perched on pistachio-green pillars. For the artist, these objects stand as reminders and response to everyday existence. In another work titled Packing, he fashions a small wooden cot on which lie objects such as clay pots, bamboo baskets and miniature gas cylinders. 

Bamdeb Mondal, who learnt the traditional Dokra craft from the craftspeople of Gushkara village in East Burdwan, West Bengal, uses the Dokra technique to sculpt a ceremonial practice. His artwork titled Biya is a brass sculpture that replicates the headgear worn by brides in Bengal weddings.  

Illuminated existence

P J George Martin, overseeing the assembling of his series of seven small sculptures of human forms titled Everything is Illuminated, says he used chromed bronze sculptures and tungsten lights to illuminate them and later placed them on plough-like structures. “One can draw several interpretations. My work (a series of figures bent forward in a yogic child’s pose) underlines the importance of looking beyond pride and learning new things with childlike joy.”

Telangana sculptor Kantha Reddy puts the spotlight on brass sculptures of faces with grid-like crisscross patterns adding to the charm while Rahul Modak takes an experimental route to talk about remembrance. He places a multitude of tiny ceramic leaf-shaped structures within circular discs. The artwork is his way of remembering his journey from Kalinarayanpur to Naihati and later to Santiniketan and Vadodara in pursuit of art. “As a student of Santiniketan, I observed the natural materials around me. I look at the dry leaves as a sign of a new beginning around the corner rather than signifying decay,” he says. The disc-like artworks also denote the circle of life.

Sands of Time II also features artworks of Karl Antao, Debiprasad Bhunia, Kaushik Halder, Gopinath Subbanna, Kanchan Karjee, Kundan Singh, Sisir Sahana, Pallab Das and Rajesh P S. 

(The exhibition is on view at Kalakriti art gallery, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad, till August 6.)