Objects take on movement

Sudarshan Shetty, the artist, recently gave a talk at the National Gallery of Modern Art. The talk was held with the intention of familiarising the audience with some of his work, spanning the last 16 years.

He presented a slideshow of some of the highlights of his career, which included sculptures and contemporary art models.

The first collection of slides he displayed was from an exhibition of his titled ‘Between the teacup and a sinking constellation’.

The whole show was linked loosely to a 90-word paragraph that he had written, which was printed on the walls of the room in which the models were displayed. “It was made in such a way that as a person went around the gallery, the objects would appear incidental,” explained Shetty.

The objects were varied, mobile and seemingly random. They included a carefully-crafted pillar to which a sword was attached. With the help of a motor, the sword was repeatedly piercing the pillar. There was also a battered bronze pot that was resting on a plate, which was moving around on it. Shetty mentioned that he had picked up the pot from a flea-market.

Two of the objects that had inspired the name of the exhibition were a teacup and saucer that were placed in a glass box, and which kept rattling around inside it.

The next exhibition that Shetty displayed was one he created in New York in 2010, called ‘The More I Die...’. The show had varied objects, including the skeleton of a dog which had been cast in aluminium, and fixed with a trophy head.

 There was also a wooden frame with two dog bones attached to it, which kept moving up and down. Another interesting component of the exhibition was a wooden carving, which had a motif that was from a mosque in Ahmedabad, and a model which comprised two trumpets which had been soldered together at the mouth, with a glass bubble caught between them.

Shetty also ran the audience through some slides of his 2010 exhibition, called ‘House of Shades’. The most interesting exhibit in this was a metallic kiosk that he had created for Louis Vuitton.

The kiosk had rows and rows of spectacles, which moved in opposite directions, creating a dizzying effect for anybody who stood inside it. It also included an interested virtual project, which showed the movement of six drops of blood.

Shetty said, “This project was never meant to be realised. It has six drops of blood, and shows them splashing on the ground. The moment of splash at the sixth drop has been wire-framed and converted into the building.” The event also had an interactive session with the audience.